The plug-in hybrid cars that could help meet California’s global warming goals aren’t yet available in dealers’ showrooms. But the big automakers aren’t ignoring them, either. Ford Motor Co. announced Thursday that it will test a prototype plug-in SUV with the help of a Palo Alto research group.
The prototype is a tricked-out version of the company’s Escape hybrid SUV and can get up to 120 miles per gallon in city driving. Like other plug-ins, it has a gasoline motor but relies mostly on electricity from a battery that can be recharged daily at home reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
Some of the plug-in Escapes already are being tested in Los Angeles by the Southern California Edison electric utility. Now the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto will join the study, expanding it to include a test site in New York or New Jersey.
The institute, which conducts research for utilities, will explore some of the technical issues that plug-ins raise. When would drivers want to recharge them – at night, during the day, or both? By soaking up surplus electrical capacity at night, could the plug-ins make utilities operate more efficiently? Should the car batteries double as power storage devices, feeding electricity back into the home?
“We’re looking at the best possible way to integrate these vehicles into the grid,” said Mark Duvall, the institute’s program manager for electric transportation. “To do that, we need to study how people use them, how they recharge them.”
The study will run for three years, using 20 plug-in Escapes. But Ford has not yet set a timetable for selling plug-in SUVs. A Ford spokeswoman said Thursday that the cost of making the plug-ins is still too high for the mass market, and the company has not fully tested their durability and safety.
“We are obviously serious about advancing the commercialization of plug-in hybrid technology, as evidenced by our partnerships with EPRI and SCE, but we’re not prepared at this time to discuss any future production plans,” said Jennifer Moore, corporate news manager for Ford.
Read it here: Automakers begin to move on plug-in cars