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. Last week, 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…
Katie Fehrenbacher’s point – is the value of transparency. Publishing in-progress data in a project like this is useful to folks interested in all aspects of the tech.
Hey if you don’t experiment how will you learn? I did watch a series called Futurcar with different ideas for eco tech cars. I really liked the one that ran on compressed air. Mostly because you can use an electric or fuel ran compressor to recharge the tanks. Also the size of the engine itself was exceptionally interesting. It used the compressed air as the lubricant for the engine so that eliminates the need for oil completely
The new VW Diesel hybrid will beat both of these, it seems.
http://tinyurl.com/2qrd83
I’m holding out to see when it comes out, then going to a malibu hybrid as a last resort. The technology is almost here, so if the automakers push it hard, they’ll bercome very, very popular. The cheaper they’ll become, the less oil we’ll use, and the better we’ll get at recyling the very environmentally dangerous batteries.
[Please use TinyUrl.com for overly long URLs. – ed.]
Transparency… Wow, how many times have you heard that word in the Corporate world without it being used just for lip service?
This sort of transparent high-profile research will hopefully help drive manufacturers to allow for plug-ins with “all electric” mode on hybrid vehicles. For short commutes all-electric should be more than sufficient, but on the occasional long drive, the ability to use gas is necessary given the U.S.’s infrastructure. Most electric-only vehicles are slow-charging, which makes it impractical to use for long trips.
MDI (the “compressed air car” people mentioned in #1/Futurecar) keep having delays to commercial availability unfortunately. Tata motors (who licensed the tech for use in India) announced it’ll be a couple more years before it’s available there. Haven’t heard any firm dates from anyone in the US. Apparently there’s even some conflict with those closely involved unfortunately. More’s the pity, since a gas/air hybrid was also “in the works.”
The MDI is showing at the NY Auto Show, right now.
These mile per gallon numbers are somewhat misleading, since you are still using energy to drive. They appear to be accounting for this since the CO2 numbers don’t match the MPG numbers. But how do they account for what type of electricity generation is being used? If it is nuclear power, that’s different from coal powered in terms of CO2 impact.
I wonder how much energy is wasted by making Google white screen instead of black like blackle.com?
When they are using electric only & not a fossil fuel engine give me a call… Until then…
#5,
Showing as “concept cars” or true “production models”? I’ve seen plenty of media of their prototypes, but nothing that says they’re actually selling them yet. At least not U.S. Domestic. If you have a link that says otherwise (I want one!), please share.
#2 Don’t hold your breath.
Europe first in 2010+, USA most likely never.
Also, it has a puny 3 cyl and a smaller HP electric than the Prius.
It will be more expensive than the Prius too, as it costs a lot more money making a clean diesel motor & exhaust, than to simply use much cleaner Petrol.
However, for equivalent volume, diesel weighs more than petrol, and diesel has more energy density.
That’s why on the highway a Golf TDI diesel get’s the same MPG than a Prius.
Diesel = 20% more energy, the Prius recoups roughly the same from the excess engine energy to recharge & discharge it’s battery pack on the highway.
Then consider, even the newer “clean” diesel standards T2B5 is more polluting that a same-sized Petrol engine.
So if you hold out…perhaps revisit your purchasing logic.
1) old car – keep it a few years longer. Dust-to-dust, keep it oiled, maintained, good tires. Stick to speed limit.
2) if not a car, but a friggin oversized monster, that’s costing you over 400$/month in gas, go right now for a hybrid.
At least you’ll start offsetting the higher purchase price now, and most hybrids can be “upgraded” to Plug-In + extra/better battery packs.
Cheaper to upgrade a battery pack than getting an entire new vehicle, since the newer 100Mpg hybrids or full EV’s will be very costly.
Already the GM Volt (if ever sold at all) will cost 10K$ more money than a Prius today.
The Camry hybrid is 85% as efficient as a Prius, doesn’t look unconventional, and be easy to upgrade to Plug-In. The Ford Escape hybrid too. Don’t count on Honda’s civic hybrid, or the “other” hybrids that are mixed-mode.
Would be ironic GM Volt’s not becoming a production model because GM won’t be able to afford it.
#5 two after market companies now sell upgrade Plug-In EV kits for the Prius. In North America.
(www.priuschat.com look it up there)
Point is, 12k$ or 15k$, nets you 20 to 35 true acceleration miles of sub-50Mph (47 I think) in pure EV mode.
In mixed daily driving (low speed, stop & go, highway) more than 20 miles, some people are getting well over 100Mpg, even 150Mpg.
In my case, I can get back & forth to work w/o using the highway at all. Imagine my gas tank lasting a few months while I do 1,000+ miles.
So my decision was get the technology now (2006 Prius) so that when it’s paid for, battery costs & kits will have come down in price – due to demand.
Already there’s a huge market for used Prius, plenty of people / companies want them to “upgrade” them out-of-warranty.
The two companies provide warranties on their kits, Toyota covers the motors & CVT 10 years.
And where is the electricity to come from for plug-ins? There are no coal or nuclear power plants being built — courtesy of your local environmental extremist.
If someone suddenly invented a battery that would fit under a car’s hood, would power a 3,000 lb car for 500 miles between charges, and would add no more than an extra $1,000 to the cost of a car, this country’s infrastructure couldn’t support it.
It would take 200,000 megawatts of additional generating capacity to replace fossil powered vehicles. That’s 200 new nuclear power plants!
