Google Adds Honda Fit EV To Its Green Fleet

Posted on Feb 22, 2012 in Electric Vehicles by CFC 0 Comments

by Melissa Hincha-Ownby

As if there weren’t already enough reasons to want to work at Google, the company has added one more – a new 2013 Honda Fit EV. Honda’s newest all-electric vehicle isn’t yet available to the general public butGoogle employees have a chance to get behind the wheel of the new EV as part of the company’s G-Fleet program. The G-Fleet program is Google’s in-house car-sharing service.

Google is testing the vehicle as a participant in the Honda Electric Vehicle Demonstration Program. Google employees will share their feedback about the vehicle with Honda so the company can fine-tune the EV for its market debut later this year.

“The goal of the Honda Electric Vehicle Demonstration Program is to better understand the challenges and opportunities associated with the advancement in battery-electric technology,” said Steve Center, vice president of the Environmental Business Development Office at American Honda. “Honda has a long history with electric vehicles beginning with the introduction of our first battery-electric car, the EV Plus, nearly 15 years ago. Honda’s experience and the unique feedback that Google, Stanford Universityand the city of Torrance will provide will be valuable to the future introduction of battery-electric technology.”

As Center mentioned, both Stanford University and the city of Torrance, California are joining Google in the Honda Fit EV testing project. Stanford University’s plans for the vehicle are quite a bit different than Google’s, though. Faculty and students at the college will “study the psychological and physical reactions of using battery-electric vehicles and how these reactions differ when driving a traditional gasoline-powered vehicle.”

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