Ford gets $10M federal grant for plug-in hybrids

October 06, 2008 4:10 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ford Motor Co. is receiving a $10 million grant from the U.S. Energy Department to develop plug-in hybrid vehicles.

The funding being announced Tuesday will help the automaker continue to develop its demonstration fleet of 20 plug-in hybrid vehicles. The project costs $20 million, so the government is funding half of the program.

Ford is working on a fleet of Escape plug-in hybrids in a partnership with Southern California Edison, the Electric Power Research Institute, Johnson Controls-Saft, and DTE Energy, Michigan's largest utility.

Ford is working on a three-year project to demonstrate the vehicles and understand how they will interact with utilities around the country, a key step in commercializing cars that can be recharged by plugging into a standard wall outlet.