Minneapolis and Ford want 66 electric, plug-in hybrid cars locally by 2010

Hey look, a plug-in vehicle partnership without Nissan-Renault. No, seriously. This time, the location is the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where local governments want to work with Ford to get 66 electric and hybrid vehicles on the road by sometime in 2010. Other partners include Xcel Energy and local nonprofits. The local government are offering to build a charging network, with charging stations in public areas and at destination locations like the Twins ballpark, for and with Xcel. Money for the project would come from Ford through money given by the federal government in its stimulus package. The government will announce the awardess this summer. If approved, the 66 vehicles would mostly be all-electric Ford Transit Connect vans with some Ford Escape plug-in hybrids. The all-electric Ford Focus (pictured above) is scheduled to start production in Michigan in 2011.

[Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune]