Just five months after announcing a joint effort to better understand electric automobiles, Ford Motor Company and Southern California Edison (SCE) introduced the first demo version of the all new, Ford Escape Plug-In Hybrid vehicle (PHEV) today.  The plug-in Escape SUV is a research vehicle that uses high voltage, lithium-ion batteries which can be charged using standard 120 volt household current.

When the batteries are fully charged, a process that takes about 7 hours, the electrified Escape is capable of achieving 120 miles per gallon during the first 30 miles of travel.  As a bonus, the PHEV doesn’t need to be recharged to continue its journey. Instead, it automatically and seamlessly transitions to operate as a standard hybrid Escape.

In total, Ford will deliver 20 of these future suvs to the Edison International company, with some of the joint testing between the two industry leaders taking place in normal customer settings.  One goal is to gather data regarding the reliability, durability and safety of this new battery based technology. Following extensive testing and refinements, another major challenge will be to find ways to reduce the cost of advanced lithium ion batteries, currently deamed unfeasible for mass vehicle distribution.

A more detailed press release from Edison International can be found here, and it includes a link to a recent PHEV usability study conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy, which estimated that… if every light duty car and truck in America today used plug-in hybrid technology, 73 percent of them could be plugged in and fueled by excess capacity in the electricity grid without constructing a single new power plant.

Ford Motor Company also issued a full press release here.  120 mpg would certainly trump the Prius, but at what cost and for which generation?