Not late, says Ford of the new Focus Electric, just getting a very slow production ramp-up.
While most potential buyers won’t be able to plug in a new Focus Electric until sometime next spring – at the earliest — Ford Motor Co. officials insist that earlier reports of a delay in the battery car program are in err.
Plans for Ford’s first electrified passenger car have always called for a slow roll-out, with only a select number of dealers in California and New York likely to take delivery of the Focus Electric before the end of 2011.
Reports of a delay – which appeared in a number of media outlets, including TheDetroitBureau.com – were triggered by comments made by David Finnegan, Ford’s marketing chief for battery vehicles, on the company website myfocuselectric.com. In it, the executive indicated that the rest of the 19 launch markets won’t see the Focus Electric until next spring. That echoed the wording in a new teaser ad campaign for the battery car.
“Ford remains on schedule to deliver the initial Focus Electrics by the end of the year,” said a statement by the maker which noted that only California and New York will initially receive the vehicle. “We will be rolling out to the remainder of the initial Focus Electric markets starting with production ramp up in spring 2012.”
The battery car will be produced at the assembly plant in the Detroit suburb of Wayne, Michigan that also produces the conventionally powered Ford Focus – and which will also produce both plug-in and conventional hybrid versions of the upcoming Ford C-Max microvan.
Ford’s global marketing chief Jim Farley has described the C-Max – which will only be produced in hybrid form as “our Prius,” as it will be a distinctively styled, battery-only product. Ford is playing catch-up in the emerging electric vehicle market. It launched its first EV, a version of the Transit Connect truck, late last year but that vehicle is geared towards commercial applications.
With the Focus Electric and the two C-Max hybrids – as well as several other battery vehicles to follow – Ford aims to go after not only Toyota but rivals Nissan and General Motors. Nissan launched the all-electric Leaf at the beginning of the year, about the same time as the Chevrolet Volt plug-in debuted.
Production of both those vehicles also began slowly, the makers taking pains to ensure they didn’t run into some unexpected snags working with such new technology. Nissan began ramping up production of the Leaf as summer began, while Volt production is just on the increase following a previously scheduled July shutdown at the GM plant in Detroit.
To underscore the importance of the Focus Electric to Ford, CEO Alan Mulally put in an appearance on the late night talk show hosted by David Letterman, last week, giving Letterman a chance to drive the battery car across the New York-based show’s stage. (For more on Mulally’s late night appearance, Click Here.)
Ford has not yet announced a price for the Focus Electric, which will deliver something under 100 miles range per charge of its lithium-ion battery pack.