plug-in electric hybrid vehicles

Large-scale electric-car adoption is widely seen as a green way to clean up the world's auto emissions problem and cut global warming gases.

But will it work everywhere?

How about in a dirty energy place like Alberta, Canada, home to the climate-toxic tar sands, where about 90 percent of the electrical grid is powered by fossil-based sources?

The answer is yes, according to a new report by three engineering professors at the University of Calgary.

"Even in a thermal-dominated system like Alberta, we can still benefit significantly in terms of environmental impacts by using plug-in hybrid electric vehicles [PHEVs]. If we plan to charge them in a smart way, we can reduce a significant amount of emissions in the transportation system," says Hamid Zareipour, one of the report's authors.

The researchers found that if 30 percent of Albertans were driving PHEVs, tailpipe emissions would shrink by about 40-90 percent, with no game-changing breakthroughs needed.

GM's Chevy Volt, which will hit showrooms in November 2010, may be the most anticipated electric car in the US, but there's yet another competitor on the way: Chinese automaker BYD has affirmed that it will have a range of pure electric and plug-in hybrid models in the American market in 2011.

BYD, short for Build Your Dreams, made the announcement this week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit -- a month after it began selling the world's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid, the F3DM, in China. Here's what BYD Chairman and President Wang Chuanfu had to say, via Gasgoo:

By 2011 our electric car would be a proven and mature product after three years of existence in China, while the Volt would just be a year old. Besides, The F3DM will be sold at around $20,000 in the U.S. while price of Volt is not expected to be under $40,000.

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• Stacy Feldman's blog
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Can Andy Grove light a fire under America’s sleepy electric car effort?

At the first annual Plug-In 2008 Conference, the former Intel chief called on America to convert ten million of its clunkiest, most gas-hungry SUVs, pickups and minivans into plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (PHEVs).

Timeframe? Four years.

If Grove had his way, he'd go on to retrofit the remaining 80 million or so US gas-guzzlers to PHEVs through a combination of conversion and new product -- a move that would cut the nation’s imported oil needs in half.

Big, big, big job.