His pet PHEV

After they're plugged in overnight to a standard 110-volt outlet, Frank's hybrids have enough electricity to run for the first 60 miles, or "a typical daily work commute," he says. Then computers turn on the gasoline engine to help run the car and keep the batteries charged.

The cars are durable, quiet and efficient, Frank brags.

"They respond exactly the same way as a conventional vehicle," except they pollute far less. They could become even "greener," he says, if their owners ran them on energy generated by the sun or wind.

But is the American public ready for the PHEV?

Frank and his students think the time is right.

"Everyone I talk to about this concept is excited about it," says Terrence Williams, a mechanical engineering doctoral student involved in the PHEV project. "Hybrids are cool, and they've become trendy. Everyone wants one of these cars."

Only about 500 people drive PHEVs today, Frank says.

The professor would love to have one in his home garage, he says, but for now is content with his Nissan hybrid, complete with a vanity license plate that identifies its driver as the "PHEV DAD."

Frank dreams of a day when "hundreds of millions" of plug-in vehicles are on the road. The technological obstacles have all but vanished, he says, thanks in part to lighter lithium ion batteries that can store and release more power than hydride batteries used in today's hybrid cars.

Converting regular cars to PHEVs today is at least twice as expensive as buying a new car, Frank admits. But if they were mass produced, he says, PHEVs "would be no more costly than a conventional vehicle."

The final obstacle to the rise of the PHEV is public apathy, Frank says.

But that roadblock, too, is falling, he says.

"Fundamentally, the reason that these cars haven't been mass produced is that the price of oil hasn't been high enough," Frank says. "People weren't ready to listen before. They weren't demanding this. But gas is almost $4 a gallon now, and I don't see the price ever going down. The world is in a heap of trouble, and people are starting to pay attention."

So, at a time in life when many of his contemporaries spend their afternoons on the golf course, Frank is pushing ahead, logging long days on campus as he shuttles between his cluttered office and his greasy garage.

With the blessing of UC Davis, which holds the patent to his PHEV, Frank recently formed a for-profit corporation that will offer the technology to companies everywhere and could finally transform PHEVs from the car of the future into the car of the modern world.

"My main objective is not to make a lot of money," Frank says, although he concedes that he and the university could one day benefit financially from his research. "The objective is to spread this technology around the globe, to do something good for the world.

"Someone has got to champion the cause," the professor says with a smile. "It might as well be me."

About the writer:

• Call the Bee's Cynthia Hubert, (916) 321-1082.