Ford Gains a "Global Electrification" Czar
The two titles sound rather similar, but it's definitely a promotion. Nancy Gioia, who was Ford's director of sustainable mobility technology and hybrid vehicle programs for North America, is now in an all-new position as director of global electrification. But she was always internationally focused.
I've both interviewed Gioia and heard her speak, and she's definitely a big-picture gal with an eye on the bottom line. I think she'll make sure that when Ford EVs do arrive--in the U.S., Europe and Asia starting next year--they'll have somewhere dependable to plug in.
Read a BNET Autos interview with Nancy Gioia here.
One of the things Gioia's overseen is Ford's partnership with 11 electric utilities on how the smart grid of the future will interact with electric car charging. She describes automakers and utilities as "two industries tied together through a common fuel to change the industry paradigm."
When I asked her about Ford's plug-in hybrid tests, which have put 21 Escape-based cars into utility fleets in the U.S. and Canada, she said, "One of the key things from our perspective with any vehicle that plugs in is to know what the value proposition is. With the utility program, we're trying to create a learning environment so we can carry plug-in hybrids forward."
Gioia's portfolio will include product planning, supplier partnerships and the aforementioned collaborations with utilities and governments. Ford is a global company, and next year it will introduce a battery-powered version of the British-built Transit Connect commercial van, followed by a plug-in iteration of the Focus, co-developed with Canada's Magna International, and also based on a Europe-sourced "C" platform.
At the recently concluded Frankfurt Motor Show, Ford's European branch showed off versions of the battery Focus, which will take part in the British government's "Ultra-Low Carbon Vehicles" initiative in 2010. The initiative, which will work with 15 prototype EVs in London's Hillingdon section, includes Scottish and Southern Energy and Strathclyde University.
"This fleet of Focus battery electric vehicle prototypes is an important step toward developing a realistic solution and viable market for electric vehicles in the U.K., Europe and North America," said Gioia.
A version of that same car, a British import with Canadian drivetrain, can be seen semi-regularly on the Jay Leno Show, with celebrities (Steve Carell, Drew Barrymore, Rush Limbaugh) behind the wheel. It's hard to tell if viewers realize that the plug-in Focus they see on the screen is something that Ford will actually produce and that they will be able to buy in 2011, but it's definitely getting some press. As one of the few journalists to have driven it on Leno's test track (as well as on Ford's Dearborn tracks), I can testify that it's a very taut, high-performance EV
Ford may well promote the Focus and its other EVs (including a production version of the plug-in hybrid it's now testing) with a social media-based campaign similar to that used by Nissan to get young people interested in its forthcoming Leaf battery car. Ford itself took a similar approach to getting under-30s into its new small Fiesta: It found some camera-friendly young bloggers from among 400 applicants and handed over the keys to 100 cars, with the understanding that they'd post regularly to Facebook, Twitter and Digg.com.
The battery Focus and the Fiesta may look somewhat similar, but they're vastly different on the road. With the plug-in Focus, the key will be convincing drivers of all ages to switch to a relatively expensive small vehicle with an as-yet untested fueling network.