A Ford executive said that the company is at least five years away from manufacturing big numbers of plug-in electric vehicles for the mass market, Reuters reports, which echoes comments that CEO Alan Mulally said recently. "We're clearly at least five years away from starting what I would call the ramp from very small volumes to substantial volumes," Nancy Gioia, Ford's director of sustainable mobility technologies and hybrid vehicle programs, said in the article.

The report said that Ford is moving a bit more slowly than its rival GM in terms of introducing plug-in technology to the marketplace—GM has said it is on target to launch its Chevy Volt plug-in electric car in 2010.

Gioia said in the article that battery technology for electric cars that can last for 10 years and 150,000 miles in extreme temperatures is still being developed. "If you build your plug-in hybrid and the battery only lasts five years, how much is your vehicle worth? Nothing," Gioia said. "The battery replacement costs will exceed the residual value of the vehicle. We don't think that's an acceptable pathway forward."