Future is nearly now for plug-in hybrids

When hundreds of experts gather in San Jose this week for the country’s first and biggest plug-in hybrid conference, the tone of the gathering will reveal a dramatic change.

Automakers, utility representatives and policy-makers will be talking when, not if, at Plug-in 2008.

Asked whether plug-in hybrids, also known as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, are inevitable as production vehicles, Mark Duvall of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto answered with cautious optimism that sounded more optimistic than guarded.

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