Ford, Magna partner to produce battery electric vehicles
Published:15-January-2009
By Datamonitor staff writer
A BEV passenger car developed jointly with Magna to be sold to customers by 2011 is one piece of Ford's strategy
Ford Motor has entered into a vehicle development partnership with auto parts supplier Magna International to produce new battery electric vehicles that do not use fuel. The company has announced a new collaboration with Magna International to bring a new lithium ion battery-powered small car to market in North America in 2011.
A pure battery electric vehicle (BEV) passenger car developed jointly with Magna to be sold to customers by 2011 is one piece of Ford's strategy to bring BEVs, a plug-in hybrid and hybrid electric vehicles to market by 2012.
Magna will provide the BEV electric traction motor, transmission, motor controller, energy storage system, battery charger and related systems.
Magna will also share in the engineering responsibility to integrate the electric propulsion system and other new systems into the vehicle platform architecture.
Nancy Gioia, director of sustainable mobility technology at Ford, said: "Our strategy absolutely depends on forging alliances with key suppliers whose expertise complements our extensive experience and global production capabilities. Developing these new technologies requires a major investment, so it is especially important to have strong supplier alliances."
Derrick Kuzak, group vice president of global product development at Ford, said: "Next-generation hybrids, plug-in hybrids and pure battery powered vehicles are the logical next steps in our pursuit of greater fuel economy and sustainability."
