Utilities are about to become the gas stations of the future, the Electric Power Research Institute’s Mark Duvall, said at a GM-sponsored dinner event Monday night that kicked off this week’s first annual plug-in vehicle conference in San Jose, Calif. The image stuck in my head throughout the week as the conference hosted speeches and panel sessions that featured automakers, utilities, startups, the high tech industry, academia and politicians.
Everyone’s trying to figure out what it will take for plug-in hybrids to go mainstream: free electricity, tax incentives, a more mature plug-in conversion industry, aggressive automakers, or more innovative startup tech. Likely a combo of all of those. Whatever it needs the industry’s players had more than enough news to talk about at the show:
- GM Partners with Utilities on Plug-In Vehicles
- Volt Battery Testing in Malibu Mule
- Google’s Plug-In Study Finds As High As 93 MPG
- Google.org Invests in Electric Car Startups
- Battery Startup ActaCell Charges Up with Google, DFJ
- Aptera Raises $24M for Electric Car Production
- San Francisco Calls for Electric Car Pitches
- Detroit, Meet the Startups
- Video Demo of Coulomb’s Smart Charging
- San Jose Partners With Coulomb’s Smart Charging
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