Austin Energy and Plug-In Partners join Hybrid Consortium

Austin Energy, a public utilities company in Austin, Texas, and the Plug-In Partners, a national grassroots campaign working to build public support for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, have joined with the Hybrid Consortium as Advisory members, the Houston Chronicle Reports. This has to be one of the most mutually beneficial partnerships, since the Hybrid Consortium is made up of a growing number of automotive suppliers, manufacturers and other organizations working together to accelerate the commercial production of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, which would clearly generate significant increase in demand for electricity, and hence benefit Austin Energy. The interesting aspect of the partnership is in the details however, since Austin Energy maintains the top-performing renewable energy program in the United States. The combination of renewably produced electricity with plug-in hybrid vehicles would result in significant energy savings. To demonstrate Austin Energy's commitment to PHEVs, they signed a "soft order" petition to purchase 40 plug-in hybrid vehicles for its own municipal fleet.

[source: The Houston Chronicle]