Ford is making it easy for employees to make their commute to work entirely on electricity.
For the past eleven months, Ford has broken the record for sales of electric cars. As of August, their sales of electric cars is up 288% from this same period last year, meaning 8,292 vehicles. Putting it into other terms, Ford has saved more than 1.2 million kilograms of CO2, and their customers have logged over 30 million all-electric miles.
Ford is installing charging stations at nearly all of its facilities in the United States and Canada and plans to have this project completed by the end of 2014. The company will be adding charging stations to its product development campuses, company offices as well as manufacturing facilities.
Mike Tinskey, Ford’s global director of Vehicle Electrification and Infrastructure said, “Ford’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond our fuel-efficient vehicles to include our daily workplace. We know that a growing electrified vehicle infrastructure is key to making plug-in vehicles a viable option for more customers. Ford is committed to doing our part to help grow that infrastructure.”
Charge stations will be able to accommodate Ford employees driving the all-electric Focus Electric and also the C-MAX Energi and Fusion Energi, Ford’s two plug-in hybrids. Ford has figured out that it will cost about 50 cents to fully charge one car.
Unlike other electric vehicle charger programs, Ford’s will differ in that it will be keeping track of amount of electricity used, amount of CO2 reduced, and duration of use per car. This will be possible because Ford is networking its charging stations together.
When Ford adds on the charging stations at its facilities, about 200 all told, it will total over 2000 in North America. The United States and Canada have exponentially improved the availability of charging stations in the past few years in the residential and public sectors. Since 2009, the number of stations has gone from 3,000 to more than 20,000.
Ford C-MAX Energi and Fusion Energi drivers generally drive 75% of the time in all-electric mode. It takes about ten days for Ford customers to rack up 1 million miles of driving solely on electricity. Having the ability to charge up ones vehicle at work may make it possible for these drivers to use no gasoline at all in their electric vehicles.