Ford planning new electric, hybrid & plug-in vehicles

Posted on January 14th, 2009 by Robert Adams | Posted under: Electric cars, Ford, Future/Concept

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$Ford\'s Battery Electric Vehicle$ Car-manufacturers act as if they’ve found a magic pill from the world crisis. Everyone is talking about electric hybrids like it is the only choice for humans.

Now Ford joins this hysteria by presenting new electric-vehicle plan. This plan is said to include many developments till 2012, launching first vehicle, which is supposed to be a battery electric commercial van in 2010. The main goal is to make battery-powered vehicles run as long as 100 miles (160 km) from charge to charge without any single drop of fuel.

Ford also schedules a new battery-powered small car for 2011 and says this car will be developed jointly with Magna International, which is one of the top component suppliers in this world. And finally, Ford management wants to see a random of their cars in hybrid versions till 2012 and the choice must include plug-in versions as well.

To convince public in their best aspirations Ford managers remind about their new EcoBoost engines that are to be found in Ford Flex and Lincoln MKS very soon. EcoBoost means nothing else as direct injection combined with turbochargers and there is nothing special about this technology as many European manufacturers already use equal solutions.

Beyond the cooperation with Magna, which itself is a very serious company Ford makes other steps to get united with ambitious enterprises. In example, the Southern California Edison and the Electric Power Research Institute currently work on plug-in hybrids testing new technologies on Ford Escape cars. Another cooperation project involves four parties and they are Ford, chinese Changan Auto Group and the cities Chongqing (China) and Denver (US). This project was started in order to help further energy security and to promote economic and environmental sustainability. Areas of focus could include developing electrified vehicle technologies, green city planning, efficient urban transportation and grid integration. In addition, in the UK, Ford is collaborating with Tanfield, the market leader for electric vehicles, to offer battery-electric versions of the Ford Transit and Transit Connect commercial vehicles for fleet customers in the UK and European markets.

Source: Ford