While one portal seems to struggle finding its place in the market, another seems to be pretty content leading the pace outside its core market: Google has unveiled a new employee parking garage where drivers can charge their plug-in cars, powering up their batteries using solar energy. As automobile manufacturers aren't producing plug-ins, Google is converting hybrid cars into plug-ins. The fleet consists of conventional Prius and Ford Escape Hybrid cars as well as several Prius and Ford Escapes that have been retrofitted to become plug-in hybrid vehicles. The Google.Org site says:
RechargeIT is a Google.org initiative that aims to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technology.
...Google has created a small demonstration fleet of plug-in hybrids and eventually plans to include over 100 plug-in hybrids in its corporate fleet as demand grows and cars become commercially available. Google.org has contracted with Hymotion to retrofit 4 Toyota Priuses and 2 Ford Escapes. Google.org is demonstrating the capabilities of this technology, collecting actual data on the performance of these vehicles, and making this information available to the public. All of these cars are outfitted with data recording devices that track technical and environmental performance, use patterns and charging history. You can see the actual data which is uploaded from the vehicles. Both electricity and gasoline use data is being used to calculate the total energy use for each vehicle to get 'real world' performance data on these cars. In order to compare this data to other cars under similar conditions, we are equipping existing stock hybrids and conventional cars with the same data recording devices. With this data, we hope to be able to measure the mileage of plug-in hybrids vs. conventional gas and hybrid vehicles under realistic driving conditions. To date, our plug-in hybrids are averaging about 75 miles per gallon of gasoline which is four times that of the average car on the road in the US today.
...By demonstrating the technology using our own fleet and supporting others through grants and investments, together we will drive toward a plug-in revolution. See for yourself how our plug-in hybrids are performing.
Source: google.org via psfk
