PG&E To Purchase Plug-In Series Hybrid SUVs From Raser Technologies

9 February 2008

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has entered into an agreement with Raser Technologies, Inc. for the purchase and demonstration of two plug-in series hybrid electric sport utility vehicles (SUVs).

The PHEVs, which use Raser’s propreitary electric drive system and Symetron motor technology, will offer an all-electric range of 40 miles, with an extended range of up to 400 miles. The PHEVs are expected to cut PG&E operational fuel costs up to 75% by driving in all-electric mode during typical daily fleet routes of up to 40 miles.

Subsequent versions of the Raser PHEV are expected to provide emergency mobile power from the vehicle’s onboard 100 kW generator to assist in power outages or provide mobile power for work and repairs.

Raser has established PHEV development agreements with a leading global automaker and with integrator FEV (earlier post) to build the 100 mpg PHEV SUV. Raser also plans to offer 100-plus mpg plug-in hybrid SUVs and light trucks to other fleets through manufacturing partners for early demonstration.

PG&E is a strong advocate of plug-in hybrid vehicles and has been working with Raser as co-founders of the Plug-in Hybrid Development Consortium for the past two years, with the goal to accelerate a pathway for PHEV commercialization. We are very excited to team with Raser to be the first utility to take delivery on these breakthrough plug-in series hybrid vehicles.

—Andrew Tang, senior director of smart energy web at PG&E

PG&E was the first utility in the nation to publicly demonstrate the possibility of electric vehicles to supply homes and business with electricity at a Silicon Valley Leadership Group event in April 2007. (Earlier post.) PG&E also shared this technical expertise with Google in June 2007 to upgrade a number of company-owned PHEVs to be vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capable for a demonstration at Google’s Mountain View campus. (Earlier post.) More recently, PG&E entered into a project partnership with Tesla to further evolve vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology by researching smart charging—a form of V2G designed to allow remote control charging of electric vehicles connected to the power grid. (Earlier post.)