Author: Josie Garthwaite

The recent linking of General Motors and Google for a handful of services related to the plug-in Chevy Volt marks an intersection for automakers and Internet giants. The two industries — one little changed for centuries and marked by steel and manufacturing, the other constantly morphing over the past decade and ruled by chips and algorithms — will come together more and more as “connected” cars begin to offer a new platform for development, innovation and revenue.

GM’s latest plan to work with Google Android phones for a next-gen mobile app for the Chevy Volt (offering services like location-based services in addition to scheduling battery charge times) is an important step for GM to adapt its in-vehicle communication system to the specific needs of electric vehicle drivers. At the same time, Android, Google’s open operating system for mobile phones, could eventually take on a much larger role in connected vehicles — a topic we’ve delved into for a new research note over on GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

Android has already made some headway in automotive applications. Last year, auto supplier Continental AG announced plans to build a new hardware and software system called AutoLinQ that’ based on Android, aiming to begin demonstrating apps to automotive customers in the second half of 2010. Chinese automaker SAIC has also debuted a car called the Roewe 350 that includes an infotainment system built on version 2.1 of the Android OS.

According to the research firm iSuppli, while many concepts have emerged for bringing apps into the car, Android is the “most intriguing” because it allows automakers to easily create a custom interface and accesses a massive community of open-source developers and a ready supply of apps built for Android phones.

Being open source means vendors can access the Android source code freely and add proprietary extensions — something that could hold appeal to automakers looking to maximize both control and upgradability of operating systems for next-gen vehicles. With electric cars, the ability to upgrade as data comes in about battery, vehicle and device performance in real-world settings, and as new devices become available, will be a key element to keeping early adopters happy and delivering enough value to win over a broader swath of the market.

Still, automakers have a number of alternatives to Android for their next generation of vehicle communication systems. A source involved with the GM-Android project has told us some contenders include not only Android but also Microsoft, QNX Software Systems or some type of “homegrown” solution. The GigaOM Pro research note goes into more detail about what these various alternatives offer.

For alternative options beyond Google, some of the key points include Microsoft’s track record and experience with Ford, having developed the Sync system and recently moved more into the EV space to tackle smart charging for Ford electric vehicles using the home energy management tool Microsoft Hohm (both Ford and Microsoft have said they hope other automakers will sign on with Hohm).

QNX, meanwhile, already provides some of the tech for GM’s OnStar, including a real-time operating system. It was acquired last month by Research in Motion as part of larger plans to expand QNX’s position in the automotive market, and to integrate smartphones (like RIM’s BlackBerry) with in-vehicle audio and infotainment systems. As for a homegrown solution, the bet seems to be that a proprietary vehicle communication system, app store, platform and packaging of supporting technologies for connected cars will deliver a competitive edge in the next-gen vehicle market.

For more about this trend and what it means for the electric car ecosystem, check out the full research note and other related research on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

Why Google Android’s Electric Vehicle Deal With GM Matters

Why Microsoft’s Electric Vehicle Deal With Ford Matters

IT Opportunities in Electric Vehicle Management

Image courtesy of Diarmuid Miklos’ photostream.

General Motors’ announcement this week that it plans to link up with Google to provide a set of location-based services to owners of the upcoming electric vehicle the Chevy Volt comes hot on the heels of Ford laying out plans to work with Microsoft to manage electric vehicle charging. Google and Microsoft have been competing on the desktop and web browser for years — is their rivalry spilling over into the new landscape of the connected and electric car?

It remains unclear how battles may unfold and alliances will take shape in the nascent market for electric vehicles, which many automakers are positioning as evidence of their capacity for innovation and technology leadership. GM’s initial move to use Google services like voice search, maps and navigation in an app designed to link the Chevy Volt with Android-based smartphones (check out our hands-on video demo here) marks only a very early step toward the kind of alliance that Ford has built with Microsoft. So don’t consider GM and Google BFFs just yet. Microsoft, on the other hand, was the developer of the Ford Sync system and the Hohm energy management tool that Ford plans to pair with upcoming electric vehicles. So these collaborations exist at very different stages of development, and we’ll have to hang on awhile to see a full-on face-off.

Here’s some key similarities and differences between the deals struck so far among the two Internet giants and two massive automakers as they join up at the intersection of vehicles, communication and the grid.

Images courtesy of General Motors and saebaryo’s photostream.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

Why Microsoft’s Electric Vehicle Deal With Ford Matters

Report: IT Opportunities in Electric Vehicle Management

Google and General Motors plan to connect the automaker’s in-vehicle communications system, OnStar, with phones running on Google’s Android operating system, GM announced early Tuesday. It all starts with a beefed-up mobile app for the Chevy Volt, an extended-range electric vehicle scheduled to roll out later this year.

Back in January, GM announced that the Volt would roll out equipped for remote control of certain vehicle functions via BlackBerry Storm, iPhone or Droid smartphones. According to the automaker’s release Tuesday, a 2.0 version version of the app for Android phones will incorporate new location-based services using Google technology.

Word of this new partnership between GM and Google comes on the heels of Ford and Microsoft announcing plans to put their longstanding alliance (Microsoft developed Ford’s Sync communication system) to work on smart charging for electric vehicles. Ford plans to use Microsoft’s Hohm tool to minimize energy costs for drivers of upcoming electric Ford models, and to help limit strain on the power grid for utilities.

More details about how GM aims to deploy Google’s technology will come out this week in a demo at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. But the automaker says it has added a new navigation tool to the existing Volt mobile app built for Android phones. The tool will use Google’s voice search, provide vehicle tracking and access to Google Maps, and allow Volt owners to send destination info from their Android phone to their car’s OnStar navigation system for turn-by-turn directions.

OnStar President Chris Preuss commented in a statement today that the Volt app is only a first step in a larger effort to expand OnStar beyond safety and security services. The relationship with Google, he said, “is an example of how we’re evolving our leadership position in connected vehicle technology,” adding, “What we’re talking about today is only the beginning.”

