Google’s Plug-In Electric Car Project
While Google is busy being a power company, a cleantech VC and an all-round eco do-gooder, the search giant is also working on its plug-in electric vehicle project, on which it plans to spend $10 million and has converted four Toyota Priuses and two Ford Escape hybrids to plug-in cars. On Thursday, good ol’ Googs launched a blog to follow its electric vehicle project and track the industry.
As you can see from the data above, Google is tracking all of the cars to figure out how productive plug-ins really are. The system uses a laptop to collect data on speed, distance driven, fuel use and battery info, and uploads the data via a wireless data card to Google’s servers. GPS is also used to plot geography and potentially measure the performance at different altitudes. And during charging, the system records the AC charge power.
Google says:
Once all the data is uploaded to our servers, any necessary calculations are done (such as calculating CO2), and the data is graphed and displayed on our website. Data is available at the fleet level, individual car level and event the trip level. If you would like to dig deeper, soon you will able to download the raw data from any trip to do additional analysis offline.
Now that is really cool. The more transparency for proving (or refuting) the productivity of plug-in electric vehicles the better!
Green energy is definitely the best solution in most cases. Technology like solar energy, wind power, fuel cells, zaps electric vehicles, EV hybrids, etc have come so far recently. Green energy even costs way less than oil and gas in many cases.
Katie – I’m Posting this with a link back to y’all, Monday morning – the 24th – at dvorak.org/blog.
Good for Google for investing on this kind of technologies.
[...] company, a cleantech VC and an all-round eco do-gooder, the search giant is also working on its plug-in electric vehicle project, on which it plans to spend $10 million and has converted four Toyota Priuses and two Ford Escape [...]
How much is the electricity cost per mile?
[...] also gave some more details of how its tracking system works, which, yes, we’re a little enthusiastic about. Google says it’s using an embedded Linux computer in each vehicle made by Soekris [...]
I for one am grateful to read about this. You folks at GOOGLE rock! I am so proud of each of you working on this program.
I believe your success will also be the world’s success.
Go for it and don’t let OPEC or other big greasy oil folks stop you from the worlds dream of an alternative fuel!
Dawn Owens – Myrtle Beach, SC
Thanks for the info – this is a very interesting test!
I am interested in the total weight of the car, the wheel size, the motor specifications, Are one or two motors used, the drive ratio between the motor(s) and wheel(s) and the specifications of the cells used. How else would I be able to compare? James Hill
A fundamental change in our driving habits is now required.
The Automobile Industry is going to be in the same position as the Airline Industry in the next few months. Unless we get away from gas combustion vehicles, including Hybrids, the automobile industry (as we know it) will die.We need to make drastic moves. America needs to move to ELECTRIC. The vehicles are not as fast, not always as fun to drive, but the move will save Americans money (Billions) and help bring change to our automotive companies. Let’s “Be Green”!!!!!!!!!!!! BG Automotive Group Ltd. has a car that will travel 80-100 miles per charge for $15,995. Finally a car that most Americans can afford. Did you know that 80% of all drivers, drive less than 50 miles per day? This new car will cost an equivalent of $0.20-0.25 cents/gallon (depending on electricity rates in your area). Why send $700 Billion per year to OPEC (now buying up U.S. companies) when we can use this money for our schools, health care, social security for all Americans, etc, etc, etc. We can make the difference if WE change.
hi i am anbu selvan from madurai(tamilnadu)studying 3yearmechanical in raja engineering college as i need some details about the electric car project and also its diagram immediately. so i request you to send the details to my email address. thanking you.
It would be great if google works on developing an electric vehicle…
Hi Why not diesel electric ? I think hybrids are too complicated and how do you recycle the batteries ? I would like a pickup/car, an electric motor , no planetary gears etc. on each wheel, obviously the best battery available, no gas engine or drive train, solar roof panels and a small two or three cylinder diesel generator about 15-20 hp to help out and get you home .
Hi,i m final yr mechanical stdnt,i want 2 knw the basic thngs,for my project,pls provide the necessary information.