From May 11th to the 15th, 2009, the U.S. Commercial Service organized a technology mission to California, showcasing the state of the art in the the U.S. electric vehicle and electric vehicle infrastructure sectors.  Participants from Austria and Germany visited start-up companies, research institutes, manufacturer's associations, and lawmakers.

The first stop was Southern California, where the group met with vehicle developers Quantum Technologies and Fisker Automotive, as well as the National Fuel Cell Research Center in Irvine.  The final stop of the first day was at CalStart, a member-driven association for clean transportation, where we heard presentations from Quallion, ISE Corporation, U.S. Hybrid Corporation, and Federal Express.  On the following day, our group was hosted by Southern California Edison's Electric Vehicle Technical Center in Pomona, followed by a meeting with Phoenix Motorcars and Altair Nano in Ontario.  The day ended with a site visit at AC Propulsion in San Dimas.

Our tour continued in the Bay Area, beginning with a roundtable meeting at the Oakland Federal Building.  There we heard presentations from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Plug In America, Electric Motorsport, Patmont Motorworks, and ZAP Motors.  Next, we visited OSISoft, a provider of enterprise infrastructure that specializes in the power sector, in San Leandro, followed by a fascinating trip to the NASA Ames Research Facility, where we met three start-up companies working on next-general transportation solutions: Ridium Renewable Power Company, Kleenspeed Technologies, and SkyTran.  The day closed with an after-hours meeting at Imara, a start-up battery company currently bringing a revolutionary battery technology to the market.  Our second day in the Bay Area began in San Francisco with a roundtable meeting that included the City of San Francisco Mayor's Office, the EPA Region 9, World Energy Labs, Wrightspeed Inc., and Global Energy Innovations.  Our next stop was at Better Place in Palo Alto, followed by a meeting with the Electric Power Research Institute, also in Palo Alto.  Our last meeting of the day was at Tesla Motors in Menlo Park.

The final stop was Northern California, where we visited the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies in Davis, followed by the California Fuel Cell Partnership in West Sacramento.  Our final meetings were with policymaking bodies in Sacramento: the California Energy Commission, the California Environmental Protection Agency, and the California Air Resources Board.

The U.S. Commercial Service offices in Ontario, Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento are still working to gather all the presentations and offer them for download here on this website.  Here is what we have so far: