Ford named Portland among its top 25 most electric vehicle-ready cities Wednesday, praising the region’s cooperation, utility support and streamlined permitting. In November, Ford officially named Portland one of the launch cities for its all-electric Ford Focus, due out later this year. Other of Ford's EV-ready cities include Seattle, Denver, San Francisco and Sacramento, along with many of the U.S. major metro areas such as New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas. Ford didn’t rank its list by relative readiness, but Mike Tinskey, manager of vehicle electrification and infrastructure, said Portland was near the top of the list.
“Portland is most progressive in its actions and what other cities are doing is replicating what Portland is doing,” Tinskey said.
Ford works closely with Portland General Electric, having signed a formal memorandum of understanding to work on electric vehicle infrastructure last year. Specifically, Tinskey praised Oregon's minor label program, which allows for streamlined and batch permitting of electric vehicle charging stations. "That's a model that other states are looking at," Tinskey said. Other factors highlighted by Ford include the City of Portland’s approval of a comprehensive strategy for electric vehicle adoption and the active participation of PGE on infrastructure for EVs. Tinksey said all-electric Ford Focus cars should start arriving in Portland in December. “We think we’ll sell thousands of them per year,” Tinskey said. How many thousands? He expects the number to be driven in part by the price of gas. Tinskey explained that the electric Focus will be built on the same assembly line as the gas-powered Focus, giving Ford the flexibility to ramp production of each model up or down depending on the market. Source