Last week Google announced in its blog that it was adding Chevrolet Volts and Nissan LEAFs to its Gfleet corporate plug-in car-sharing program to be used by Googlers (Google personnel).
The growing fleet of 30 plug-in vehicles is located at its Mountain View, Calif. Googleplex (corporate campus) and will be supported by what Google said it believes may be the country’s largest corporate EV charging infrastructure.
We will summarize the story here, but after that, if you want to know more, you can always look it up on Google. Or you can see where it’s all happening on Google Maps. Or you can read about it on Google’s Blogger blog.
One of the newest members of Google’s Gfleet recharges at Google’s Googleplex campus in Mountainview, Calif.
After all that, if interested in investing in the pervasive purveyor of many products, you can check its latest stock price, which as of this writing, Google Finance says is over $509 per share.
In any event – and our point is: it cannot hurt that the all-encompassing success story that is Google has shown itself to be a prominent early EV adapter.
Like King Midas, Google has demonstrated nearly everything it touches turns to gold, and now its favorite color is green – albeit still written in its characteristic blue, red, and yellow logo colors on its “green blog.”
While it did not specify how many Volts and LEAFs it was acquiring, Google acknowledged its newest plug-ins to be “the next generation,” and aims to offer their use as a Googler perk and install sufficient free charging for parking.
“Overall, our goal is to electrify five percent of our parking spaces – all over campus and free of charge (pun intended) to Googlers,” said Google, “Our expanded charging system has already helped several Googlers decide to buy new EVs of their own, and we hope others will, too.”
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All roads lead to Google.
Thus far, Google’s free charging includes 150 Level 1 chargers, and it just added 71 Level 2 chargers from Coulomb Technologies. Another 250 chargers are scheduled for the not-too-distant future.
These goals and more are part of Google’s Rechargit initiative begun in 2007 when the Volt was just a concept for GM.
Since there were no production plug-in cars at the time, Google went out and made some by converting Toyota Prii (not Priuses, if we are to follow Toyota’s example), to plug-ins using A123 Hymotion batteries. It also converted Ford Escape Hybrids along the way.
These vehicles, and now the new Volts and LEAFS are being made available for use around Google’s campus, as is its biodiesel shuttle bus system.
Google said it will add more plug-in cars as they become available and naturally, Google is collecting data on its fleet.
A recent seven-week driving experiment – not including the Volt or LEAF – netted as much as 93 MPG average across all trips, and 115 MPG for city trips, Google said.
Google also reckons its shuttle bus system has had the carbon-reducing effect of removing 2,000 cars from the road.
“But we’re only one company, so we hope other companies think about how they can incorporate these new technologies into their own infrastructure,” Google said, “By supporting new, green transportation technologies, we’re enabling our employees to be green and doing our part to help spur growth in the industry.”
The company has undoubtedly spent a fair amount to do what it has. But we would not be surprised if – like so many of its elegant, paradigm-shifting solutions – Google has a Midas touch for environmentalism also, and proves it can turn green into gold.
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NOTE: The answers to the GM-Volt reader Q&A invite regarding the 2012 Volt from Friday are postponed. GM was not able to provide them over the weekend. We will try to get them and post as soon as possible.
-Jeff
This entry was posted on Monday, June 13th, 2011 at 5:55 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Jun 13th, 2011 (7:19 am)It’d be nice if they gave Chevy Volts and Leafs to they’re lowest paid employees. I’m sure there are people working in the kitchen who could really use the extra money they’d be saving on gas.
+1
Jun 13th, 2011 (7:21 am)With home AND work-based charging I suspect the average miles per gallon is about to see a dramatic increase over 93 mpg.
What is the last reported fleet average for Volt? Anyone out there know?
Great to see Google doing this.
Wonder when the Hollywood celebrity crowd will begin to dump their Priuses and start driving Volts?
Go Volt!
+8
Jun 13th, 2011 (7:53 am)People from the ” We Just Want To Be Right ” dept. have sent out emails stating that the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland has negated the last four years of efforts mankind has made to reduce carbon emissions. I’m not sure how accurate their theories are – but I subscribe to the idea that I don’t want to accelerate global climate change – and no matter where you stand, an EV or PHEV will make a small dent in the pollutants that make it harder and harder for us to breathe fresh clean air.
So my hat’s off to Google and everyone trying to make a difference.
RECHARGE! ,
James
+3
Jun 13th, 2011 (8:02 am)James, I have to agree.
No matter where people stand on the global warming issue, it does not hurt to reduce pollution.
+1 to you.
Jun 13th, 2011 (9:39 am)Can Droid phones connect to the Volt other than through bluetooth? Any current Volt users playing music off their phone in the Volt, and if so, how do you like the interface?
+1
Jun 13th, 2011 (11:39 am)I don’t know all that much about the “Googleplex,” so this might just be a big “Duh” …
… but it looks like many of the Google buildings have photovoltaic arrays on their roofs (notably Building 40). Be “Green” all you want, but wide scale adoption of this trend will help mitigate the future EV daytime-charging grid-load crisis of the 2020s – 2030s.
I think it’s significant that Google believes the “charge while you park” paradigm makes better sense than the paradigm of “the filling station.” Today’s article gives us a prime example of how meaningful and distributed EV infrastructure, minus public funding, can take hold.
Public or private, this infrastructure will still take years to develop. Gas stations didn’t get on every corner overnight.
It will be interesting to eventually hear which of the two fleet vehicle types the employees prefer. I expect it will be the Volt for anything over 30 miles one-way …
Jun 13th, 2011 (11:40 am)+1 to Google!
