Google's Electric Vehicle Fleet Infrastructure

Google's Electric Vehicle Fleet Infrastructure

Google built its reputation as a small, simple search engine, but there's nothing small about the company's investment in electric vehicles. Google has just placed an order for 30 Nissan Leafs and Chevrolet Volts, as well as 250 EV charging stations from Coulomb Technologies.

Google will add the Leafs and Volts to its current "Gfleet" of plug-in hybrids, which were bought in 2007. (Since there weren't any commercially available plug-ins at the time, Google purchased Toyota Priuses and had them retrofitted.) The Gfleet functions like Google's private car-sharing service, with vehicles available to Google employees for zipping around campus and running errands.

In addition, the company has placed an order for an additional 250 EV charging stations from Coulomb Technologies. Google has already installed 150 Level 1 chargers from the company, plus 71 Level 2s. Google's goal is to "electrify five percent of our parking spaces—all over campus and free of charge (pun intended) to Googlers". In environmental terms, Google estimates that its Gfleet and its biodiesel shuttle service for employees are roughly equivalent to taking 2,000 vehicles off the roads and saving 14 million vehicle miles per year.

For more information about Google's investment in EVs and charging technology, check out the full post on the Google blog. And be sure to watch the company's overview video below: