According to Ford's President of the Americas, Mark Fields, plug-in hybrid vehicles need to be a "national priority" and the United States government should be offering assistance for their development. Fields goes on to say that the governments of competing nations are funding the development of the technology needed to introduce PHEVs, especially batteries. As it stands, most hybrid batteries are produced in factories overseas by companies outside the U.S. If this trend continues, Fields suggests that a continued purchase of these batteries would merely be shifting our foreign dependence on oil to a foreign dependence on batteries. For this reason, the Ford executive calls on increased funding from Washington for high-tech batteries as well as tax breaks and incentives in order to give consumers additional reason to purchase the fuel-saving technology. We would think that high gas prices are effectively doing just that, but it is true that the tax breaks for hybrid vehicles may have contributed to some early sales.

Field's speech, which was made at the Plug-In Electric Vehicles 2008: What Role for Washington? conference on July 11, is a pretty interesting read, and you can find the entire thing pasted after the break.

Ford's President of the Americas, Mark Fields, wants the company to build more E85 capable flex-fuel vehicles but he doesn't want to have to deal with state level fuel economy or carbon dioxide regulations. The former should be no surprise as every car and truck so equipped gets a credit of 1.2mpg towards its mileage rating. Fields also wants to see mileage mandates done at a national rather than at the state level. Like other car-makers, Ford's issue is apparently not so much with having to meet whatever mandate is enacted. They just don't want to do the paperwork and testing repeatedly for potentially dozens of states. Fields hasn't said where Ford stands relative to meeting the new CAFE rules but it's a safe bet that new Ford products will probably be coming with wider tracks and longer wheelbases to increase their footprint. As a result they will have a lower mileage standard to meet. Ford's upcoming EcoBoost engines will also be getting flex-fuel capability to help meet the new rules.

[Source: Ward's Auto World]

Is there an echo in here, or is that just the shameless self-promotion I'm hearing?

In my work for AutoblogGreen, I'm dealt a number of press releases every day. These one-sided stories are useful in a lot of ways, so I get what I need from 'em and move on. But with one particular release I saw late last night, I needed to make sure I wasn't living in some sort of mirror.

The release comes courtesy of Ford, and they're trying to make the point that they are giving customers all of the green car choices possible, with E85 and hybrid engines, as well as upcoming long-distance hydrogen fuel cell prototypes and, well, more hydrogen. In the midst of quotes from Mark Fields, Ford president, The Americas and JoAnn Milliken, acting hydrogen program manager for the Department of Energy the release quotes, ahem, me. This caused a very surreal feeling in me. All of a sudden, I was a source in the very releases I sometimes use as sources. Very, very weird.

Anyway, the article that someone in Ford's PR department quoted from is one I recently wrote for the Ford Bold Moves website about hydrogen and Ford's future. You can read it here. Then use it in any announcements to the press that you'd like to make. I'll be able to handle it better the second time around.

[Source: Ford]