Google Promotes Hybrids

Google Promotes Hybrids

By Michelle Krebs June 19, 2007

Internet search company Google is pushing hybrids.

On Monday, Google with Pacific Gas & Electric unveiled their vision of a future in which cars and trucks are partly powered by the company’s electric grid and ones that feed electricity back to the grid.

Google also announced it has pledged about $11 million for people and companies who come up with practical ways to speed the development of plug-in hybrid vehicles.

It’s a drop in the bucket compared with the hundreds of millions and perhaps billions that will have to go into plug-in hybrid development, but it’s a high-profile drop and may promote other companies to do something similar.

Google and the utility company displayed six Toyota Prius and Ford Escape hybrids, used in Google’s company fleet in Mountain View, California. The hybrids are modified to run partly on electricity from the power grid, which allows the vehicles to deliver up to 75 miles on a gallon of gas. One vehicle is modified to feed electricity back to the power company. The cars are parked under a carport with a roof of solar cells connected to the electric grid.

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.