Ford and power company Southern California Edison are about to announce they will will team up to test rechargeable hybrid vehicles in an effort to speed up mass production of the new technology.

The utility, which serves 13 million people in 11 central, coastal and Southern California counties outside Los Angeles, will get a Ford plug-in hybrid vehicle by the end of this year and as many as 20 by some time in 2009 to test their durability, range and impact on the power grid, said Susan M. Cischke, Ford senior vice-president for sustainability, environment and safety engineering…Southern California Edison will help Ford by placing the cars with consumers and collecting data, Cischke said in an interview with the Associated Press.