Fat chance getting those built.
#11. Come on! Solar (pick a state to “pave over”
+ wind, can do it!
That’s nice. Now drive away from the coast and watch middle America driving old bangers, pickup trucks, and guzzling vehicles that can’t afford to trade for five more years because the loan is for two grand more than the thing is worth. I’m sick of feel good elitists. Can’t anyone find realistic workable solutions real people can afford. All these wonder plans seem to never touch on the over economics of a solution.
#13
That’s why I liked the idea of the MDI compressed air powered car. It’s CHEAP. It costs FAR less than all-electric, costs far less than a hybrid. That’s why Tada motors was interested, because it’s they could be made cheaply.
Plus you’re storing mechanical energy to produce mechanical power. Sounds good to me! Pneumatic power is old, reliable tech that’s been proven for a long time.
Range is good, all you’re putting out is air, and even with the electricity used to power the air compressor, your carbon contribution is smaller than with gas – and you can recharge during off-peak hours anyhow (which isn’t being accounted for by #11…generating capacity during the night is far better than during the day).
#11 … and where do you think Petrol comes from?
Diesel comes from? Refining oil.
Huge amounts of coal generated electricity are required to refine oil into diesel & petrol.
Less is required for recharging a car – especially when most of the time it’s recharged at night – off peak – and can be easily done with locally produced power (wind / solar).
Also #11 you’re assuming that within a very short period of time – months – 100 million cars would suddenly require electricity instead of gasoline (petrol).
That just won’t happen – even a 5% yearly turn-over rate to pure EV cars, the US electrical would not suffer in the slightest !
#11 you have to stop believing propaganda against EV’s sponsored by oil companies.
#14 cheaper only if hugely mass produced.
EV cars & hybrids benefit from other related mass production activities – car shells – electric motors – batteries.
The “air car” also suffers from the heat produced when decompressing that air.
So hardware-to-hardware, “Air” is more expensive. It’s the batteries that brings a full-EV with a 150 mile capacity to be more expensive than “Air”.
We need a transition – the easiest is to use existing technology, improve it, and not use it when at a standstill / red light.
Re-use the gas motor as a driver for turning the electric motor into a generator.
Then suddenly, you don’t need a whole lot of gas, nor a whole lot of batteries. Just enough battery power for stop & go, low speed.
Farm the excess electrons.
Google is providing “true-life” conditions for the Plug-In tech, that Toyota is currently doing, and keeping that research to themselves.
Google makes it open.
#15 “That just won’t happen – even a 5% yearly turn-over rate to pure EV cars, the US electrical would not suffer in the slightest !”
So we wouldn’t have to increase electricity production? kewl.
Yea, it’s ironic that the environmental lobby might kill widespread adoption of electric cars.
More electric cars = more electricity needed = more power plants (at some point) = environmental impasse.
Therefore widespread adoption of plug-in hybrids, which would be a good thing, doesn’t happen as fast as it should.
This is where I say the environmentalist have become their own worst enemy.
Great. Unfortunately, Googles new blog is on Blogger which makes it slow, ugly and painfuly unusable.
>the time it’s recharged at night – off peak – and can be easily done with locally produced power (wind / solar).
Please give me more details about how easy it is to recharge cars at night with solar power.
#20 lol
Ever hear of super capacitors?
You trickle charge them all day long, with solar panels, or small wind turbines.
Then you can “upload” the amps to your car, rather quickly.
If you’re going to deploy EV’s massively, creating power locally, where it’s needed, is a no-brainer.
Ever seen the Wal-Mart solar parking lot idea?
Car are in the shade, free juice while you shop.
Why don’t you guys admit it? You’d rather pay 17999$ for a Jeep Cherokee than 21000$ for a hybrid.
One increases you manhood, the other your intelligence.
Um, lessee… Ten million divided by four Prius and two Fords… Carry the one… Nope. Can’t afford all that savings.
I want a “Model T” of plug-in cars. No fancy crap… not even a lot of comfort… basically a road-legal golf cart that’s all-weather.
It needs to do about 30 mpg (city streets) and run for about 90 minutes.
This, of course, is not my main car. It’s the car I hop into for grocery shopping, running errands, take the kids to school, etc.
It also needs to be about half the price of a gas car.
I think such a car would be popular.
At least any form of personal transportation is better than every form of mass transit. You could at least still have urban sprawl with go-karts. Urban planners are the true evil in the world.
#23 gregallen, there’s a problem I’m seeing with your analysis. Those cars save money and are nice, but then the only place these would be used are cities, and in those cities land is expensive, and getting the extra garage space for those cars would be more expensive than the savings.
Thank you for this outstanding article.I thought Centrino was the best technology for laptop battery performance.
It really irritating when in between typing on a important mail suddenly the laptops starts beeping indicating low battery and unfortunately u dont have a power cord.
Now has not been able to determine that this is really, but hoped that can have this technology. Our battery can use for a long time.
I tested this camera for a client. I didn’t have the light running for more than 15 minutes. The battery lasted approximately 6 hours before recharging. The LCD, however, had a few dead pixels – never saw this before. Tried returning for exchange and had to put up quite a fight. Anyone else seen this? http://www.batteryfast.com.au
Exercise Your Battery – Do not leave your battery dormant for long periods of time. We recommend using the battery at least once every two to three weeks. If a battery has not been used for a long period of time, perform the new battery break in procedure described above.