TORONTO - Magna International is teaming up with Ford Motor Co. to produce a fully electric car that will get up to 160 kilometres on a single charge, the Canadian auto parts giant announced Sunday.
The news may be welcomed by Canadians still fed up with yo-yoing prices at the pumps, despite the fact current gasoline prices are about half of what they were a year ago.
The small car -- a model of which was demonstrated at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Sunday -- will be on the market in 2011, Magna said.
Based on the Ford Focus platform, the car will run on a zero-emission lithium-ion battery, without using a drop of gasoline.
The car will have an on-board battery charger capable of plugging into a 110- or 220-volt standard outlet and will be able to recharge in six to 12 hours, depending on the voltage of the outlet.
"This vehicle adds an important piece to Ford's product lineup with a zero-emission vehicle that will be both affordable and meets customers' needs," Magna International co-CEO Don Walker said in a statement.
Ted Robertson, executive vice-president of new product development for Magna International in the Americas and who is originally from Oshawa, Ont., said in an interview Sunday that Magna will provide key components.
"We'll be developing the electric traction motor, the gearbox or transmission, the motor controller, the energy storage system. . .the battery charger and then we'll do the software and programming and integrating all of those. . .into the vehicle," Robertson said in an interview from Detroit.
Jobs will be created at Magna because of the project, Robertson said. He wasn't able to say how many or where they would be located.
"We don't know where the production will take place yet. Ford is still working on that," said Robertson.
"This Focus platform is a global platform and it's built in a number of places around the world," he said.
He noted the Magna parts would be built in areas in close proximity to the Ford assembly plant "because it costs quite a bit logistically to ship long distances."
The vehicle-development partnership is good news for the global auto parts supplier, which gets 80 per cent of its North American business from the Detroit Three automakers whose bottom lines have been suffering.
General Motors and Chrysler sought billions of dollars in government loans in Canada and the U.S. to keep operating amid the recession and declining auto sales and all three extended their holiday shutdowns.
Ford announced its strategy for electric vehicles Sunday at the Auto Show, offering a broad description of plans for both hybrid and purely electric-powered vehicles.
Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said the company is working on four high-mileage battery-electric vehicles to be introduced in the coming years.
He said the company's electrification strategy is perfectly aligned with growing interest in the U.S. "in advanced technologies that can help reduce our usage of gasoline."
Gas was selling for between 72 cents and 89 cents a litre in Canada on Sunday -- a far cry from the Canadian average price that topped $1.40 a litre last September, according to the website gasbuddy.com.
The Dearborn-based automaker said it also plans to have a battery-powered commercial van on the market in 2010 and offer plug-in versions of its gas-electric hybrid vehicles in 2012.
To help make electric vehicles appeal to a mass market, Bill Ford said the company is teaming up with utility companies in California, and local governments in Colorado and China to develop projects that can help fuel usage of plug-in, eco-friendly vehicles.
Derrick Kuzak, Ford's group vice president of global product development, said the automaker expects to start out selling 5,000 to 10,000 electric vehicles annually.
Ford also plans to bring its European Fiesta subcompact car to the U.S. next year and is looking to drum up excitement for the vehicle by letting selected people test drive the car this summer and share their experiences on social networking websites.
(With files from The Associated Press)
