Naturalpath

Toyota plans to lease plug-in hybrid cars, that recharge from electrical outlets, by 2010. Toyota's announcement put it in direct competition with General Motors, which has announced plans to sell its own plug-in hybrid vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt, sometime around 2010.

Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, is putting some of it's gigantic pile of cash behind plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Right now, their initiatives include hacking Toyota Prius and Ford Escape hybrids to be plug-ins. Their Prius plug-ins are getting about 75 mpg, a good boost over the 40 mpg of regular Prius models.

Google plans to fund at least $10 million in PHEV projects and hopes to expand it's plug-in fleet to at least 100 vehicles. In addition to promoting the idea of PHEVs Google is also working on the technology behind vehicle to grid integration.