When the Volt launches, version 1.0 of the mobile app will include functions specific to needs anticipated for new electric vehicle drivers. Through their phones, early adopters of the Volt will be able to schedule battery charge times, view whether or not the vehicle is plugged in, check voltage at a charger, get text notifications of interruption or completion of a battery charge and view miles per gallon, electric miles and miles driven — cumulatively and for the last trip (the Volt has a small gas engine that kicks in when the battery charge drops below a set threshold).

For GM, the so-called OnStar Mobile Application could be a key part of marketing the vehicle to gadget-minded consumers. The automaker has said that with this app, the Volt “showcases technology beyond the battery,” something GM needs to do to go beyond niche markets for a $40,000 plug-in sedan. As Andrew Farah, vehicle chief engineer for the Chevy Volt, has put it, “Our whole goal here is to put together a great vehicle for customers, not just a battery on wheels.”

Could the Google/Android link lead to a connection between Google’s energy management tool PowerMeter and GM’s Chevy Volt? At our Green:Net conference, when we asked Google’s Ed Lu if Google had plans to connect PowerMeter with electric vehicle charging (see video around minute 12), he said Google has “a lot of plans in a lot of areas” that he couldn’t yet talk about.

Photo courtesy of General Motors

Related research on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

Why Microsoft’s Electric Vehicle Deal With Ford Matters

Location-Based Services: From Mobile to Mobility

Whether you’re itching to sign up for an electric vehicle field trial, hoping to buy one of the earliest plug-in models, or just want a heads up on what models you might see hitting showrooms and U.S. roads in the next couple years, here’s a dozen models to have on your list. Some of them will be available only in select markets or for a handful of fleets initially, but if all goes well (a big if), then this could mark the first trickle before a flood of plug-in models during the next decade.

BEV = Battery Electric Vehicle; PHEV = Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle; EREV = Extended Range Electric Vehicle

Image courtesy of felixkramer’s photostream

Zipcar has bought London-based car-sharing firm Streetcar in its latest bid to expand across Europe, the companies announced this morning. The acquisition, valued at about $50 million, expands the size of Zipcar’s UK fleet more than fourfold, to 1,770 vehicles.

Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith called the deal — which comes on the heels of an investment in Spanish car-sharing startup Avancar — a key step toward making the company a “truly global” car-sharing network, which rents vehicles by the hour or day.

Streetcar, founded in 2004, has vehicles in 1,100 locations in eight cities. Zipcar and Streetcar combined have about 400,000 members, up from Zipcar’s base of 360,000 drivers.

In addition to expanding Zipcar’s footprint, acquiring Streetcar comes with an opportunity to also make that footprint a little greener. Griffith said in a call this morning that the company’s “been testing” the plug-in electric vehicles in Streetcar’s fleet.

Already, Griffith said hybrid vehicles (primarily the Toyota Prius) typically make up 10-15 percent of Zipcar’s fleet. And in July 2009, Zipcar announced the launch of what it calls its first EV Pod, starting with a fleet of 20 hybrids and two plug-ins (an all-electric Citroen c1 and a plug-in hybrid Prius) in London, with plans to grow the EV Pod to some 400 vehicles by 2012, with 30 percent of them being hybrid.

But don’t expect Zipcar to switch the bulk of the fleet over to plug-ins anytime soon. Griffith has told us that more vehicle software and data (among other things) will be needed in order to get there. “We don’t want to put new barriers up at a time when car sharing is really moving into the mainstream,” and all-electric vehicles are still pretty foreign to most drivers, he said in an interview last year.

Today’s acquisition comes more than two years after Zipcar absorbed its largest competitor: Seattle-based Flexcar, owned by AOL Co-founder Steve Case. The merger resulted in a company with 180,000 subscribers and more than 5,000 vehicles in 48 cities.

At 10 years old, Zipcar has discussed plans to seek an initial public offering since at least last year, and Griffith said today that equity in Zipcar made up the “primary consideration” in the  $50 million deal with Streetcar. Last summer, while Zipcar said it had “no immediate plans to go public,” it was reported to be targeting an IPO for 2010.

Photo courtesy of Zipcar

Related GigaOM Pro articles (subscription required):

Mobility on Demand Takes Aim at Transit Networks’ “Last Mile”

Location-Based Services: From Mobile to Mobility

Electric Vehicles Give “Mobility as a Service” a Jumpstart

Zipcar has long billed its car-sharing service as a money saver for consumers, rolling the cost of insurance, gas, maintenance and car payments into subscription and hourly rental fees. So at the tail end of a recession, has Zipcar — which has told us it aims to “cross over to profitability” in 2010, and eventually go public — seen consumers flock to its service?

According to CEO Scott Griffith, who spoke on a panel today at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference, Zipcar saw a drop-off in what he calls discretionary trips — weekend getaways to wine country or the ski slopes, for example. “Some of that is coming back this year,” Griffith said, but the recession took a bite out of longer trips. On average, he said subscribers rent Zipcar vehicles for four hours, and drive about six miles for every hour they have the car checked out.

Still, Griffith said that 10-year-old Zipcar’s membership grew by about 25 percent last year, excluding membership in cities where Zipcar launched new fleets during the year. Those newer cities will offer a real test for whether Zipcar can sustain a much larger footprint nationally and internationally, or if its user base is limited to more niche markets including the cities and university campuses where it has already found success.

According to forecasts from research firm Frost & Sullivan, the number of drivers using car-sharing networks increased 117 percent between 2007 and 2009 in North America. Within five years, the firm expects to see 4.4 million people in North America and 5.5 million people in Europe (where Zipcar hopes to expand  its presence beyond London) sign up for car-sharing programs, more than tripling membership from 2009.

In addition to general growth, Griffith noted another shift in Zipcar’s user base: It’s getting older. After trending upward every year for the last five years, he said the average age of a Zipcar member is now over 30 years. About two-thirds of the company’s 360,000 active users are under age 35, according to Griffith, but the company is bringing in “more and more second-car users.”

In other words, it’s not just college students using the Zipcar vehicles that are available for a discount on campus, but also families that occasionally want access to a different car (something larger for hauling kids or furniture, for example, or a sportier model than the family minivan — Griffith said the Mini Cooper is the most frequently requested model).

