"Ford Motor Company has announced plans to invest $135 million into two of its Detroit-area plants, creating what the company calls a "center of excellence" for electric vehicles (EVs). The investment will be divided between the company's transaxle plant in Sterling Heights, MI and its Ypsilanti battery plant. Combined, Ford says, 220 new jobs will be created including 130 at the transaxle plant, 40 at the battery facility and 50 engineers to be split between the two sites.
Ford hopes that the new investments will allow the company to produce the majority of components needed for EVs in-house, thus eliminating the need to source transaxles from Japan and batteries from Mexico. The company plans to introduce five new hybrid or electric vehicles in North America within the next two years. By shifting production of components in-house, Ford will likely reduce costs, alleviate supply issues and have the ability to offer buyers a competitively priced product."
http://green.autoblog.com/2010/05/25/ford-invests-135-million-for-electric-vehicle-development-at-tw/The next-gen Ford Focus is IMO the best-looking electric offered by any major manufacturer (Tesla not included). Car designers nowadays are often brought in on a project-by-project basis, and for the Focus Ford looked to German-based Briton Martin Smith.
Smith honed his design skills as a twenty-something at Porsche in the 70s, and describes his philosphy as follows:
Kinetic design is something we can actually describe. The key elements are confident stance, dynamic lines, expressive form language, taut surfacing, bold graphics and great detailing. Together they convey movement and athleticism, and they telegraph the dynamic capabilities of our cars with that fun-to-drive spirit. It looks like the car is moving when it’s standing still.
http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=31763