Toyota recently delivered more than 150 Toyota Prius plug-ins to communities throughout the United States. An unlikely destination for this next generation Prius was Syracuse, New York. The automaker delivered six silver Prius plug-ins to public and private partners in the central New York community. These partners included the Syracuse Center of Excellence, CuseCar and Syracuse University. Clean Communities of Central New York is using $5 million in Department of Energy grants to support this vehicle demonstration.
Each partner received two Prius plug-ins to utilize over a test period between 12 months and 24 months. Toyota instructed users to rotate drivers every two months to put the Prius plug-in through different driving styles. Clean Communities and Syracuse University will work with Toyota to gather data on vehicle performance over the test period. This data will be posted online by Toyota to ensure transparency throughout the project. CuseCar will invest in 75 EV charging stations to be installed throughout Syracuse by the end of fall. All partners in the Syracuse demonstration will participate in public education projects to generate interest in green vehicles.
The primary reason why Syracuse was selected for a demonstration was the presence of an existing green vehicle partnership. Toyota representatives wanted to work with communities where clean vehicles would be supported in the long term. The Syracuse Center of Excellence promotes clean air and water with the assistance of more than 200 public and private partners. CuseCar is a car-sharing program in Onondaga County that encourages smarter commuting with memberships as low as $18 per month. Syracuse University possesses the academic clout and research facilities to simplify the data collection process.
Clean Communities of Central New York was the catalyst for Syracuse’s selection to the Toyota demonstration project. This coalition of 90 businesses and local governments in Onondaga County has already taken steps toward greener vehicles. The Clean Cities grant used for the Prius plug-in project will also help fund green vehicle use for Tompkins County, Southern Tier News and other partners. Toyota was wise in selecting a community like Syracuse that was already ensconced in green vehicle adoption. A successful demonstration of the Prius plug-in hybrid should generate plenty of interest from Syracuse drivers when the vehicle is released in 2012.
