Plug-in hybrids in California
Encyclopedia
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
is a main territory in the world promoting plug-in hybrids.
CalCars
CalCars
CalCars is a charitable, non-profit organization founded in 2002 to promote plug-in hybrid electric vehicles as a key to addressing oil dependence and global warming both nationally and internationally...
(also known as The California Cars Initiative) is a charitable, non-profit organization founded in 2002 to promote plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) as a key to addressing global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
both nationally and internationally. CalCars envisions millions of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, charged by off-peak electricity from renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
sources, and with their internal combustion engines powered by low-carbon alternative fuels, as a way to significantly reduce greenhouse gases that come from transportation.
In September 2004, the California Cars Initiative (CalCars) converted a 2004 Toyota Prius into a prototype of what it called the PRIUS+. With the addition of of lead-acid batteries, the PRIUS+ achieved roughly double the fuel economy of a standard Prius and could make trips of up to 15 km (9 mi) using only electric power. The vehicle, which is owned by CalCars technical lead Ron Gremban, is used in daily driving, as well as a test bed for various improvements to the system.
RechargeIT
RechargeITRechargeIT
RechargeIT is one of five initiatives within Google.org, the charitable arm of Google, created with the aim to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use, and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles.-History:...
is an effort within Google.org
Google.org
Google.org is the charitable arm of Internet search engine company Google.The organization has committed over $100 million in investments and grants as of May 2010. To fund the organization, Google granted them 3 million shares during their initial public offering. As of August 2011, Google.org's 3...
, the charitable arm of Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, that aims to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use, and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in electric vehicle
Plug-in electric vehicle
A plug-in electric vehicle is any motor vehicle that can be recharged from any external source of electricity, such as wall sockets, and the electricity stored in the rechargeable battery packs drives or contributes to drive the wheels...
s.
The program began in 2007, and by 2010 Google's Mountain View
Mountain View, California
-Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south...
campus has 100 available charging stations for its share-use fleet of converted plug-ins available to its employees through a free car-sharing program. Solar panels are used to generate the electricity, and this pilot program is being monitored on a daily basis and performance results are published in RechargeIT
RechargeIT
RechargeIT is one of five initiatives within Google.org, the charitable arm of Google, created with the aim to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use, and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles.-History:...
website.
In addition to the data collected for two years when the converted plug-ins were driven by Google employees, RechargeIT set up a controlled test using plug-in converted Ford Escape Hybrids and Toyota Prius
Toyota Prius
The Toyota Prius is a full hybrid electric mid-size hatchback, formerly a compact sedan developed and manufactured by the Toyota Motor Corporation...
. The results of the seven-week driving experiment showed an average fuel economy
Fuel economy in automobiles
Fuel usage in automobiles refers to the fuel efficiency relationship between distance traveled by an automobile and the amount of fuel consumed....
of 93 mpg average across all trips, and 115 mpg for city trips. Consistently the converted Prius obtained a higher mileage then the Ford Escape.
Electric utilities
PG&E
PG&E is converting a number of company-owned Toyota Prius to be V2G PHEVs at Google's campus.Southern California Edison
Ford Motor CompanyFord Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
CEO Alan Mulally
Alan Mulally
Alan Roger Mulally is an American engineer and business executive who is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ford Motor Company...
said he expects Ford to sell plug-in hybrids in five to ten years, the launch date depending on advances in lithium-ion battery technology. Ford will provide Southern California Edison
Southern California Edison
Southern California Edison , the largest subsidiary of Edison International , is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California, USA. It provides 14 million people with electricity...
with 20 Ford Escape Hybrid sport utility vehicles reconfigured to work as plug-ins by 2009, with the first by the end of 2007.
PHEV Research Center
The PHEV Research Center in the University of California, DavisUniversity of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
, administered by ITS-Davis, was launched in 2007 with fundings from the California Air Resources Board
California Air Resources Board
The California Air Resources Board, also known as CARB or ARB, is the "clean air agency" in the government of California. Established in 1967 in the Mulford-Carrell Act, combining the Bureau of Air Sanitation and the Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Board, CARB is a department within the...
and the California Energy Commission
California Energy Commission
The California Energy Commission is California’s primary energy policy and planning agency. Created in 1974 and headquartered in Sacramento, the Commission has responsibility for activities that include forecasting future energy needs, promoting energy efficiency through appliance and building...
