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Google pushes 100-mpg car
Offers millions to advance plug-in hybrid vehicles and other technologies that link nation’s transport system to the electric grid.
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
June 19 2007: 11:53 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Google said Tuesday it is getting in on the development of electric vehicles, awarding $1 million in grants and inviting applicants to bid for another $10 million in funding to develop plug-in hybrid electric vehicles capable of getting 70 to 100 miles per gallon.
The project, called the RechargeIT initiative and run from Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, aims to further the development of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles – cars or trucks that have both a gasoline engine and advanced batteries that recharge by plugging into the nation’s electric grid.
“Since most Americans drive less than 35 miles per day, you easily could drive mostly on electricity with the gas tank as a safety net,” Dan Reicher, director of Climate and Energy Initiatives for Google.org, wrote on the organization’s Web site. “In preliminary results from our test fleet, on average the plug-in hybrid gas mileage was 30-plus mpg higher than that of the regular hybrids.”
The project also aims to develop vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, allowing cars to sell their stored power back to the nation’s electricity grid during times of peak demand.