“Lots of people sell or don’t buy cars as a result of our business,” Griffith said. “Or we become their second car, their fractional second car,” since users only pay to “own” a Zipcar vehicle for a fraction of the time they’d pay to buy or lease a personal vehicle.

It’s that reduction in vehicles on the road (about 20 for every car in the fleet) that forms the basis for car sharing as a greener transportation option, said Griffith. The Toyota Prius is a popular model among users, said Griffith, and Frost & Sullivan anticipates plug-in vehicles will make up one in every five new vehicle purchases for car-share fleets by 2016. But the most important factor in the “net sustainable benefit,” of car sharing, said Griffith, is reducing personal vehicle ownership. It matters less whether it’s an SUV or a hybrid that consumers borrow for a few hours, and more that the car is eliminating the need for 20 additional cars.

Economically, it works out to be a good deal, said Griffith, since most Americans’ cars end up sitting unused “for 90 percent of the time or more.” Citing census data, he said households with Zipcar membership spend only about 5 percent of their income on transportation, compared to as much as 19 percent in a typical U.S. household.

The company may not have seen the last of the recession’s effects, however. New costs could arise as major partners wrestle to balance their budgets. That’s on the table in Washington, D.C., at least, where the 2011 budget proposal submitted by Mayor Adrian Fenty this month includes $275,000 in new fees for Zipcar to use parking spaces on district streets.

Photo courtesy of Zipcar

General Motors plans to fire up production of its extended-range electric Chevy Volt in the fourth quarter of this year — and in the months until then the automaker expects to focus on software and controls for the model, among other things. In a call with reporters this week, Andrew Farah, vehicle chief engineer for the Volt, called those systems the “glue” or “muscles” that “make this whole thing work.” (To hear more from GM on IT for the Volt, come to Green:Net on April 29).

Part of the goal, explained Farah, is to deliver “predictable performance” so that drivers don’t need to plan their day around the vehicle. But there’s more to it: Using lithium-ion cells from supplier LG Chem, software and controls around the battery pack are partly about gaining a competitive edge through proprietary technology. As Micky Bly, GM’s executive director for global electrical systems, hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries, put it, the idea is to quickly transform GM from a “smart shopper” in batteries to a “leader in battery development.”

In particular, Farah noted that GM has made “great internal strides” in the thermal management system for the battery pack, which uses lithium-ion cells from South Korea-based LG Chem. “This has not been a walk in the park by anybody,” said Bly, noting that the automaker has had to build up its engineering team, recruit a lot of talent and work with a raft of suppliers to learn about battery systems and develop new technology.

GM has set up a handful of labs as part of this effort, including one in Shanghai, China, that Bly said will be “a huge enabler” for the company due to the rapid pace of lithium-ion cell and module development in the region.

While work remains on the gen-1 Volt model (emissions and hot weather testing, for example, as well as tweaks to improve aerodynamics), GM has already begun making plans for second- and third-generations of the vehicle, and the battery in particular. The automaker hopes to use a battery that’s much, much cheaper — and possibly smaller — than the pack slated for deployment in the debut model.

Bly said that GM expects to make “generational changes” in the battery every 2-4 years, as opposed to the up to seven-year development cycle that’s more typical in the auto industry. While the automaker remains a couple years away from finalizing decisions about the architecture for that third-generation battery pack, Bly said he anticipates battery costs will drop by 50 percent or more for that model as energy density improves.

A few big unknowns still hang over the Volt, including the size of the fuel tank (which will affect the vehicle’s range), and what kind of fuel economy rating it will carry. While GM came out with a big advertising campaign boasting 230 MPG for the Volt last summer, the EPA has yet to release new rules for testing and labeling vehicles that get miles out of more than gallons of gasoline.

“We want to be selling cars by the end of the year,” Farah commented, “and it would be nice to have an EPA label in the window.” How that label should communicate relevant efficiency data to consumers in a way that’s easy to understand represents a particularly vexing question for an extended-range electric vehicle like the Volt, he said, because “it has such a dual personality,” depending on whether it’s running on the battery or the small gas engine designed to kick in when the battery gets depleted, typically after about 40 miles. Simplicity is key. As Farah put it, consumers “gotta know what they’re getting.”

AAA’s latest study on rising vehicle ownership costs reads like a case for would-be green car owners if not flat-out deserting the ol’ personal car, then carefully considering alternatives like car-sharing networks that often cover fuel, maintenance and insurance costs.

Taking into account license and registration fees, depreciation, insurance, finance charges, fuel, maintenance and other costs, AAA found that “owning and operating a typical sedan” climbed to about 56.60 cents per mile, or $8,487 per year, in 2009, based on 15,000 miles of driving in the year and gas priced at $2.60 per gallon. That’s a jump of more than $390 over AAA’s cost estimates in last year’s report.

Part of the cost increase stems from rising fuel prices, and AAA finds operating costs for owners of SUVs — some of the least efficient vehicles on the market — hit 73.90 cents per mile, or $11,085 over the year. For smaller sedans, AAA pegs the average annual cost of ownership at nearly $5,000.

But as AAA Northern California spokesperson Matt Skyrja explains in Thursday’s release, gas prices affect more than how much we pay at the pump. They also influence depreciation rates — over time, the more value that consumers place on fuel efficiency, the less you can expect to get for an old gas guzzler if you decide to sell it in the future. “With the growing appeal of more fuel-efficient vehicles,” Skyrja explains, “small sedans are experiencing less depreciation and holding their value longer. On the flip side, there are notable rises in depreciation costs with categories of less fuel-efficient vehicles.”

According to a report earlier this year from the research firm Frost & Sullivan, car-share networks like Zipcar and City Carshare are poised to see a boom in membership during the next several years. The number of drivers using these networks grew 117 percent between 2007 and 2009 in North America, and by 2016 the firm anticipates membership will reach 4.4 million in North America and 5.5 million in Europe.

Rising costs for owning and operating a personal vehicle can boost the appeal of car-sharing networks that roll the cost of fuel into membership and hourly or daily fees. At the same time car-share providers, could turn into decent-sized customers for automakers while driving a decline in personal vehicle ownership. The car-sharing firms are also some of the most active on terms of “fuel efficient, low emission, low priced, and trendy vehicles.” By Frost’s somewhat optimistic estimates, plug-in vehicles will make up one in every five new vehicle purchases for car-share fleets by 2016.

