Ford: New Cars Will Interface with Grid

(AP)  Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday its future electric cars will "talk" to power grids across the country, part of an effort to drive interest in alternative energy vehicles.

The nation's second-largest automaker released details of a two-year collaboration with about a dozen utility companies as well as the Department of Energy on the design of a system that allows car owners to control when they charge vehicles and for how long.

Owners can choose to recharge at off-peak times when electricity is cheaper, or when wind, solar or renewable energy is driving the grid, said Nancy Gioia, director of Ford's sustainable mobility technologies division. "What we're doing is developing our capability."

Ford and the utility companies are testing the system and have logged 75,000 miles on a test fleet. The goal is to have a network in place so drivers can recharge their cars at preset times at home, work or elsewhere.

The system aims to develop technical standards so that a car purchased and used in Michigan, can "talk" to an electric grid in New York if the driver moves or travels.

Ford's first battery electric vehicle, the Transit Connect commercial van, will be available next year. A battery electric Ford Focus compact car will go on sale in 2011.

Mark Duvall, head of the Electric Power Research Institute, in Palo Alto, Calif., said that although the nation's current electric grid could handle widespread adoption of electric cars, more things can be done to use energy more efficiently. For example, drivers could recharge a car at 3 a.m. so it doesn't tax the grid and costs less.

Shares of Ford rose 28 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $7.65 in afternoon trading.

[usnjake]

to rf35: "Not [sic] matter what they do, it will still be a Ford."

Still a Ford? ...AND that is a good thing! Ford Motor Company's most recent quality ratings rival those of Toyota and Honda; Ford Motor Company did not ask for a government handout.

Personally, I think FoMoCo has the best looking and engineered cars on the road available to mainstream car buyers today.

[rf35]

Not matter what they do, it will still be a Ford.

[chatmandu7451]

"Cap and Trade" will drive the price of electricity higher than the price of gas.

[Resin-Smoker]

Super capacitors are the way to go.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_double-layer_capacitor

1) They don't wear out. (millions of cycles)
2) Recharge fast (5-10 minutes).
3) Have much much higher energy capacity / density.
4) Are far lighter.
5) Exhibit superior temperature stability.
6) Extremely high efficiency (up to 97-98%)
7) Zero maintenance !!!

Batteries are just the same old "nickle and dime" method that the auto industry has been strangling us with for decades all over again. Only this time we'll have the toxic chemicals that come with all these used batteries to deal with. Why do you think the industry is pushing the Hybrids so hard??? From a maintenance point of view these hybrids are a potential cash cow! Unlike the hybrids, a pure electric vehicle (Electric double-layer capacitor), would have almost nothing to maintain but the wheels, suspension and the brakes.

Resin

[sjc_1]

This is nothing new, it has been called V2G (vehicle to grid) for years. It is the same idea as Net Metering, where you sell renewable power back to the grid. I have my doubts as to the viability of the idea. Every charge/discharge cycle costs battery life and capacity and right now that is a steep curve.

[xlib]

Interfere with the grid! YA THINK!!
My God, does our government, no matter which party, ever think anything through?
And they want to take over our health care.

[CitizenMikeM]

interFACE

[ToolMangler1]

The stats available for electric cars indcate they can go 100 miles before recharging, I have a question, How long do you have to charge one before you can go 'another 100 miles? 2 days to go 200 miles doesn't sound very good to me

[sjc_1]

With a 240 volt line, you can recharge in 4-5 hours. With a quick charge station, you can do it in 10 minutes. They have battery swap stations planned. None of that actually matters because 70% of the drivers go less than 40 miles each day.

[gregbirddizelec]

Fast-charging is also the kind that ruins batteries the most. That's why I slow charge my electric car using solar photovoltaic panels. Every time the car gets parked it gets free electricity from the sun! The batteries last almost twice as long as the fast-charging AC charger I originally used with the grid. And my electric bill went down by $40 per month after switching to the direct solar charging by DC to DC PV panels to DC deep-cycle batts.! This eliminated the need to use an AC inverter to change the DC solar panel current to AC house current.

The ultimate best solution, then, is for all the new, coming EVs to have a DC plug, and for all the charging stations infrastructure, parking lots, business parking lots, mall and shopping lots, to have, perhaps, metered free or for-sale electric charging stations, spaces, and at houses and apartments too, etc., to ensure one's car or truck never "runs out of gas," as it were.

To be more certain you're buying local, ie. "Made in America," and being I think patriotic, just convert an old US made car to electric. This will be less expensive than buying a new electric car, assuming you own the old "clunker." URL to aid in building your own EV (or hire a local auto mechanic to do it): www.ev-america.com

Converting current chitty-chitty-bang-bang internal cumbustion engine monstrosities (they run by blowing themselves up thousands of times each minute) to electric motor driven vehicles, way fewer moving parts to wear out and break, can and will I predict become a major small-business in every town in the US. Let the fat-cats in corporate boardrooms try to export THOSE skilled labor jobs to Communist China!

We know US corporations are good at sending money to terrorist Wahhabi School supporting Saudi Aravbia, but methinks the American people will eventually wise up, in acting to save both the earth and their own economic well-being.

[mjvwsr]

Hope they sell millions of these. Demand/price of gas will go down and I'll drive my 1992 BMW for another 20 years.

[kueiW]

Another american moron driving a foreign car. Thanks for supporting our economy.

[pw08-2009]

kueiW,

Can you name ONE car that is not only put together, but that has all of it's parts created in the US? Guess what, it doesn't exist...

[pw08-2009]

Excellent, we'll see electricity prices soar!!! Hooray...actually, I'm so glad that we're finally going to get this technology on a larger scale (so we can eventually stick it to the Middle East) but I worry about how and where we'll get the electricity and how much it will eventually cost, because we all know that the power companies will love to dig their hooks in.

Next thing will be home with fuel cells which require hydrogen (I think) and then the price of Hydrogen will go up too....

EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE

[gregbirddizelec]

In California a law now exists which will mandate all new housing to include a voluntary solar photovoltaic rooftop option for the buyers. If the back yard is big enough, about ten @200 watt solar panels("modules" they're called in the industry), would fully charge an average electric sedan.

The Ford Fusion hydrogen EV is already a demonstrated success, and I talked to an MIT student over ten years ago who'd bbuilt his own solar powered hydrogen fuel generating machine!

Actually, making war and killing is not the US's only talent, it's INVENTING THINGS that makes the US exceptional! And even the electric utilities haven't figured a way to stop the earth from rotating on its axis and sending us a bill to allow it to spin. As Ayn Rand might say, atlas and the American people would just shrug, even if jets blanketed the sky in chemical smoke and ooze!