Hertz, IBM Partnering on Electric Vehicle and Smart Grid Pilot Program
Posted in Electric Vehicles on May 17th, 2012 by News Desk –Under the program, Hertz will supply electric vehicles to the car-share fleet used by IBM employees to drive between Stuttgart Airport and the company’s campus in Ehningen, about 30 kilometers away.
The electric cars provided by Hertz will be charged using decentralized generation of electricity on the IBM campus, and the charging stations will be operated with IBM software that optimizes the usage of generated power by renewable energies. The software also balances demand and availability of electricity power to prevent load peaks.
Hertz is the first car-rental company to deploy electric vehicles on three continents — in the U.S. (New York, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco), the U.K. (London), and China (Shenzhen).
Hertz announced it plans to increase its global EV presence by deploying vehicles in other countries in the coming months. The company will continue to use its rental and car sharing locations as bases for vehicles and charging stations, and use its fleet management tools and “consumer-facing” GPS systems to help form an EV grid, the company said.
Ehningen IBM Innovation Center website





