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Over the course of this year, Mayor David Miller has been testing electric vehicles in his city, Toronto. The name of the project is called The Toronto Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle Project and it is trying to prove that hybrid electric vehicles that are equipped with larger batteries can be charged right from the home on the grid. The good mayor and his team of researchers also want to see if the vehicle can operate in an urban environment while running on a single charge for more than 50 killometers.

The University of Toronto faculty and students will gather the data relevant to the study and estimate whether or not the vehicles have a drop in emissions or if there is an improvement in fuel-mileage.

A side benefit to this idea is to see if the cars could work as back up generators, able to provide vital electricity to homes during a city’s blackout.

Mayor Miller states, ” By boosting the all-electric range of hybrid vehicles, this technology has the potential to help us address one of the largest climate and air quality impacts in the city of Toronto.”

The researchers are using eight Toyota Priuses, one Honda Civic Hybrid and one Ford Escape Hybrid and these vehicles will be driven over the course of this year.

If the project works out, there are plans in place to add anothyer 200 vehicles.

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