By Tiernan Ray
General Electric (GE) this morning announced it would make “the largest single electric vehicle commitment,” vowing to purchase 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015 for its fleet, one of the largest in the world, and will also buy them for use by customers who rely on GE’s fleet.
The purchase will include 12,000 General Motors vehicles up front, starting with the “Volt,” the hybrid-electric auto that is rolling off the line this month.
GE billed the move as a way to help its 65,000 global fleet customers “convert and manage their fleets.”
This should help: GE has a lot of “charging stations,” known as the GE “WattStation,” and other things you need if you have a Volt or another electric/hybrid vehicle. GE said things like selling the WattStation, and its energy trading business, stand to gain up to half a billion in revenue from the electric vehicle market in the next few years.
“By electrifying our own fleet, we will accelerate the adoption curve, drive scale, and move electric vehicles from anticipation to action,” said GE CEO Jeff Immelt.
General Motors is to go public any day now.
