It has been said that over the next ten years, the Ford Company plans to ‘electrify’ a large portion of their fleet. They hope to make anywhere from ten to twenty-five percent of its products (around eight-hundred-thousand to two-million cars, trucks, and SUVs) either hybrid (gas-electric) or full electric by the year 2020. Their first fully electric “Focus” is expected to be released in 2011. 2012 is expected to bring us bigger batteries and travels as far as thirty miles in electric mode.

Plug-ins aren’t that far off, either. Toyota is gearing up for a little hands on review of its plug-in prototypes a little later this year in Japan, Europe, and the US. Toyota plans to release five-hundred Prius plug-ins around January 1st, using their latest lithium-ion batteries rather than their old nickel-metal hydride currently faceted in the existing Prius.

It will mark a 3 year long endeavor by the auto company to get a realistic collection of data on the cars, and how they’ll do out in “the real world”. They want to know more realistically how the batteries will charge, how long they will last, and what kind of mileage we can expect to get. After that, engineers for the company will take the data and use it to make an even better and more widely available version.

Sanyo, in their deal with Peugeot, will be providing nickel-metal hybrid cells for the 2 hybrid car models which the French automakers intend on launching in 2011. According to sources, Sanyo’s batteries will be manufactured at the Sumoto plant (Hyogo Prefecture), and assembled in the Kasai plant according to the specifications. The two companies plan to develop these batteries together.