#6. Plug-in Hybrids
Don't want to wait for Toyota to come out with that 100-mpg hybrid? You
don't have to, thanks to the people at CalCars. Headed by a Silicon Valley
tech entrepreneur, the geeks at CalCars can help you take a standard Toyota
Prius hybrid — which currently gets nearly 50 mpg — and tweak it so
that it runs almost entirely on the electric engine, powered via a standard
120-volt outlet. That means that your hybrid can run almost entirely on
electric power for most short journeys, with the gas engine in reserve for
longer trips. The conversions are still rare and pricey right now, but
mainstream auto manufacturers are working on their own custom models, and
many experts think that plug-in hybrids could be the wave of the future.