Our Mission
The economic and environmental costs of energy aren’t just personal issues we must face in the future—they are societal issues we can address now.
We at Green Gears are dedicated to helping businesses, institutions, and individuals do something concrete to cut energy costs, energy consumption, and carbon emissions.
Converting to Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) as part or all of your fleet is a meaningful step toward a future that is both profitable and sustainable for your business, your clients, and all of us.
If you’d like to plug-in to smarter transportation, you’ve come to the right place.
What we’ve done so far
Green Gears was founded in 2007 to push smart transportation technology down to the consumer as efficiently as possible. Currently, our work includes PHEV conversions for individual consumers and fleet managers, as well as the installation of charging technologies so people can charge vehicles at a variety of locations.
Our leadership in this field is no more evident than in this simple statistic—Green Gears has performed 70% of the roughly 1,000 Prius plug-in conversions completed in the United States. In the area of fleet conversions, we’ve teamed with such forward-looking companies and institutions as Google, Pacific Gas & Electric, and numerous city and county agencies across the U.S.
Training and Education
Green Gears also provides PHEV conversion demos and training at tradeshows and other special events. And from college courses to green tech fairs all over the nation, we continue to promote green transportation and green collar job opportunities for the 21st century.
Automotive Digest interviews our co-founder Nick Rothman at a recent conference:
Pat Cadam is owner and co-founder of Green Gears. Pat’s passion for designing and maintaining a more sustainable form of transportation has been his work for the past 25 years. Raised in the heart of Southern California Car Culture, Pat graduated in 1970 from California State Polytechnic University with a Bachelor of Science in Renaissance History and Political Science.
In 1986, Pat opened Pat’s Garage in San Francisco, specializing in Honda, Acura, Toyota, and Subaru maintenance. Pat's Garage quickly became the Bay Area’s leading auto repair facility for Hybrid vehicles, and in 2007 Pat, with Nick Rothman, formed Green Gears to promote the Plug-In Hybrid industry. Green Gears has partnered with Google, PG&E, Gridpoint, Coulomb Technologies, and Idaho National Labs in various projects promoting plug-in technologies.
Pat is a member of the Board of Advisors for the Advanced Transportation Technologies and Energy Initiative at San Francisco Community College. He is also a member of ACORE, the American Council On Renewable Energy, and sits on their Advanced Transportation Committee. He is married with two sons— one of whom currently installs and maintains PHEVs for Green Gears.
Nick Rothman has been involved in the growing alternative transportation since 1995, specializing in vehicle efficiency and advanced battery technology. In 2007, Nick founded Green Gears with Pat Cadam. Nick began with a small electric bicycle retail store in downtown San Francisco called Mr. Electric. Later, he formed Extreme Green Machines, a large electric bicycle and gas scooter retail shop. He was also the service director for Vego Electric Scooters and a technician for San Francisco Toyota specializing in hybrid vehicle repair.
Nick coordinates all installations for Green Gears and provides customer support. The author of several instruction manuals and service procedures concerning all aspects of automotive care for PHEVs, Nick is also the lead tech on PHEV conversions for PG&E, Google, San Francisco City & County, UC Davis, and many others.