The top of the parking garage has solar panels that not only power the building, but provide shade for cars packed on the top deck. The entire building was built with green paints and finishes and a low-e glazing system helps maintain the garages temperature a little more efficiently that other parking garages, therefore leaving you with a potentially cooler (or warmer) car after it has sat for eight hours or more. It includes a water treatment run-off system, as well.

One of the bigger points of the building is that it has 14 spaces primarily devoted to electric vehicles. Not only that, but each parking spot includes electrical outlets to juice up the ride while it sits parked. The building has 900 spaces total, so the 14 is less than 2 percent of the overall capacity, but still, a building catering to electric vehicles is a sign of the future, man. [Inhabitat]

Johnson Controls is a supplier of automotive batteries and Saft is a big manufacturer of nickel-cad and lithium-ion batteries, so together they are the perfect couple to produce lithium-ion batteries for electrics and hybrids. Will the creation of this plant increase the production speed or lower costs of electrics and hybrids? Not likely, but at least someone out there is trying to get the ball rolling. [Financial Times via Autopia]