Ford to launch new line of electric vehicles

January 11, 2009 - 1:02 pm ET

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. today announced a new line of electric vehicles
coming from 2010 through 2012.

Executive Chairman Bill Ford, speaking at the Detroit auto show, said Ford
will roll out a plug-in electric commercial van in 2010. That will be
followed by a plug-in Ford Focus-sized car in 2011 being developed with
supplier and coachbuilder Magna International Inc. Neither will be hybrids,
meaning they won't be mated with an internal-combustion engine.

In 2012, the company intends to deliver the next-generation of hybrids,
including plug-ins. Ford also said it plans to electrify its coming global
mid-sized car platform, or Fusion-sized car.

"Ford is heading in the direction America and our customers want us to go,
which is a green, high-tech and global future," Bill Ford said.

The Ford Fusion Hybrid sedan and its sister, the Mercury Milan Hybrid, go on
sale this spring. They join the Ford Escape Hybrid and Mercury Mariner
Hybrid crossovers.

Ford Motor used a large former concert hall here to tout the fuel efficiency
of its current and future fleet. CEO Alan Mulally arrived in a European
version of the Fiesta subcompact. Bill Ford was driven to the stage in a
Fusion Hybrid. The new Fusion Hybrid gets 41 mpg on the highway, which Ford
boasts as the best fuel economy among mid-sized sedans.

Answering reporters' questions after the presentation, Bill Ford said the
incoming Obama administration could use new federal gas taxes or other
incentives to bolster demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

He said consumers should not be lulled by the recent precipitous fall in
gasoline prices to less than half the $4 a gallon charged this summer.
Prices are sure to resume their climb when the economy picks up, Bill Ford
said.