By Greentech Lead America: GE Capital Fleet Services has
opened its Vehicle Innovation Center, a facility that provides businesses,
industry groups and researchers with a first-hand experience with alternative
fuel vehicles and enabling GE technologies. GE Capital Fleet Services will run
the center in collaboration with other GE businesses and GE energy and
transportation experts around the world.
The facility is located on the campus of GE’s fleet
management business headquarters in Eden Prairie. The center features a private
half-mile driving course and a vehicle center that includes alternative fuel
vehicles from 20 automotive manufacturers.
The facility reinforces GE’s commitment to the deployment
of more efficient vehicles in its fleet and in customer fleets. The center will
showcase the latest in a growing array of alternative
fuel vehicles in electric, natural gas, propane, hydrogen and other
formats.
The center  aims to give GE’s commercial
customers the opportunity to learn about and test drive numerous alternative
fuel cars and trucks in a single location with assistance from GE’s fleet,
transportation, energy and advanced technology experts.
“At GE, we are at work, providing solutions to the
world’s toughest challenges. Through our Vehicle Innovation Center, we are
committed to sharing alternative fuel vehicle technologies and solutions with
our customers and helping them put more of these vehicles on the road,” said
Clarence Nunn, president and CEO of GE Capital
Fleet Services.
The center also allows visitors access to a variety of
products and solutions from GE’s ecomagination portfolio, including solutions
for the smart grid, Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations, Compressed Natural
Gas (CNG) in a Box, fuel savings mobile applications, and other advanced energy
and infrastructure technologies.
The center supports GE’s broader ecomagination business
strategy, to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy
technology though innovation and R&D investment.
“We believe that businesses, through their company
fleets, can lead the way in putting drivers across the country and around the
world into cleaner, more productive vehicles. The best way to accelerate
adoption of alternative fuel cars and trucks is to experience them. Once they
get behind the wheel, they can see that these vehicles are real and ready for
action,” said Deb Frodl, chief strategy officer for GE Capital Fleet Services
and global alternative fuel leader for GE. Â
editor@greentechlead.com