GOOGLE SAYS IT HAS LARGEST CORPORATE EV CHARGING NETWORK IN THE US

Things are just getting greener and greener over at Google. Yesterday, the company triumphantly declared that its Mountain View campus now boasts the largest corporate EV charging network in the US, with some 200 chargers currently in place, plus an extra 250 that are on the way. It's all part of El Goog's RechargeIt sustainability initiative, launched in 2007, which has also given rise to the Gfleet, a set of company-owned plug-ins made available for employees.

Now that Google has purchased some extra Chevy Volts and Nissan Leafs, this Gfleet will eventually expand to include a total of 30 EVs, which explains the expansion of its ChargePoint Network. The ultimate goal is to have charging stations at five percent of Mountain View's parking spaces, all of which will be searchable on Google Maps, and available for employees to use for free. The company hopes this initiative will encourage more people to purchase EVs, and estimates that it'll eventually save a total of 5,400 tonnes of CO2 per year -- the equivalent to removing about 2,000 cars from the road.

EV QUICK CHARGERS GETTING WIDER TESTING; 80% CHARGE IN 30 MINUTES

One of the major factors that may deter people from buying electric vehicles, like Nissan's new Leaf, is the amount of time necessary to recharge the batteries.  Even when using a special 220/240 volt charging station it can take hours to recharge the on-board batteries.  This could keep people from buying these vehicles, especially if it would be their only car.

Now,CHAdeMO (a play on a Japanese term "O cha demo ikaga desuka" ("let's have tea while charging")) is promising an 80% charge in 30 minutes. By handling the AC to DC conversion externally, rather than internally, and providing power up to 500VDC at 125 Amps they are able to achieve this incredible feat.

CHAdeMO starting in Portland, Oregon and is advancing through Arizona, California, Texas, Tennessee and Washington by adding an additional 310 charging stations. This move is being reported to cost CHAdeMO $230 million dollars. [Engadget]