It’s not just car-share providers (of both the for-profit and non-profit variety) that are developing alternatives to personal vehicle ownership and the all-too-common single-occupant vehicle. A number of startups are working to take advantage of real-time data about location (see this GigaOM Pro report on Location: The Epicenter of Mobile Innovation) and the supply and demand for mobility to help people carpool. Put simply, these services identify and link passengers and drivers with empty seats that are nearby and planning to go in the same direction.

As Ryan Chin, a PhD candidate in the Smart Cities research group at MIT has told us (GigaOM Pro, sub. req’d), emerging models based on offering “mobility on demand” can help bridge what’s known as the “last mile” gap in many public transit systems. The idea is to provide access to, say, an electric car, scooter or bicycle when and where you need it, as well as the option to drop it off near your destination. In some models, companies operate the program in exchange for advertising space, while city governments provide land in exchange for the transportation service and a potential solution for traffic congestion.

These types of solutions can help slash greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector and reduce reliance on personal vehicles — while cutting the costs that go along with vehicle ownership. And as Chin commented, “There’s a lot of difficulty convincing automotive companies to adopt this model…that means there’s a big, huge opportunity for other players to come in.”

Photo courtesy of Flickr user taberandrew

The iPad represents many things: a potentially lucrative opportunity for developers, Apple’s next gold rush and catnip for 300,000 Apple fanboys, to start. According to Luke Schneider, chief technology officer for Zipcar, the device also has implications for fleet management and car sharing, affecting how vehicle networks operate and how consumers interact with organizations that offer alternatives to personal vehicle ownership — from transit agencies to nonprofit car- and bike-sharing networks to a for-profit company like Zipcar with its 6,000 vehicles and 350,000 members.

Hooked up to communications networks and often used by eco-minded and urban consumers, car-sharing networks may offer a prime testing ground for early generations of plug-in vehicles (GigaOM Pro, subscription required) — as well as for the apps and services that may help to pave their way into the mainstream. Already, many car-sharing networks have hybrids in their fleets (it makes sense, given that the organizations running the networks generally pay for fuel).

According to Schneider, the bulk of Zipcar’s members still make reservations and manage their accounts using a personal computer. However, the number of users connecting with Zipcar (the world’s largest car-sharing network) via smartphones is “growing at an incredibly rapid rate, steadily increasing every month,” said Schneider. Up to a third of Zipcar users now own an iPhone he said, and a little less than two thirds own a smartphone. He added, “As folks increase the mobility of their lifestyles, we want to be there,” and as users adopt new mobile devices including the iPad, “we need to be there to keep those numbers growing.”

Beyond the iPad, Beyond the Car

Zipcar has been “watching the tablet computing segment for some time,” said Schneider. But Apple’s entry has made the company take notice. He described two possible use cases that stand out for a tablet with rich media and high processing capabilities in the fleet management and car-sharing environment. While declining to provide more specifics, he said fleet managers could use the iPad to gain a “more powerful tool to ensure all vehicles are in the condition we want them to be in,” and to let drivers know “when they’ve done something well.”

Customers who rent a Zipcar for a few hours or a weekend, on the other hand, could turn to the iPad for help getting oriented in an unfamiliar place, finding relevant attractions and planning multimodal transit routes that incorporate cars, buses, trains, bike sharing or other transportation options (see: Mobility on Demand Takes Aim at Transport Networks’ “Last Mile,” GigaOM Pro).

For Zipcar, Schneider said a key question will be how to balance different services and media for a tablet interface, or as he put it, “How much of the web app to port down, how much of the phone app to port up.” Schneider said it would be “premature” to equip cars in the Zipcar fleet at this point with the tablet, but the company is looking at how to serve customers who own the tablet.

That’s similar to the approach that Ford Motor is taking. With its onboard communication system — Ford Sync, developed by Microsoft — the automaker aims to accommodate the slew of gear and gadgets that consumers might adopt over the eight years or more that they hang onto a car, without investing in hardware that can quickly become obsolete. (Nancy Gioia, the head of Ford’s sustainable mobility technologies and hybrid vehicle programs, has told us the automaker learned this lesson the hard way, after jumping on the mobile phone installation bandwagon in the 1970s and ’80s.)

The Cool Factor

The simple buzz factor of the iPad could be enough to get the attention of some automakers hoping to shake stodgy reputations. As Ford’s Doug VanDagens, who leads the automaker’s connected services group told us, Ford had a simple objective in opening up the Sync API to some third-party developers earlier this year: to “make Ford cars really cool” and boost vehicle sales.

Already, Hyundai has tried to bask in some of the iPad’s glow. The South Korean automaker announced plans last week to include an iPad with the purchase of its upcoming Equus luxury sedan. Actual utility for drivers, however, is limited to a digital owner’s manual and a tool for booking maintenance appointments via the iPad’s Wi-Fi connection.

Hurdles to Larger Impact on Greener Transit

In the transportation sector at large, the iPad may not leave as much of a mark as the smartphones and app stores that are now helping to usher in a world of digital tools meant to help us get around with less fuel and fewer emissions. When it comes to the market for MPG-boosting apps and services, adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles, the iPad seems an unlikely candidate to provide much of a jump start.

Despite some excitement this week about the potential for in-dash installations of the iPad, at least a handful of hurdles stand between the device and a meaningful impact on vehicles’ software, entertainment, information and IT systems (exception: DIYers like these guys in Santa Clarita, Calif., whose video of an iPad installed in a Toyota Tacoma truck has drawn more than 86,000 views on YouTube this week). Here’s four of those hurdles:

Distraction: The iPad is designed to provide an immersive, engaging experience — exactly what you don’t want the driver in the lane next to you (or your newly licensed kid) to have tempting their gaze from the road. For apps and devices meant for use when you’re on the road, convenience and hands-free controls take priority over the “finger-friendly interface” that makes more sense for stationary settings.

