RechargeIT is an effort within Google.org that aims to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use, and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles. We have a demonstration fleet of plug-ins at our headquarters in Mountain View and make publicly available the statistics on the performance of those cars. Our vision is that one day millions of cars will be plugging into a greener grid.

Since the inception of RechargeIT in 2007, we've been pleased to see great progress in this field:

  • In our controlled Driving Experiment, Google plug-ins achieved 93+ MPG
  • Almost every large automaker is putting out a plug-in in the next 2 - 4 years
  • Recently-passed federal stimulus legislation contains $2 billion for plug-ins
  • The stimulus bill also includes a U.S. tax credit of up to $7,500 per vehicle intended to spark the sale of up to 1.5 million plug-ins

RechargeIT Driving Experiment


Electricity usage for plug-in vehicles:
Ford Escape Plug-In 133.2 Wh/mi, Toyota Prius Plug-in 139.6 Wh/mi

We've had our RechargeIT plug-ins on the road for over two years, collecting data when driven by Google employees in our free car-share program. But we wanted to see how they would perform in a controlled test. The results of our seven-week driving experiment are in – and the plug-ins did great, getting as much as 93 MPG average across all trips, and 115 MPG for city trips! See the full results to explore detailed data from the experiment.
See full results »