Ford has extended its battery-vehicle plan with five battery or hybrid vehicles – cars and light commercials – for Europe by 2013.

The battery-powered Transit Connect Electric van in 2011 will be followed by the Focus Electric in 2012. Three more vehicles, two petrol-electric hybrids and a plug-in hybrid, will be introduced in 2013.

Vice-president for development, Derrick Kuzak, said: “We recognise that one technology doesn’t work for all our customers so our plans include hybrids, plug-in hybrids and A1175 battery vehicles.

“Basing them on our global platforms is central to this strategy, allowing us to build our product line-up in the most affordable way”.

Ford Europe CEO, John Fleming, added: “There is increasing interest among our customers in Europe for battery vehicles so we are introducing them alongside our petrol and diesel models.

“This shows how the One Ford strategy is changing our business. European consumers won’t have to wait very long to choose from a range of alternative-fuel vehicles from Ford.”

Ford’s development team is participating in two European trials to demonstrate the technology in actual driving conditions and generate feedback to help develop the Focus Electric and the Transit Connect Electric for Europe.

In the UK, a consortium of Ford, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and Strathclyde University will run a fleet of Focus battery cars from mid-2010, based on the current Focus and using elements of the technology under development for the new Focus Electric VGP-BPS2C , VGP-BPL2 .

And in Germany Ford will provide an early fleet of next-generation Focus Electric vehicles in late 2011 for the ColognE-mobil project, which will research the effect of electric vehicles on urban air quality, traffic safety and the electricity grid.