Ford and Southern California Edison are joining forces to explore ways to accelerate the development and adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).

The two companies today said they want to make them more accessible to consumers, reduce petroleum-related emissions and improve the cost-effectiveness of the nation's electricity grid.

Ford Motor Company and Edison International (NYSE: EIX), the parent company of Southern California Edison (SCE), announced a collaboration to examine the future of PHEVs as part of a complete vehicle, home and grid energy system.

"By combining strengths, ours in hybrid technology, theirs in energy management, we can consider transportation as part of the broader energy system and work to unleash the potential of plug-in technology for consumers," Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford, said of SCE.

A popular vision of plug-in hybrid automotive technology is the potential for owners to charge their vehicles in the evening when the cost to produce electricity is low, and then store and use that energy during peak hours of the day, when electricity costs are high.

The two companies cited the high cost of advanced batteries as inhibiting that vision today. Ford and SCE said they'd explore whether these batteries have other uses that could reduce their cost to consumers, and explore developing a market for the untapped value in used plug-in hybrid electric vehicle batteries at the end of their vehicle life.

Ford and Edison characterize their relationship as a multi-million dollar, multi-year program.

Ford is to provide SCE with a demonstration fleet of 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid SUVs that will be benchmarked for performance characteristics and tested in a variety of scenarios.

A battery company partner, yet to be named, is to modify the vehicles to make them fully PHEV capable.

Additional project funding may be sought from participants such as the Electric Power Research Institute, the U.S. Department of Energy, the California Energy Commission and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.