Southern California Edison (SCE) Orders 20 Ford Transit Connect Electric Vans
29 September 2010
Southern California Edison (SCE) has become the newest addition to the Ford Transit Connect Electric LEAD customer program with a 20 unit order. SCE will take delivery of one of the limited supply of Ford Transit Connect Electric vans to be produced in late 2010 and will receive its remaining 19 vans in 2011.
To create the Ford Transit Connect Electric, Azure Dynamics integrates its Force Drive electric powertrain into the Ford Transit Connect and utilizes a lithium-ion battery pack from Johnson Controls-Saft to achieve a range of up to 80 miles on a single charge. The battery is rechargeable using either a 240-volt or standard 120-volt outlet.
SCE’s service territory includes some 430 cities and communities with a total customer base of 4.9 million residential and business accounts. The Ford Transit Connect Electric vans will be deployed in at least 12 California cities and replace gas powered pick-up trucks in SCE’s meter services fleet.
SCE was the first utility to join with Ford Motor Company in a unique partnership aimed at accelerating commercialization of electrified transportation and received the first of the Ford Escape Plug-In Hybrid demonstration fleet vehicles in 2007.
One wonders if SCE is going to use these EVs to field-test the V2G work pioneered by AC Propulsion, or some milder dynamic-charging scheme.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 30 September 2010 at 12:48 AM