Comments on: Ford readies mix of all-electric and plug-in hybrids

In its electric-vehicle strategy, Ford is betting on both an all-electric compact sedan about the size of a Focus and a plug-in version of its existing hybrids.

[Perry_Clease]

"Ford expects to price the electric and plug-in hybrid cars with a slight premium, comparable to what consumers pay for hybrids today"

Sell them for slightly less than current hybrids. I understand the need to recoup the R&D cost, but if we want to get off our "addiction" to foreign oil then we need incentives. Either that or extend the $4000 tax credit for high mileage autos purchased this year to include these type of vehicles when they become available.

[xcal78]

"but if we want to get off our "addiction" to foreign oil then we need incentives."

As long as they don't just shift from foreign oil to foreign coal to make the power for the cars. Electric won't be any better for the planet then gas cars but if we can produce all the power required in country we can start to control our own destiny.

[nafhan]

xcal says "As long as they don't just shift from foreign oil to foreign coal to make the power for the cars. Electric won't be any better for the planet then gas cars"

This is actually two issues.
1. Where oil or coal comes from makes almost no difference to how good it is for the planet. To get off fossil fuels anytime soon, we need more nuclear power.
2. Foreign coal isn't an issue, as the US has the worlds largest coal reserves.

[bimmin]

We could also extend our gas-guzzler tax. Maybe include it on all vehicles, and make it especially high for the real gas guzzlers.

[JimBob88--2008]

Sadly I agree with Perry.

Sadly because the death of thousands, billions squandered and civil rights abridged is not enough of an incentive. A few thousand bucks might do the trick.

I look in the mirror as I write this. (That's metaphorically because I'm not a touch typist)

[mike_ekim]

So, the 'gas guzzler tax' will turn into the 'electricity guzzler tax'. Case in point: that's not a compact car in the picture, it's a small SUV. Lol the Governator drives around in his hybrid Hummer, he'd be better to use a small car with a conventional power train.

[NocturnalCT]

I think what may be needed with all electric cars initially is a type of road-side assistance plan that provides a number you can call when you're out of electrons. The towtruck would take you to the nearest recharging station (could be home). Once you get comfortable with the system I'm pretty sure a 100 mi range is workable but it would take some of the anxiety away if you know you'll never truly be stranded. This type of plan is standard on many luxury vehicles, it should probably be standard on all electric cars, even cheap ones. And I do hope they produce a few no-frills small electric cars for puttering around town. The Teslas are nice but many more people would consider adding a $15K electric car to their existing 'fleet' than there are who would replace their beemer with a $50K electric sedan. At least that's what I suspect :) Your opinion may vary.

[Perry_Clease]

I can envision a system where a tow truck or a service station would swap a dead for a charged battery. You would need a hydraulic arm to move the beast of a battery and standard sized batteries. What I want is an iCar with user replaceable batteries, an FM tuner, physical keyboard, and Flash enabled.

Anyway with a hybrid you can drain the battery, but the internal combustion engine would take over.

As to 100 mile range. Most daily to/from commutes are less than that. And most people rarely drive away their comfort zone around town. If you need long distance you choose another vehicle.

[ski2moro]

I have some questions.

1. How many watts does this use to charge? How much will my home electricity bill go up?
2. For the people in the north/snow country - Will this car have the low friction tires that are completely useless in snow country for 4-5 months per year?
3. Will this hybrid or total electric car have functional air conditioning? How does use of heat or air conditioning affect the 100 mile per charge limit?

[texaslabrat]

1. Well, taking the Chevy Volt as a yardstick...it takes roughly 8kwh to go 40 miles. So 100 miles would need roughly 20kwh. Add in charging losses and call it 25kwh of actual billed power to "fill" up the car from "empty" for a 100 mile range...at $0.15 per kwh that's $3.75.

2. Very good question. I'd have to say that the standard tires on these vehicles probably fall in that category..though I wouldn't imagine it would be any more difficult to swap them out than with any other car if traction's a concern. You'd definitely lose some mileage though...so you'd want to swap them back to the low-rolling-resistance ones in summer. Total conjecture on my part, of course

3. As far as I know, all "modern" electric/hybrid vehicles being announced/showcased have fully-functional heaters/AC's. And yeah...the use of those things would decrease the range...but it's not clear if the 100 mile range (or any other ranges announced by other manufacturers) is figured with them on or not. I'm pretty sure for normal vehicles, the EPA ratings have to be done with the AC on (if equipped), so hopefully the electric ranges being thrown around are likewise calculated with the environmental controls activate. A very good question though...hopefully someone has some concrete answers.

[fuzbears]

The problem with all electrics is they require you to have another car... You can't even make a city 50 miles away because you can't refuel at the remote city. Even if you only have to do this once every few month, it means you have to have another car, or rent a car, which eats away at your savings..
If you fly instead of drive because of this, then you just spewed more into the atmosphere than any conventional car ever would..

[Perry_Clease]

"You can't even make a city 50 miles away because you can't refuel at the remote city. "

Most cities now have electric power. Unless, of course, terrorists "bring down the grid."

[texaslabrat]

true, but until public charging stations become common...fuzbear's concern is definitely legitmate shortish-range all-electric vehicles. Yes, they have electricity at the big shopping mall in the big city 50 miles away...but where do you plug in your car after you find a parking space? I doubt most places of business would be too keen on your running an extension cord to free-load off their power, so a parking-meter-type of charging station is going to have to be implemented and widely installed at some point. That said...it's all a game of numbers...if you sell a million electric cars, *somebody's* gonna figure out a way to make money off of charging them in public..thus charging stations will start popping up. Right now, it's a chicken-or-the-egg kind of thing.

IMHO a 200 mile electric car is probably more of a legitimate target until charging stations become common AND the charge times become reasonable. Either that, or the Chevy Volt approach of putting a range-extending engine onboard.

[maverick_nick]

I keep on hearing about amazing battery technology, and break-throughs being made in the field, but I never see any products. Are the oil companies making them disappear?

Maybe we're going about this the wrong way. Instead of just looking for alternative energy sources for current vehicles, we should look for alternative vehicles. If we had decent transit systems connecting every town, then all we'd need cars for is the last mile. The driving limit issue is eliminated.

Perhaps the government should spend more money on bullet train infrastructure than bailing out some of these guys. That's something that would not only create a lot of jobs, but also help save the planet while we're at it.

Since most of these things would probably never happen, all I can hope for is that battery technology improves rapidly over the next few years. Frankly, I'd be happy to see less cars on the road, because I'm sick and tired of sitting in traffic for hours everyday.

[gripperdon]

AC is the killer, EPA is NOT run with the AC on. It cost me 20% reduction on mu Altima Hybrid. I want AC included in the Data the test should be run on 90F or greater Days.