Ford Shifting SUV Plant to Electric Vehicles

[Auggie]

Source: www.environmentalleader.com

May 6th, 2009

Ford is retooling a Michigan SUV plant to produce its more fuel-efficient Ford Focus, including an electric version in 2011.

Ford is spending $550 million to transform the plant into a modern, flexible small car plant, with help from Michigan state incentives. The plant formerly made the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator, two of Ford’s largest SUVs.

The company has promised to introduce four new electric vehicles by 2012.

The electric Ford Focus is being developed with Magna International. It uses a lithium-ion battery pack that can be charged by both 110-volt and 220-volt outlets..

Read more: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/05/06/ford-shifting-suv-plant-to-electric-vehicles/

[skipos]

1. I will probably get the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid

Of the big three, Ford seems to be getting the most into new fuel efficient technology.

[boomerbust]

2. Ford stock price

Up 250% in 8 months.

[sarcasmo]

3. Finally a car I can look forward to buying the electric Ford Focus.

[robinlynne]

4. bout time.

[Tyler Generation]

5. Nice to see Ford has some balls and is thinking forward nt

[Auggie]

7. Kudos to Bill Ford for doing what GM's Rick Wagoner couldn't (or wouldn't)

[amandabeech]

14. Bringing in Mulally looks awfully good now, even though Mulally likes outsourcing

too much for my taste.

This past October, I bought a gently used Ford Taurus with all the bells and whistles from the dealer which had sold it originally.

The salesman told me that Ford was bringing over a couple of small cars from Europe, including a revamped Focus that looked good that looked good in the brochure.

The new Focus in Europe comes in a convertible that looks very, very snappy. I hope that Ford makes the convertible here, too. It might tempt some sporty-minded drivers away from SUVs--well, one can hope.

[MasonJar]

6. Good for Ford. I am driving a rental Ford Focus right now and the mileage is great.

I may buy one when they get the electric one up. Or I might get a peapod from Chrysler. I have not bought a US made car in years, but if they belly up to the bar, I will support their effort.

[Romulox]

8. I believe this is the Wayne Assembly Plant they're talking about.

If so, HOOORAY!

[Sal Minella]

9. They could just as easily have done this twenty years ago but I suppose

twenty years late is better than never.

If they hadn't waited this long, Exxon-Mobil and the BigOilBoys wouldn't have made all their neat-o profits the last few years.

[Gregorian]

10. Really. Think of bettery technology we'd have for the money spent attacking Iraq.

Or even just more research from the car companies themselves.

The country is like an ingrown nail of greed. A Kamikazee run to the banks.

But it IS a positive turn of events.

[Auggie]

11. I don't believe there was feasible battery technology then...

But I know exactly what you mean. I see it as the chase for quarterly profits and huge performance bonuses based on stock prices that kept everything status quo. Why would any executive choose R&D over that? Add in government lobbying plus consumer apathy and too many years of repuke control. That's recipe for a real mess.

[Sal Minella]

15. In the movie, "Who Killed The Electric Car?" there's an interview with an old man

who developed a powerful and lightweight battery, and was delighted when one of the car companies bought the patent from him. Joking, he said he expected someone from the company to bring him champagne, but instead, he was told never to tell anyone about his battery and never tell anyone who had bought the patent from him.

So I daresay there are detailed plans for all sorts of high-performance low-weight batteries locked in the bottom file drawers of corporate tomb storage areas. We'll just never know.

Since finding out that Standard Oil, Firestone Tire and General Motors cooperated in buying and ripping up all the streetcar tracks in dozens of cities (so the cities would have to buy tires and gas for buses), I am very cynical about the power of greed.

The Great American Streetcar Scandal, from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Streetcar_Scandal

I really doubt that the guiding spirit of GM has changed all that much.

[Auggie]

18. Streetcar scandal... I had never heard of that

thanks for the link.

[Romulox]

13. Why didn't Toyota, Honda, Nissan VW, et al. do this twenty years ago?

:shrug:

[Old Coot]

12. I hope this is REALLY what Americans want.

I have always driven fairly small cars. In the 60's we had a Fiat 600, which was a tiny car (it had a 21 horsepower engine). I like small cars. Most Americans prefer large cars, hence the popularity of the SUVs and trucks.

For the good of Ford and their employees, I hope Americans will buy such cars.

I hope the electric version is practical. It needs to have a range of about 300 miles and the capability of being recharged in no more than 30 minutes.

[Blue Gardener]

16. I bought my Focus last summer

I love it! It's been a great car.

[nichomachus]

17. It may be too little too late

The thinking has already advanced beyond this idea and companies that are focusing on ramping up to last year's technology could find themselves producing a very fine Betamax videotape player.

Shai Agassi has a great idea

http://www.betterplace.com/

and it gets around a lot of the current problems of electric cars. A forward-looking auto company would be working closely with Shai.