Allan Mulally, Ford’s CEO stated yesterday that Ford is predicting that they will have plug-in hybrids on their showroom floors within 5 to 10 years.
Mulally announced his predictions about plug-in hybrids as Ford and Edison announced a partnership to work together on “real world” testing up to 20 plug-in hybrid vehicles. Under this partnership Ford will provide Southern California Edison with 20 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid SUVs that will be reconfigured to work as plug-ins by 2009.
Edison will conduct the “real world” test by giving the Escapes to 20 consumers who have electric “smart meters” that can monitor the power that is used to charge the SUVs.
Unfortunately this is all dependent on the further development of lithium ion batteries. Toyota has recently announced that they are going to delay the use of the new batteries in their Prius hybrid due to safety concerns. Ford will be contracting the production of the batteries to an unnamed battery company.
Although Mulally predicts that the plug-in hybrids will be in showrooms within the next 5-10 years, he did not give any other details.
Full Story: Reuters
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