Ford’s about to get a leg up in the electric car industry – it’s planning to program its electric and plug-in hybrid cars to charge only during off-peak hours, when electricity rates are at their cheapest. This is usually at night, and when most electric cars of the future will only charge when people are in bed, only very few (if any) additional power plants will have to be constructed. Brilliant.
But it doesn’t stop there – Ford vehicles will also let users set them so as to charge only when the energy comes from renewable sources, such as wind and solar. This is naturally a great step in turning your car carbon-neutral – that is, if you don’t already get your energy from 100% renewable sources.
Ford’s test fleet of plug-in hybrids (21 modified Escapes) have already logged a total of 75,000 miles over the past two years, and will soon come equipped with these new systems. Ford is confident that charging your vehicle away from home – whether on the road or at the shopping mall – will be as simple as plugging in and swiping a credit card.
[Source]
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }