Ford’s Electric Car Unit to Move West

Ford Motor Co.’s Think Group electric-vehicle operation will relocate from Michigan to northern San Diego County later this year, becoming the third Ford unit to move to Southern California since 1998, the auto maker said Monday.

Separately Monday, Lincoln Mercury President Mark Hutchins said he would like to move Lincoln’s staff of about 800 product designers and engineers from the Detroit suburb of Dearborn to the division’s new world headquarters in Irvine by 2006.

That would give Lincoln about 1,000 employees in Orange County. Lincoln Mercury officials also are hinting that Ford will move Land Rover’s U.S. headquarters to Irvine if its purchase of the luxury utility vehicle brand from BMW is completed. Land Rover probably would join Lincoln, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Volvo in the Premier Automotive Group.

Irvine also is the North American headquarters of Ford’s Japanese affiliate, Mazda Motor Corp.

Think will market a line of electric bicycles, a low-speed neighborhood “mobility vehicle” and the City car, a commuter vehicle capable of highway speeds.

“Look at what the brand is all about--personal transportation, environmental sensitivity, being different and having some fun--California just leaps to mind,” Think Group Executive Director John Wallace said of the move.

He said the new headquarters in Carlsbad will also oversee fuel cell engineering and research at a facility in nearby Poway operated by Xcellsis, the fuel-cell development company started by Ford, DaimlerChrysler and Ballard Power Systems Inc. of Canada.

Think’s core group of about 25 managers, planners and marketing specialists will make the move by the end of summer. Ultimately, Wallace said, Ford will employ abut 45 at Think Group headquarters and nearly 100 at Xcellsis.