Ford, SunPower to Offer Solar Option on Electric Cars
Ford Motor Co. will offer those who buy the new Focus Electric car a way to power the vehicle on sunshine when they begin selling them late this year. Ford announced a partnership Wednesday with San Jose-based SunPower Corp., of which High Noon Solar is Western Colorado's dealer, to offer to sell rooftop solar-power arrays to people who buy the electric car. These solar systems will offset the electricity used to power the vehicles. As the SunPower dealer for Western Colorado, High Noon Solar will be helping to facilitate the transition to clean vehicles.
The new Ford Focus electric to be released later this year.
"Almost half the electric-car buyers are likely to go solar. And Ford expects 15 percent of its cars to be electrified by 2020. Those numbers get quite large. The deal could take a while to be significant, but it eventually could be really significant." says SunPower CEO and president, Tom Warner in an interview with the Arizona Republic.
The solar arrays that SunPower will sell to Ford buyers are smaller than the average rooftop arrays sold in most standard residential installs. They are designed to offset about 3,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, which is what it will take to drive a Focus about 12,000 miles, according to the companies. Many people investing in solar to charge their electric vehicles will also opt for larger solar system sizes to help power most, if not all, of the regular electric demands in their home.
The solar arrays will generate electricity during the day, either powering their other home appliances or being sent to the power grid for credit from the utilities. In that case, the electricity would not directly power the cars, just offset what the cars use at night when recharging. The overall implication of the solar system is that the cost to drive the electric Ford Focus is $0 per year as no gasoline is purchased to drive it and the electric bill at the home where the car is charged is not impacted.
Ford has not released the price of the Focus Electric. The company is targeting range at about 100 miles per charge, said Dan Pierce, Ford's electric-vehicle communications manager.
Watch a video on CNN about SunPower solar for the electric Ford Focus here.
As the SunPower dealer for Western Colorado, High Noon Solar will be teaming up in this partnership to install the systems needed to power new electric Fords for Colorado drivers.
