Southern California Edison, a Los Angeles utility company, will get a Ford plug-in hybrid vehicle by the end of 2007 in order to test the vehicle for Ford. The Blue Oval is betting on plug-in technology, which it premiered earlier this year in a conference with President George W. Bush, and it’s turning to the utility to serve as a very public test bed.
Ford is betting that plug-in hybrids will be the way of the future and its choice to use California as a test bed is probably more than just a PR move. While Ford’s sales have dwindled in California, the state does provide a good location for plug-in hybrid use. Southern California, known for its brown outs, is building new power plants to cope with past problems, according to The Detroit News.
Ford and Southern California Edison intend to put plug-in hybrids in consumer hands, much like Honda did with its FCX fuel cell vehicles. No word yet on which model Ford will provide.
