[ausev] Ford Motor Co. and Southern California Edison will team up to test rechargeable hybrid

Mon Jul 9 21:44:01 GMT 2007

Ford Motor Co. and Southern California Edison will team up to test rechargeable
hybrid vehicles and hasten mass production of the new technology.
The California utility, which serves 13 million people in 11 central, coastal
and Southern California counties outside Los Angeles, will get a Ford plug-in
hybrid vehicle by the end of this year and as many as 20 by some time in 2009
to test durability, range and impact on the power grid, said Susan M. Cischke,
Ford senior vice president for sustainability, environment and safety
engineering.
Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally and other company executives were in
California on Monday for the announcement, which Cischke says is a unique
partnership between a power provider and an automaker that should help bring
plug-in hybrids to market more quickly.
Plug-in hybrids generally have batteries that power an electric motor, with an
internal combustion engine for use when the batteries run low. The batteries
can be recharged by plugging them into a standard wall outlet.
Southern California Edison (amex: SCE.PR.B - news - people ) will help Ford by
placing the cars with consumers and collecting data, Cischke said in an
interview with The Associated Press.
"They have the wire-side knowledge about the grid and all the issues there,"
she said. "By partnering with these two industries ... we're hoping that it
does accelerate the commercialization and certainly drive some of the cost
issues down."
Power shortages have been an issue in Southern California Edison's highly
populated service area. The company is under a state mandate to build five
power plants in that would fire up during peak energy use periods. The plants
would help avoid projected energy shortages.
Many automakers have plug-in hybrids that are similar to Ford's experimental
vehicles, but mass production has been held back by costs and battery
technology that limit the vehicles' range. Manufacturers are racing to bring
the technology to market as consumers seek alternatives to traditional engines
and high gasoline prices.
"We see electricity as itself an alternative fuel in support of
transportation," said John Bryson, chairman of Rosemead, Calif.-based Edison
International (nyse: EIX - news - people ), parent company of Southern
California Edison.
Bryson said the collaboration will allow Ford and the utility to better see how
technology that has been tested in the laboratory works in the real world. He
said plug-in hybrids have the potential put the power grid to better use, for
example, by charging vehicles during overnight hours when electricity demand is
lower.
Ford, Cischke said, already is testing two plug-in hybrids in its Dearborn labs
that are based on the Escape small sport utility vehicle, a model that Ford
offers as a gas-electric hybrid.
Cischke said it's still too early to predict when Ford might mass-produce the
cars.
"That's one of the reasons for this program, to gather more data and fully
understand the customer usage part," she said.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is interested in the tests because
plug-in hybrid batteries could reduce the need for additional generators. The
batteries could store electricity generated at off-peak hours and feed it back
to power companies during peak use times, Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff said
Monday.
"If you could have thousands or millions of plug-in hybrids providing these
services instead, you could take generators out of that role," Wellinghoff
said.
It's possible that power companies could pay hybrid owners for the power, he
said.
Ford and Southern California Edison also said the cars could be used to power
homes as well, even storing power from rooftop solar panels.

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