My Volt is now showing it’s lifetime gas mileage to be “250+” Is that as high as it goes? If so, is there some way to access the history to see how many gallons I’ve used? Or do I have to start keeping a cheat sheet?
Jun 13th, 2011 (11:44 am)I’ve been asking my customers to send me a copy of their “OnStar” report that they get by email. It is supposed to show total gas and electricity usage, and a bunch of other stuff. None of them have sent me one yet. When you get your first one, scan it and post it!
+2
Jun 13th, 2011 (11:53 am)Oh… and 250+ is as high as it goes. Anything more than that is just bragging.
+2
Jun 13th, 2011 (12:21 pm)Jeff.. I was thinking of going back to the beginning of this site and take some quotes and relate them to what is now reality…. I remember some pretty bad predictions when this site started. The Volt has a lot of people “eating crow”.
Jun 13th, 2011 (12:24 pm)pjkPA,
I’m not sure what you are referring to since I was not there. I hope you are saying since the Volt is a growing success, the naysayers are eating crow?
+1
Jun 13th, 2011 (12:55 pm)So what’s wrong bragging!?! *smile*
Jun 13th, 2011 (1:30 pm)O.T.
Hey Jeff,
The left frame where it says ‘Popular’ hasn’t been updated for a long while. Those stories are ancient history.
‘Chevy Volt Handling in Snow and Ice’ isn’t very relevant when Chicago is sitting at 70 degrees and Dallas is OMG hot.
Jun 13th, 2011 (1:43 pm)Loboc,
I’m inquiring now. Thanks for pointing it out.
Jun 13th, 2011 (2:50 pm)I think the real “Green” issue will turn out to be: “Can human activity in any way mitigate natural climate change?” Fortunately, in the meantime, there are perfectly sound reasons unrelated to climate for following much of what the green believers advocate:
Solar arrays will bolster the electricity grid at the very time of greatest demand (in many cases at the distributed sources of that load),
Wind and other alternative energy sources (when used to charge EVs) helps to displace petroleum; much of which is imported from regimes which are hostile to our culture (and money spent to pay for it stays at home instead). BTW, this point works equally well for Nuclear.
The de-concentration of pollution from city centers (through the use of electricity for transportation) has real health benefits (as James notes above).
Even Coal could be paired with various emerging commercial schemes for re-using the CO2 (oil from algae, if they can work out the details, creation of concrete using CO2 and seawater; there are doubtless many other possibilities once people start looking at CO2 as a resource instead of as a problem).
I am not saying that the Climate Change crowd is wrong; What I’m saying is that many of these things are worth doing even if they are wrong. My concern is that classic, mandated “Green-ness” will greatly impede industry and economies; without which the beneficial technology won’t be applied on a large enough scale (it all takes money; and who, ultimately, is going to make the equipment?).
If Industry and the Economy proceed and benefit from these actions, for reasons unrelated to Climate Change, the motive for establishing these technologies become self-sustaining; and the Green crowd wins. Paradoxically, if Industry is hobbled by many of the proposed Green policies (such as “Cap and Trade,” among other public mandates), they may ultimately lose.
+1
Jun 13th, 2011 (4:15 pm)“Google also reckons its shuttle bus system has had the carbon-reducing effect of removing 2,000 cars from the road.”
FYI we went to the Grand Canyon on an “old Garrett Engineers” reunion. They have closed most of the canyon now to cars and you have to take a very nice shuttle bus to all the look out points.
These special buses have been converted to run on NATURAL GAS. It was nice not to have to smell stinky diesel exhaust in the canyon.
Jun 13th, 2011 (5:35 pm)#16
So which one’s you? I’m guessing 3rd from the left!
+1
Jun 13th, 2011 (7:14 pm)Nice to see. GE, Google, hope the list grows big time.
+1
Jun 13th, 2011 (8:00 pm)Volt #555 is at 5400 miles with 13.2 gallons of gasoline burned. A pleasure to drive each day.
For you old school head bangers out there. Try adding Black Sabbath “Children of The Grave” to the 30GB BOSE hard drive. Hard hitting and clean. Without the slightest crackle or distortion. It’s more than amazing.
=D-Volt
Master Of Reality (video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=236Lquwq22A
Jun 14th, 2011 (3:13 am)Way to go Google keep up the good work and I hope they can provide as many electric charging stations throughout as many US states as possible where ever electric cars are being driven god bless Google and the USA!
+1
Jun 14th, 2011 (3:56 am)Also here’s Google’s Green website http://www.google.com/green/ and last but not least believe it or not GM has been making a Buick gas-electric hybrid and it will use regenerative braking here’s the article also there upgrading the machinery in the Kansas City Plant as well enjoy. http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/06/13/1704354/gm-to-invest-20-million-in-kansas.html
+1
Jun 14th, 2011 (5:26 am)We talk about distributed generation a lot, how about ditributed usage. Who’d have ever thought a Google search would be an such energy hog.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/39445
Jun 14th, 2011 (7:58 am)Wow! Thanks for showing that Eco_Turbo.
Jun 15th, 2011 (2:21 am)The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is THE world authority on volcanic activity. They have stated that the burning of fossil fuels results in 80 to 270 times more CO2 emissions than every volcano on Earth combined. (The 80 is for years with high volcanic activity and the 270 is for years with low volcanic activity) Anyone who says volcanoes put out more CO2 than the burning of fossil fuels is either a professional liar paid for by the fossil fuel industry or they are uninformed gullible people who believe such liars. For detailed info from USGS check out the following link: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/gas/climate.php