As Schneider put it, “Better media inside cars can always lead to safety issues.” This still leaves room for non-distracting apps on the road, which can use innovative methods to minimize the amount of attention required to operate them. As VanDagens put it to us, the 2 million Ford vehicles equipped with Sync can gain “connectivity to the cloud through phones” while letting drivers interact with apps using buttons on the steering wheel, for example, and voice commands.

No Multitasking: Want to listen to Pandora and get real-time feedback on your driving behavior or fuel efficiency at the same time? It’s easy to take multitasking for granted in personal vehicles, but the iPad will use only one app at a time.

Displays in the Queue: Much of the upcoming generation of plug-in and hybrid vehicles will come equipped with a fairly large display screen in the center stack, and onboard communication systems can provide access to smartphone apps. So while aftermarket retrofits like the one in Santa Clarita may appeal in some niche markets for people who crave a big screen but have either a lower-end or older vehicle, the generally high-earning crowd of early adopters buying the first iPads and alt-fuel vehicles can get a built-in screen with much less hassle.

Embedded vs. Mobile: One of the biggest selling points for the iPad is the physical design, and how it opens a world of comfortable surfing in more leisurely settings. As Slate’s Michael Agger quipped, “The iPad world is like an opium den, where one is always reclining, the better to enjoy its strange, new, vivid wonders.”

But EV-centric apps and services (for checking battery charge levels, for example — a function of the apps unveiled for plug-in vehicles from Nissan and General Motors) won’t necessarily be enhanced by the iPad’s lounging potential, larger size or rich media capabilities (the point is to have basic access on the go). Many other core functions, such as battery notification systems, and charging station locators will likely remain embedded in electric vehicles (GigaOM Pro) — no matter how sophisticated and slick mobile devices get. So similar to the way Zipcar is still negotiating how to balance features and services for personal computers, mobile phones and now tablets, it’s unclear at this point that the iPad or other tablets will offer the right balance for EV-centric apps.

Ford and Microsoft’s announcement on Wednesday that they’ll use Microsoft’s Hohm tool to minimize energy costs for drivers of Ford’s electric vehicles — and help limit strain on the power grid for utilities — represents a big step in the development of a “smart charging” ecosystem. But Microsoft and Ford both say Hohm, and other tools like it, need to — and will eventually — offer much more than this initial step.

Nancy Gioia, Ford’s director of global electrification, told us in an interview that the automaker is encouraging the ecosystem that will help bridge the gap between utilities, consumers and vehicles. Gioia called for other car companies to “jump on through the Hohm interface as well,” or use a similar system.

Gioia emphasized some key reasons why Ford decided to go with Hohm. In addition to Ford and Microsoft’s longstanding alliance on Sync, she said Ford liked the open architecture, and the potential for third parties to develop phone apps on the platform. As she explained to us last year, Ford has been working to make its plug-in vehicles “as accepting as possible” when it comes to interfacing with utilities, charging infrastructure developers and energy management software providers.

Thousands of companies — many of them startups — are working on hardware and software for charging plug-in vehicles, Gioia said at the time, adding “We have not come even close to a funnel.” With an open architecture, the idea with Hohm is to keep the doors open for awhile longer.

Gioia also commented on Wednesday that Hohm offers not only a way to help early adopters manage their battery charging, but also to help pave the way for the general adoption of electric vehicles. Gioia said that by using Hohm, consumers can “Find out right away: How’s your house wired?” and figure out what installations or rewiring they might need to accommodate an electric car. When you log into the Hohm site, you can “immediately start to engage your home,” she said.

At the same time, Microsoft is also looking for a wide range of partnerships in this space. The company’s spokesperson Marja Koopmans told us, ”It’s critical for a healthy energy ecosystem to collaborate broadly.” And that means working with utilities and municipalities — and also with multiple automakers.

The energy industry is a strategic business area for Microsoft, which has in the past told us it plans to eventually charge utilities for services. Koopmans told us today that while consumers will have ownership of their energy data, Microsoft will aggregate data from Hohm customers and use that to refine and update its algorithm. So more EV drivers means more data, and potentially more value for utilities.

Microsoft is already in talks with other car companies (not surprisingly, Koopmans declined to name specifics). But it’s not clear at this point that other automakers will take the same route as Ford anytime soon, bringing in a very visible partner to facilitate smart charging and serve as a middle man between electric car drivers and utilities.

When we reached out to General Motors and asked whether the company has looked at using Hohm, GM’s Britta Gross pointed to challenges for a one-size-fits-all smart charging system. She commented in an email that the U.S. has 3,000 utilities, and no set standard for them to communicate across the grid. A standardized communication protocol needs to be developed for the 3,000 utilities, she said, before anyone can really “tell when there’s an off-peak energy time.”

In the meantime, Gross said a smartphone app will give buyers of the upcoming Chevy Volt the option to remotely program their vehicle to start charging at a later time, when energy demand (and rates) might be lower. But the company’s app, unveiled in January, doesn’t actually gauge real-time electricity pricing or demand.

Rather, similar to the app concept that Nissan has developed for its upcoming LEAF, GM’s application will allow Volt owners to control certain vehicle functions through GM’s OnStar system and their BlackBerry Storm, Droid or iPhone, for example: schedule battery charge times, view whether or not the vehicle is plugged in, check voltage at a charger, get text notifications of interruption or completion of a battery charge and turn on climate control. According to Gross, GM is currently looking at ways to use OnStar to provide additional options for programming when the battery will start drawing juice from the grid.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally said Wednesday that an electric vehicle could double a typical home’s energy consumption. Put another way, Koopmans said when you buy an electric vehicle, it “becomes the single largest consumer of energy in the home.” So in areas where plug-in cars will roll out in significant numbers, connecting with vehicles will be all but required for a player to be relevant in the world of home energy management.

Koopmans declined to say how much data Microsoft expects to collect from EV drivers, or how large a portion of the total data pool for Hohm in coming years is likely to stem from today’s deal with Ford. “That will grow over time,” she said. “We will learn how quickly we can move on this.”

