Ford won't say who supplies the lithium-ion batteries (fingers crossed they don't blow up or catch fire). But the first of 20 plug-in hybrid Escapes was delivered to Southern California Edison yesterday to begin extensive road testing. The event was timed to coincide with the 23rd annual Electric Vehicle Symposium.
Ford seems to have gotten the formula right even if it augurs the kinds of tradeoffs consumers can expect with plug-in vehicles. The Escape can travel 30 miles on electricity alone. When the battery is depleted, the vehicle operates like any old hybrid. The 30 miles assumes that the battery is full charged, which takes six to eight hours from common household current. It also assumes ideal weather and load conditions and that the driver travels no faster than 45 miles per hour in stop-and-go city traffic. If it meets these conditions, the car can achieve up to 120 miles per gallon, which means fewer trips to the filling station, Ford officials blithely point out.
The 30-mile threshold has a lot of strings attached, though Ford marketeers say that the typical American drives less than this every day. Remaining questions are the cost of the vehicle and the life of the battery. Also, you have to wonder whether automakers have given any thought to how we're going to dispose of millions of toxic batteries if a mass conversion to electric vehicles takes place.
Photo: Ford
Sources: Ford, Automotive News
