Ford Motor Co. and Southern California Edison are teaming up in an attempt to bring plug-in hybrid vehicles to market more quickly. The plug-in hybrid is primarily run on electricity but switches to internal combustion engine when the batteries run low. They are known as plug-in hybrids because the batteries that drive the electric motor is recharged by plugging into a standard wall jack. Mass production of the vehicles, which many manufacturers are prototyping, has been held back by cost and battery technology. The purpose of this partnership, in which the electric utility will get one vehicle by the end of this year and as many as 20 by 2009, is to test the vehicles durability and impact on the power grid. The Globe and Mail has the story here.