For more on connected cars come to our Green:Net conference on April 29 in San Francisco, where our panel on the new networked car will include Paul Pebbles, OnStar Chevy Volt Service Line Manager, General Motors; Mark Perry, Director of Product Planning, Nissan; Ed Pleet, Product & Business Development Manager, Connected Services, Ford; Saul Zambrano, Director, Integrated Demand-side Management Core Products, PG&E; and Hugh McDermott, Vice President, Global Utility Alliances, Better Place.

For more related research on GigaOM Pro (subscription required) see:

Why Microsoft’s Electric Vehicle Deal With Ford Matters

The App Developer’s Guide to Working with Ford Sync

How to Build Better Apps for Electric Vehicles

Today forward-thinking developers are eying the iPad — tomorrow they’ll be focused on your family sedan. The next generation of electric cars will fuel up from a smart power grid, have one of several operating systems, will connect to broadband networks provided by wireless carriers and have a charge that’s controlled by software at a utility data center. These so-called connected cars will ultimately offer a next-generation platform for entrepreneurs and car makers to develop auto-focused applications.

The connected car platform and applications aren’t so far away. According to the group of U.S. and Canadian power grid operators who make up the ISO/RTO Council (IRC) and manage most of North America’s bulk electric grid, as many as 1 million plug-in vehicles could be deployed on the continent within five years to a decade.

EV = IT

For electric cars, connectivity to the web and data (enabled by on-board communication systems like Ford’s Sync or General Motors’ OnStar, as well as off-board mobile devices) will be “required over and above what gas engines require,” according to Doug VanDagens, director of connected services for Ford. Apps can use data — about topography, traffic, battery and vehicle health, infrastructure availability, driving behavior — to help orient drivers in the nascent world of electric mobility, both in and out of their vehicle. (Ford’s Ed Pleet, Product & Business Development Manager, Connected Services, and Paul Pebbles, General Motors’ OnStar Chevy Volt Service Line Manager, will be speaking at our Green:Net event on April 29).

Navigation represents such a critical piece of the puzzle for EVs that research firm Frost & Sullivan predicts, “Unlike conventional vehicles,” for which telematics alerting drivers to points of interest remain “an expensive option, most hardware elements required for enabling these services will be built into the cost of the EV.” As an early example of this, Nissan announced on Tuesday that its upcoming LEAF electric sedan will sell for just under $33,000 in the U.S., with standard features including Internet and smart phone connectivity, “advanced navigation,” and remote controls for heating, cooling and charging (elements of an iPhone app Nissan showed off in prototype in July).

The trend of cars growing increasingly connected is not limited to plug-in vehicles, however. Automakers like Ford and General Motors have invested heavily in in-vehicle communication systems (Ford Sync, OnStar) for models across their lineup. And at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Ford announced that it had cracked open its Sync platform, allowing a handful of “trusted partners” (Pandora, OpenBeak and Stitcher) to hook up their smartphone apps to vehicle controls.

The Importance of Being Open

The finance chief for London’s climate change program, Padmesh Shukla, explained in a panel last year that Sun Microsystems’ Java platform — an ubiquitous system for software development for mobile devices, enterprise servers and the web — offers a model for the buildout of infrastructure for electric vehicles (in particular, he spoke about setting up guidelines for bidding on government projects).

The goal is to avoid picking one technology or company to have a monopoly on charging infrastructure, and instead foster development of common standards, tools and practices for developers and generally create an environment in which electric car companies can prosper.

Serving the Grid

The grid operators group IRC anticipates that as more vehicles come onto the grid, they will “transform from reliability assets,” (i.e. demand clusters likely to strain the grid), “to market assets,” helping to balance grid load and store energy from variable, renewable sources. In other words, vehicles will become a platform of sorts for grid services, requiring increasingly complex charging schedules, more frequent communications, forecasting of resources and validation of transactions.

Various entities taking on the role of aggregator — grouping together hundreds of plug-in vehicles to provide services like scheduled battery charging based on pricing information and total grid load — will be making investments in the coming years to provide these services. According to IRC, a typical aggregator will invest $70,000 for servers, engineering, network infrastructure, software and project management to support connectivity with a grid operator.

Electric vehicle infrastructure startup Better Place (whose VP of Global Utility Alliances Hugh McDermott will be speaking on our New Networked Car panel at Green:Net) represents one example of a company seeking to build a business partly on the framework of an automotive platform. Sidney Goodman, the company’s VP of Automotive Alliances, has explained to us (GigaOM Pro, subscription required) that Better Place wants to route subscribers to different charging stations based on factors including location, a battery’s state of charge and how crowded a given station is.

Long term, the company also aims to work with utilities to manage charging, with battery charging prioritized based on a user profile, your location (whether you’re at your own workplace, for example), or plugging in for a charge at another office building and likely to hit the road again in an hour.

Examples of lighter weight applications for a vehicle platform abound, with the automotive market already fueling new app stores and apps for smartphones (see our chart on 8 iPhone Apps for Car 2.0). ZipCar, the country’s largest car-sharing network, developed an iPhone app that enables customers to find and reserve cars in its network and even unlock vehicle doors. Nissan has created an iPhone app for its LEAF electric vehicle that includes a remote control function that’s supposed to let drivers monitor their battery charge levels.

If you want to learn more about the connected car as a platform and how developers need to tackle transportation, come listen to Paul Pebbles (General Motors’ OnStar Chevy Volt Service Line Manager), Hugh McDermott (Vice President, Global Utility Alliances for Better Place), Mark Perry (Director of Product Planning, Nissan), Ed Pleet (Product & Business Development Manager, Connected Services, Ford Motor Co.) and Saul Zambrano (Director, Integrated Demand-side Management Core Products, PG&E) at our Green:Net conference on April 29 in San Francisco.

Related reports on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

The App Developer’s Guide to Working With Ford Sync

How to Build Better Apps for Electric Vehicles

Report: IT and Networking Issues for the Electric Vehicle Market

Crashed web sites, stolen credit card info — imagine seeing the damage caused by Internet viruses and worms unleashed on a fleet of vehicles. The results could include vehicle location data used with malicious intent, the prevention of a plug-in vehicle battery from recharging, remote starting of a car, or even — as a disgruntled young former car salesman in Texas has demonstrated this week — stranding drivers with a car that won’t start and a horn that won’t quit.

