DETROIT
- Ford Motor Co. said yesterday it is
investing $450 million in production facilities where it will build hybrids,
electric vehicles, and electric vehicle batteries.
"It's a major development for our company, our community,
and our country," noted Ford chairman William Clay Ford, addressing reporters
at Ford's NAIAS booth.
The news is significant because it solidifies Ford's recent
announcements about electric vehicles. The company had already invested $550
million in the past year to transform its Michigan assembly plant from a large SUV
factory to a production site where it will build the all-new Ford Focus and the
Focus Electric.
Going forward, Ford said it will bring four hybrids and
electric vehicles to its lineup in the next three years: the Ford Transit
Connect battery electric vehicle (2010); the Ford Focus Electric passenger car
(2011); an unnamed hybrid car based on Ford's C-platform (2012); an unnamed
plug-in hybrid in 2012.
Equally important is Ford's announcement that it will bring
EV battery systems design and development in house. In its facilities, Ford
will design advanced lithium-ion batteries in house and will move production of
the battery packs from Mexico
to Michigan.
Ford says that the new engineering and production efforts will create up to
1,000 new jobs in Michigan.
"We believe battery systems development is going to be a
core competency for Ford in the 21st century," Ford said.
By experimenting with the photovoltaic reaction in solar cells, researchers at MIT have made a breakthrough in energy efficiency that significantly pushes the boundaries of current commercial cells on the market.
In a world that's going green, industrial operations have a problem: Their processes involve materials that are potentially toxic, flammable, corrosive, or reactive. If improperly managed, this can precipitate dangerous health and environmental consequences.
With LEDs dropping in price virtually every year, automakers have begun employing them, not only on luxury vehicles, but on entry-level models, as well.
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