’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program.
Its goals are to provide technology and policy guidance to the state, and to help solve research questions and address commercialization issues for PHEVs.
San Francisco Bay Area
San FranciscoSan Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
Mayor Gavin Newsom
Gavin Newsom
Gavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician who is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California. Previously, he was the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, and was elected in 2003 to succeed Willie Brown, becoming San Francisco's youngest mayor in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007...
, San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
Mayor Chuck Reed
Chuck Reed
Charles Rufus "Chuck" Reed is the current Mayor of San Jose, California.-Biography:Reed was born in Garden City, Kansas. Reed's high school basketball team became Kansas State Champions despite being from a very small, rural school. He joined the United States Air Force in 1970 after attending the...
and Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
Mayor Ron Dellums
Ron Dellums
Ronald Vernie "Ron" Dellums served as Oakland's forty-fifth mayor. From 1971 to 1998, he was elected to thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S...
announced a nine-step policy plan for transforming the Bay Area into the "Electric Vehicle (EV) Capital of the U.S." and of the world.
There are partnerships with Coulomb Technologies
Coulomb Technologies
Coulomb Technologies is an electric vehicle infrastructure company, based in Campbell, California. Coulomb Technologies was founded in 2007 by Richard Lowenthal and Praveen Mandal....
, Better Place, City Carshare, Zipcar
Zipcar
Zipcar is an American membership-based car sharing company providing automobile reservations to its members, billable by the hour or day. Zipcar was founded in 2000 by Cambridge, Massachusetts residents Antje Danielson and Robin Chase, and is now led by Scott Griffith, Chairman and Chief Executive...
and others are also advancing. The first charging stations went up in San Jose.
By early 2010, San Francisco and other cities in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
and Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
, as well as some local private firms such as Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
and Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
, already have deployed charging station
Charging station
An electric vehicle charging station, also called EV charging station, electric recharging point, charging point and EVSE , is an element in an infrastructure that supplies electric energy for the recharging of electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric-gasoline vehicles) or semi-static and mobile...
s and have expansion plans to attend both plug-ins and all-electric car
Electric car
An electric car is an automobile which is propelled by electric motor, using electrical energy stored in batteries or another energy storage device. Electric cars were popular in the late-19th century and early 20th century, until advances in internal combustion engine technology and mass...
s.
Plug-in Conference
CalCars participates in the Plug-in Conference, co-sponsored by California's utilities, the Electric Power Research InstituteElectric Power Research Institute
The Electric Power Research Institute conducts research on issues related to the electric power industry in USA. EPRI is a nonprofit organization funded by the electric utility industry. EPRI is primarily a US based organization, receives international participation...
, and Silicon Valley Leadership Group
Silicon Valley Leadership Group
The Silicon Valley Leadership Group, founded in 1978 by David Packard of Hewlett-Packard, represents more than 340 of Silicon Valley's most respected employers on issues, programs and campaigns that affect the economic health and quality of life in Silicon Valley, including energy, transportation,...
.
See also
- Aptera Motors, the first several thousand Aptera 2 SeriesAptera 2 SeriesThe Aptera 2 Series is an upcoming high-efficiency passenger three-wheeled automobile produced by Aptera Motors. The California-based company opened a pre-ordering process for residents of California, but stopped taking deposits in July 2011, and on August 12, 2011, Aptera announced it will return...
produced will only to be sold in California - Better Place
- FreedomCARFreedomCARThe FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies is a U.S. national Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program developing more energy efficient and environmentally friendly highway transportation technologies that will enable the U.S to use less petroleum...
- Government incentives for plug-in electric vehiclesGovernment incentives for plug-in electric vehiclesGovernment incentives for plug-in electric vehicles have been established by several national and local governments around the world as a financial incentive for consumers to purchase a plug-in electric vehicle....