Here’s what happened in Texas, as Wired and the Austin News report: A terminated employee from a car dealership called the Texas Auto Center logged into the company’s web-based system and was able to remotely wreak havoc on more than 100 vehicles. The dealership’s system is able to disable the starter system and trigger incessant horn honking for customers that have fallen behind on car payments. It’s meant to serve as an alternative to repossessing the vehicle, and the ex-Texas Auto Center employee, arrested Thursday on charges of computer intrusion, was able to set off the horn command at will and make it so drivers couldn’t start their cars.

Cars are growing ever more connected to communication networks, and upcoming generations of electric vehicles will take it a step further with connections to the power grid. Already, electric car makers have unveiled smartphone apps designed to let users to remotely control certain vehicle functions and battery charging. Down the road, we’ll likely see not only electricity flowing to cars from the grid, but also the flow of data between cars, the grid, home energy management systems, utilities and third-party service providers.

As Ford’s director of connected services Doug VanDagens told us recently (GigaOM Pro, subscription required), “For electric vehicles, connectivity to the web and data are “required over and above what gas engines require.” Apps can use data — about topography, traffic, battery and vehicle health, infrastructure availability, driving behavior — to help orient drivers in the nascent world of electric mobility, both in and out of their vehicle.

While these tools and technologies could help reduce fuel consumption, make electric vehicles more convenient, and enable utilities to prevent excess strain on the power grid as plug-in cars create new demand, that shift to an increasingly digital transportation system brings with it (as Katie has explained in the context of the smart grid buildout) one of the banes of the Internet: hacking.

The stakes, of course, are very different. Certainly nobody wants a virus on their PC. But the prospect of a hacker seizing control of some aspect of a car — a ton of metal capable of going 60-plus MPH, that costs tens of thousands of dollars, and that maybe has a battery in its belly that requires a sophisticated system of thermal controls – is a far scarier thought.

The potential consequences of cyber attacks on a digital power grid could be similarly frightening. Andy Karsner said back in 2008, when he was with the Department of Energy: “This isn’t the cyber-attacking that you think of just for passwords. This is the capacity to destroy hardware in your home, at airports, at military bases, your car, if its connected through the grid.”

We should note that remote immobilization systems like the one involved in the Austin incident have been in use for a decade or more, and yet we have not seen vehicles crippled en masse by hackers. But companies should realize this could be a sensitive issue among consumers, while both companies and regulators need to recognize risks that go along with the transition to increasingly digital and connected systems for transportation and power.

Image courtesy of Defragged’s photostream Flickr Creative Commons.

Not too long ago, Toyota reigned as the seemingly untouchable hybrid leader. That dominance — in terms of both market share (50 percent of hybrids sold in the U.S.) and mindshare (no alt-fuel vehicle on the market is better known or more widely recognized than the Toyota Prius) — means that as the Prius image takes a beating, other models across the spectrum of green cars will also get bruised.

Mike Omotoso, senior manager for J.D. Power and Associates’ global powertrain unit, told me the firm plans to lower its hybrid and electric vehicle forecast for 2010, although it has yet to determine how big the hit will be. For the first two months of this year, the hybrid share of light vehicle sales hovered at around just 2.3 percent, compared to 2.8 percent for all of 2009 and 2.4 percent in 2008, according to Omotoso. That’s due to a number of factors — including high unemployment, a weak economy and the biggie: gas prices. But the Prius and its technical troubles loom too large to ignore.

Prior to 2009, the Prius’ share of U.S. hybrid sales had slipped below 50 percent only once since 2005 — in 2006, when it dropped to 42 percent. But even that offers a sign of Toyota’s dominance in the hybrid space. Omotoso explained that 2006 marked “the first year for the Camry hybrid and the first full year for the Highlander hybrid. So other Toyota models cannibalized Prius sales.”

Regulators are only beginning to look into the most recent incidents. But initial reports suggest the problems may not have been linked to a floor mat that pinned down the gas pedal in other Priuses and prompted Toyota to issue a recall last year for 2004-2009 models of the hybrid. Last month, when problems surfaced with the regenerative braking system of some 2010 Prius models, Toyota attributed them to a software glitch.

Regardless of what investigators and Toyota may turn up if they check out the cars involved in this week’s incidents more closely, however, one thing’s already clear: Videos that zipped around the web and TV news shows this week of a visibly shaken driver, and quotes from the 911 call he made during the 23 minutes that his 2008 Prius hurdled at high speeds down a Southern California highway before a highway patrol officer helped him stop, aren’t helping to repair the reputation of either Toyota or advanced vehicles.

Given the Prius’ status as the poster child for hybrids, Omotoso explained, “consumers might think that if the Prius has a problem then all hybrids might be dangerous.” That concern creates one more obstacle for new vehicle technologies to penetrate the mainstream, as some car buyers may forgo experimenting with the next generation of green cars — among them plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles from General Motors’ Chevy Volt and Nissan’s LEAF to BYD Auto’s e6, Coda Automotive’s Coda Sedan and Fisker Automotive’s Nina — rolling out over the next few years.

That perception problem is a hurdle that many car makers can’t really afford in this nascent market. Plug-in vehicle developers are competing for a niche that’s likely to remain quite small for years to come. Nearly a decade after the Prius debut, hybrids still hold a single-digit sliver of the pie. And despite optimistic projections from investors like Warren Buffett, who has said he expects all cars will run on electricity by 2030, other forecasts suggest significantly slower adoption, mainly due to high price tags.

Lux Research forecasts that even if oil costs $200 a barrel in 2020, just 4 percent of vehicles sold globally will be all-electric or plug-in hybrid because of the high costs of the battery technology. According to Lux, plug-in hybrids could sell 3 million units per year by 2020 if the price of oil reaches those heights, while hybrids can be expected to sell that many by 2020 regardless of oil prices.

