Two giant companies, Magna International Inc. and Ford Motor Co. Ltd., teamed up in building a compact electric vehicle.  The two companies have been developing this project for more than a year already.

The battery electric vehicle (BEV) will be powered by batteries as opposed to most current types of electric vehicles.  It will have a on-board battery charger that can be plugged into a 110- or 220-volt standard outlet.  This can be recharged in eight hours, depending on the type of voltage of the outlet used.

The said project is set to launch in 2011 in North America.  The two companies also projects a volume of 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles in the first year of release.  Then depending on government support for consumer incentives and fuel prices, these numbers might climb up.

The battery electric vehicle (BEV) is said tobe a Sedan and has a 160-kilometer range without the use of any gasoline and will not affect its performance.  The Ford Battery Electric Vehicle will operate in similar ways as that of a conventional vehicle.  Though it will have smoother acceleration, zero emission and lesser noise.

Magna International, one of the biggest automotive suppliers, will be the one responsible for the power train and battery modules to the Ford vehicle as well as the critical components of the car.  This would include electric motor, battery system, charger, inverter and the likes. One of the challenges that Magna International would be facing in this profect is in the areas of sourcing and costing.

As the fuel prices continue to increase and more environmental concerns and awareness have been raised, the drive to green cars has been a dominant theme in most car shows today.

Technology has been moving rapidly in the past few years and is still continuing to develop.  Innovators have found a way to solve the problem to the increasing fuel prices and that is the battery electric vehicle.  Not only that they have the answer to the increasing cost of fuels but also to the growing concerns in the environment such as air pollution.

According to some reports, the Ford battery electric vehicle may also come to India but only after it will be successfully launched in 2011 in North America.