Ford to launch electric Focus before end of year

Ford CEO took the wraps off the Focus Electric at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week and didn't say much.

Externally it is the same Ford Focus with minor trim changes to make it look 'electric' and the same is true of the inside which is now littered with 'green' graphics, you know the usual battery level indicator, a butterfly/leaf/etc...

We have a hi-res gallery after the jump



Mulally will only say that the Focus will have better range than the Volt, which is not a really good indictment of its battery power because the Chevy can only travel about 60km on electrons but he did say it is going to be competitive against other entrants, presumably meaning it can hack about 160 kilometres before being completely drained like the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S.

One important highlight is the fact that the Focus electric only takes three hours to fully charge but on the down side, the battery pack is so big it impinges on the load bay.

The big battery probably means that it could go the distance of the Nissan Leaf's range.

Ford was earlier reported to be using the same li-ion battery technology supplied by LG Chem to GM for their Volt and if they want more range than the Chevy they would have to pack in more battery cells and this explains the intrusion into the booth space. Hey the Focus is not a purpose-designed electric car so battery packaging is not going to as optimised as in the Volt or Leaf

GALLERY

Happy Birthday to the electric car era: GM starts shipping Chevy Volt this week

Monday was a historic day for the automotive industry but it went by without so much as a fanfare; the first mass-produced Electric Vehicle with Range Extender car from a major manufacturer, the Chevrolet Volt were loaded up onto carriers and sent out to dealerships.

The  RE-EV was a few years in development and GM discovered many issues and solved them for the Volt's production, the volt features something similar to the skateboard platform concept developed by GM some years ago, in the sense that all the batteries are packed in a compact array in the floor structure, it would take a small step to fit four individual motors to the wheels leaving the range extender engine to find a home in the front end of the chassis.

If no-one else will, I would like to announce the birth of the mass-market electric car.