Toyota: Plug-in hybrids can't halve CO₂

How much CO₂ do you think you would avoid emitting if you had a plug-in style hybrid? Considering my own current driving patterns, I'm pretty sure I could drop mine by 98% if I had a something like a Volt with a 40-mile all-electric range and I got those solar panels I've been craving. Now what if everybody in the U.S. had a Volt or a similar PHEV40?

Taiyo Kawai (not pictured above), general manager of the fuel cell system engineering division of Toyota's fuel cell system development group was giving a keynote address last week at the NHA Annual Hydrogen Conference in Sacramento titled "Vehicle and Infrastructure" when he let this little "factoid" slip: according to Toyota, if we Americans were all driving 20 or 40 mile PHEVs, "it would only reduce energy consumption by 20 to 30 percent".

It isn't stated in the article at Tech-On whether or not he proposed that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles could achieve that goal but considering his job title and who he was speaking to, I believe that may have well been the subtext. I await news of an actual study by Toyota (or anyone else) that might give weight to the PHEV statement. In the meantime, feel free to tell us in the comments section how much CO₂ you could avoid with a PHEV40.

[Source: Tech-On}