Google Gets Behind Electric Cars

Online giant Google plans to spend millions to get automakers and other interested parties to find ways to bring plug-in hybrid electric cars to market faster. Currently, only GM, with its Chevy Volt concept that debuted at the Detroit auto show, has plans to build a plug-in electric car. GM is still waiting on the correct type of lithium battery to be developed to make the Volt a viable product. It has said it hopes to be ready to produce the Volt around 2010.

Google isn’t pouring a ton of money into the project, offering only $1 million now with plans to spend another $10 million; experts suggest it would cost an automaker hundreds of millions of dollars to develop their own plug-in car.

Google won’t build and sell hybrid electrics but will focus “on accelerating their development through research, testing and investment,” Dan Reicher of Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, told USA Today.

Google Plugs in to Hybrid Car Development With $10M, USA Today

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