Originally published October 16 2005
Ford Motor Co. plans to speed up hybrid vehicle production
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Desperate to avoid being left behind in the gasoline/hybrid electric industry, Ford announced ambitious plans to speed up its production of hybrid vehicles Thursday, and The Canton Repository reports that the company's intention is to build 250,000 hybrids a year by 2010; a 1000 percent increase in production.
The No. 2 U.S. auto maker intends to offer hybrid systems on half its models, Ford Chairman William Clay Ford Jr.
If demand warrants, he said, Ford will build up to 250,000 gas-electric hybrids a year by 2010 _ a tenfold increase from its current production.
The popularity of hybrid vehicles, which use less fuel and increase efficiency by combining a small gasoline engine with a battery-run electric motor, has risen in recent years amid consumer concern about rising fuel prices and pollution.
Some auto analysts expect that to continue with gas prices in the U.S. now averaging about $2.80 a gallon and threatening to go higher in the event of a supply crunch.
Toyota has aggressively promoted its Prius compact to become the world's No. 1 seller of hybrids, at a time when U.S. auto makers have continued leaning on sport-utility vehicles.
Ford's challenge mirrors that in a number of other industries in which Japanese manufacturers have opened up a big lead on their U.S. rivals in the use of alternative energies.
Sharp's biggest U.S. markets include New Jersey and California, which have incentive programs for alternative-fuel sources.
Federal Express Corp. last month turned the switch on an Oakland, Calif., processing hub that has 5,700 solar panels covering a facility of 81,000 square feet, supplying 25 percent to 30 percent of the facility's electricity.
For now, the market for fuel-efficient technologies, while growing, remains small.
Toyota's rivals claim its hybrid vehicles don't deliver the fuel economy they promise, especially on the highway, where the electric drive typically isn't running or doing much to power the car.
Still, Toyota has a multiyear head start in building a network of hybrid-technology suppliers and in designing vehicles to run with hybrid systems.
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