Ford Motor Company is set to receive a $10 million grant from the United States Department of Energy to be spent on plug-in hybrid research and development. The government is funding half of Ford’s three-year plug-in development and demonstration program that currently has 20 plug-in hybrid vehicles on test.
According to the automaker, the three-year program is designed to demonstrate plug-in hybrids to consumers, as well as serve as a developmental test-bed for the untested technology. Ford has been working on a fleet of plug-ins with Southern California Edison, the Electric Power Research Institute, Johnson Controls-Saft and Michigan’s DTE Energy.
Ford is currently using the Edge and Escape SUVs as test-beds for plug-in hybrids. More details of the government’s grant are expected to be released tomorrow when an official announcement is made.