In addition to presenting a challenge to companies vying to win over consumers to advanced vehicles, Toyota’s ongoing troubles also highlight a need for the government, the auto industry and even drivers to collect and manage (or in the case of drivers, to file), vehicle safety data and complaints in a more open and timely manner. Noting in prepared testimony that regulators and Toyota had received complaints of unintended acceleration in Toyota models seven years ago, Consumers Union is issuing that challenge – to increase transparency of vehicle safety data – in a hearing this morning on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s oversight operations. As much as technology may be part of the problem with Toyota’s vehicles, it could also be part of the solution — helping identify problems before too many drivers are put in the situation of having to call 911 from behind the wheel of an out-of-control car.

Quiet Khosla Ventures-backed startup Transonic Combustion has garnered attention over the last few days after revealing the geeky details of its scheme for a more efficient fuel-injection system. The company, which presented at the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E Summit last week, represents only one of a raft of startups working on technology that could help boost the fuel efficiency and reduce the emissions of the world’s vehicle fleet long before electric cars go mainstream.

This type of tech doesn’t have the glitz of an electric sports car — it’s meant to go under the hood, unseen, in models that look and feel much the same as the same old gas and diesel vehicles now on the road. But considering that conventional vehicles will likely make up the bulk of automakers’ lineup for years to come, the array of MPG boosters now in the works could help them meet tightening fuel economy and emission requirements for their fleet. Whether and how much car companies end up betting on young ventures for this tech remains to be seen, but these seven startups aim to seize that opportunity in coming months and years.

Image courtesy of Transonic Combustion.

Just over six months have passed since Korean electronics giant Samsung unveiled a multibillion-dollar push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its factories and slash the amount of emissions resulting from its consumer products. But already the South Korea-based conglomerate has its fingers in more than a few greentech pots, including wind power, energy storage, solar manufacturing and solar project development, biomaterials, and energy efficient consumer electronics.

Like energy and engineering conglomerates General Electric and Siemens, Samsung has a sprawling stake in greentech, and some of the company’s longstanding tech (semiconductors) and services (large-scale and offshore engineering) could find new markets. As Greentech Media has noted, ”The Samsung group includes companies specializing in hotels, construction, chemicals, securities, sugar, etc., all of whom are potential test customers and lab partners.” Here are five (plus one) key greentech plays from Samsung.

Start-to-Finish Wind Projects: Last month the government of Ontario, Canada announced an agreement for Samsung C&T Corp and partner Korea Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) to set up and operate several wind projects throughout the province, for a total capacity of 2,000 megawatts within 20 years (the deal also included 500 megawatts from solar power). According to a release from Samsung, the project — slated for construction in a series of “clusters” — will have generating capacity of at least 2.5 gigawatts by 2016.

Samsung C&T plans to handle multiple steps along the way toward actual construction of these projects. According to the company’s announcement, “Samsung C&T will facilitate all project operations, overseeing the entire process of establishing the wind and solar power cluster, procuring equipment and financing while KEPCO, with its expertise in power generation technology, will be responsible for designing and connecting the transmission and distribution system in operating the plant facilities.”

Samsung has set its sights on a major expansion into the U.S. and EU wind markets in coming years through its Samsung Heavy Industries unit, drawing on decades of work in the shipbuilding industry to produce wind turbine blades and the control systems for wind power generators. By 2015, SHI aims to garner 10 percent of the world market for wind power generators.

Providing Energy Storage for Vehicles & the Grid: Samsung SDI plans to start producing lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles next year through a joint venture with Germany-based Robert Bosch. Dubbed SB LiMotive Co., the joint venture was established in 2008 and originally targeted production for 2010, with Samsung SDI working to translate its experience with lithium-ion battery cells for laptops, phones and power tools over to batteries for automotive applications.

Producing Solar Cells & Gear: Samsung Electronics opened a pilot line for crystalline silicon solar cell production in Giheung, South Korea last fall, according to reports from the Korean Herald, claiming cell conversion rates of between 15 and 20 percent. PV-Tech noted that, “Although details remain thin on the ground, Samsung was said to be mulling over when to begin volume production, while reiterating plans to be a solar cell market leader by the end of 2015.”

Samsung has invested in solar technology beyond the cells themselves. Last month, as Renewable Energy World reported, Samsung America and Aspen Aerogels announced an agreement for Samsung to “market and sell Aspen Aerogels’ thermal insulation products to the concentrated solar thermal industry in the U.S. and Europe.” Samsung’s key contributions in this deal? Name recognition and marketing reach in the hydrocarbon processing and energy industries.

Adopting Bio-based Materials: Samsung joined the growing crowd of phone makers and carriers launching new “green” cell phone brands and services last summer with the debut of its “Reclaim” phone, made available to Sprint customers in August 2009. The phone is made of 80 percent recycled materials, with 40 percent of the outer casing produced with bioplastics from corn (not so green) and lacking most of the toxic chemicals usually found in mobile phones.

Building and Operating Solar Power Plants: Samsung’s next move into greentech could come through a deal with California utility Pacific Gas & Electric. As Todd Woody reports today for Green Inc., the utility has requested approval for “a series of 25-year contracts for 130 megawatts’ worth of photovoltaic power plants to be built,” by a Solar Project Solutions — Samsung America’s joint venture with Edison International subsidiary ENCO Utility Services.

These PG&E projects come on the heels of the agreement with the Ontario government to develop 500 megawatts of solar power generating capacity. Together, the deals amount to a huge new push from Samsung, which to date has built only three megawatts of solar projects. According to a filing from PG&E that Woody highlights in his article, the firm has “acted as the main engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for conventional energy projects” totaling more than 5,200 megawatts.

Plus: Improving Energy Efficiency: Efficiency improvements across Samsung’s lineup of electronic devices could make a small but notable dent in notebook energy needs, not to mention battery life. As Pedro Hernandez wrote over on GigaOM Pro (subscription required) earlier this month, the company’s “new 30-nanometer Green DRAM 2 gigabyte DDR3 modules consume 30 percent less power then the current 50-nanometer variety. It’s enough to cut overall power consumption of a typical notebook PC by 3 percent.” Not earth shattering, but a start.

Related GigaOM Pro reports (subscription required):

Green Materials Matter to Gadget Buyers

A Good, Green Smartphone

Better Battery Life Motivates Mobile Chipmakers