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.
07/09, 10:19 AM
posted by:
sik59rt
Ford must be hurting…they are giving them one vehicle?…jk…
07/09, 11:44 AM
posted by:
global_lightning
Ford has already promised a hybrid Focus/Milan. If it were on the market I would have seriously considered it instead of buying yet another Honda…
07/09, 12:06 PM
posted by:
Robert
The hybrid Fusion/Milan is coming next year with Ford’s GenII hybrid system.
07/09, 12:14 PM
posted by:
jackjimturkey
cali has screwed ford (and regular drivers) over with its hybrid carpool lane rules.
07/09, 1:12 PM
posted by:
CTS DRIVER
jack, i hate the slow hybrids in the carpool lane, speed up or get back over. i understand stop and go ttaffic, but during non traffic hours it sucks getting stuck behind someone doing 1mph under the limit.
07/09, 1:24 PM
posted by:
sik59rt
they have hybrid car pool lanes there?
07/09, 4:44 PM
posted by:
jackjimturkey
Hybrids are allowed to use the carpool lane. Essentially, though, only Toyonda hybrids — they pretty much wrote the law so as to exclude only Ford.
07/09, 9:43 PM
posted by:
Rompn4x
CHP is still pulling them over despite those ugly carpool access stickers you have to plaster all over the car. I heard NGV cars were able to have a sticker, so I was thinking of being untruthful and putting a sticker on my truck making it look like a natural gasser and getting a carpool sticker… But the fine is now over a grand if caught so scratch that idea…