Ford Puts Charge in Electric Vehicle Plans; Partners With Coulomb Technologies to Provide Free Charging Stations to Some of its First Electric Vehicle Owners

DEARBORN, Mich., June 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

• Ford Motor Company is partnering with Coulomb Technologies to provide free in-home ChargePoint® Networked Charging Stations for some of the automaker's first electric vehicle customers under the Ford Blue Oval ChargePoint Program.

• The Ford Blue Oval ChargePoint Program is part of Coulomb Technologies' $37 million ChargePoint America charging station infrastructure project made possible by a grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Transportation Electrification Initiative administered by the Department of Energy.

• Coulomb Technologies will begin installing nearly 5,000 home and public ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations under this program in Austin, Texas, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Fla., Sacramento, Calif., the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, Redmond, Wash., and Washington D.C.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) will partner with Coulomb Technologies to provide nearly 5,000 free in-home charging stations for some of the automaker's first electric vehicle customers.  

Under the Ford Blue Oval ChargePoint Program, residents in nine designated markets could receive a free ChargePoint® Networked Charging Station with the purchase of a Ford Transit Connect Electric vehicle.  The nine markets designated by Coulomb Technologies include Austin, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Sacramento, the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, Redmond, Wash., and Washington D.C.  The installation of ChargePoint charging stations will begin immediately.

The Ford Blue Oval ChargePoint Program is part of Coulomb Technologies' $37 million ChargePoint America charging station infrastructure project made possible by a $15 million grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Transportation Electrification Initiative administered by the Department of Energy.  

"Both the ChargePoint America and Ford Blue Oval ChargePoint Programs help build the necessary infrastructure to make the electric vehicle a more viable option for American consumers," said Sue Cischke, global vice president, Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering, Ford Motor Company.  "Ford's electrification strategy focuses on providing real world value to customers with a range of driving behaviors and conditions.  These programs and charging stations help us deliver an added value to our future electric vehicle owners."

Ford plans to introduce five new electrified vehicles in North America by 2012, providing a range of products to meet a variety of customer needs.  These include:

• A Transit Connect Electric small commercial van debuting later this year
• A Ford Focus Electric passenger car debuting in 2011
• Two next-generation lithium-ion battery hybrid-electric vehicles and a plug-in hybrid by 2012.  

ChargePoint America will offer home and public charging stations to individuals and businesses.  Businesses interested in applying for free public charging stations or consumers exploring an electric vehicle purchase can visit www.chargepointamerica.com for more information.

"ChargePoint America builds upon our established and growing network of charging stations and will in turn encourage consumers to buy electric vehicles," said Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies.  "Our Department of Energy grant was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus bill, to provide jobs for Americans.  Our products are built and installed with American labor.  Every time we ship a ChargePoint charging station, three Americans go to work for a day."

Coulomb's ChargePoint® Network, is open to all plug-in electric vehicle drivers and provides authentication, management and real-time control for the networked electric vehicle charging stations.  The network of electric vehicle charging stations is accessible to all plug-in drivers by making a toll-free call to the 24/7 number on each charging station, or signing up for a ChargePoint Network monthly access plan and obtaining a ChargePass™ smart card. Other future payment options include using any smart (RFID) credit/debit card to authorize a session or using a standard credit or debit card at a remote payment station (RPS) to pay for charging sessions. To locate available charging stations, visit mychargepoint.net and click "Find Stations."

About Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 176,000 employees and about 80 plants worldwide, the company's automotive brands include Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and, until its sale, Volvo. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford's products, please visit www.ford.com.

About Coulomb Technologies, Inc.

Coulomb Technologies is the leader in electric vehicle charging station infrastructure with networked charging stations installed in municipalities and organizations worldwide. Coulomb provides a vehicle-charging infrastructure, with an open system driver network: the ChargePoint Network (www.mychargepoint.net) provides multiple web-based portals for Hosts, Fleet managers, Drivers, and Utilities, and ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations ranging in capability from 120 Volt to 240 Volt AC charging and up to 500 Volt DC charging. For more information, follow Coulomb on Twitter at twitter.com/coulombevi.  To request a charging station in your area, visit www.mychargepoint.net/request-station.php.  To download the ChargePoint iPhone App, click here.

SOURCE Ford Motor Company