Hasta La Gadget!

Ford Motor Co. and Canadian-based Magna International are working on an electric vehicle that Ford plans to bring to market in America by 2011, putting it in potential competition with GM’s Chevy Volt due around the same time, according to the Detroit News.

The report said that Magna surprised Ford back in September, following months of talks, by driving up one day in a Ford Focus that Magna had converted to battery power on their own in secret. “It was a phenomenal car,” said Lisa Drake, Ford’s chief engineer for hybrid programs, in the report. “We were highly, highly impressed.”

Fast forward four months: Executive chairman Bill Ford Jr. told the press gathered in Cobo Arena plans to bring a car based on that prototype to market in 2011. Ford has been racing plug-in hybrid versions of the Ford Escape on testing grounds, but is now pursuing this joint venture with Magna in a pure battery-powered vehicle in tandem.

The report said that the production vehicle being developed with Magna will be based on the new global Focus platform, due out in 2010. “The electric version will have no gasoline motor, but will be limited to a range of 100 miles on a single charge—enough, Ford says, because most motorists in America average less than 40 miles a day.”