Aimed at emphasize commercial vehicle application of pure electric powertrains, the colognE-mobil project comes to complete the already running program Ford has for EVs in Europe, the "Ultra-Low Carbon Vehicles" demonstration in the UK.
For the new project, Ford will make available ten Ford Transits fitted with Smith Electric Vehicles (SEV) battery-electric powertrains. In addition, Ford and SEV will build seven Transit panel vans for delivery service companies, two Transit buses for shuttle services and one Transit chassis-cab for the public service department of Cologne. Later in the project, several Ford Focus BEVs will also join the endeavor.
Besides Ford, SEV and the city of Cologne, the University of Duisburg-Essen will also have its say in colognE-mobil, by providing scientific support and knowledge for the project. The University's scientists will use the data collected to create simulations that scale-up the results of the Cologne project to apply to the whole region of North-Rhine Westphalia.
"All partners are looking at the reliability of the batteries, characteristics of charging and discharging cycles for daily-used battery electric vehicles, customer acceptance of BEVs and the charging technology and traffic safety," Ford says in a release.
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