Ford and SunPower Announce Electric Vehicle Charging Station

SunPower Creates Electric Vehicle Charging Station - Image from Wikipedia

Ford Motor and SunPower recently partnered to allow buyers of Ford plug-in electric vehicles to charge their cars using a charging station. These plug-in vehicles include the new Ford Focus Electric, which is slated to be available at the start of 2012.

The partnership formed on Tuesday permits people who purchase the Ford-SunPower “Drive Green for Life” program to get a charging station that features SunPower solar panels that are attached to the roof of each customer’s vehicle. Customers must pay $10,000 for the program, which includes federal rebates.

The SunPower solar panels will generate at least 80 percent of the rated power during its 25-year life expectancy on electric vehicles.

“This is taking solar mainstream,” said Tom Werner, CEO and president of the SunPower facility in Richmond, Calif.

Charging Station to Replace Natural Gas Costs

The Ford-SunPower 2.5-kilowatt-hour solar charging station is rated for 33,000 kilowatt hours each month. All electric vehicles will get a sufficient number of solar panels to accommodate driving about 1,000 miles each month. The amount of energy the panels will produce on customers’ electric vehicles will vary by United States region.

The Ford-SunPower “Drive Green for Life” program essentially allows consumers to pay their electric vehicles’ fuel costs upfront and not have to worry about gas costs over the life of the electric vehicles, as they simply rely on the sun for the electric vehicles’ energy. The solar charging station system basically delivers electricity produced via the sun to a grid during the day and then allows the vehicle to simply use the grid to charge itself at night.

The benefit of this setup is that a customer who purchases the Ford-SunPower charging station should be able to continue using the station for future electric cars developed by all automakers, not just Ford.

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