Ford Focus BEV to be Featured on the Green Car Challenge

By Jennifer Knightstep

Jennifer Knightstep

Author BIO

I was born in Detroit but raised in California, which explains my love of cars in general, but my fascination with and excitement about electric... More

LATEST ARTICLE
Purdue Presents the evGrandPrix
Is there any better way to encourage innovation than a contest? Offer a prize for inventing or... Read More

• N/ALEADERBOARD RANK
• 127ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED
• 0COMMENTS POSTED

Ford Focus BEV

Enlarge Photo

Jay Leno is a car fanatic. We know this is a fact, like we know Corvettes are cool and it's impossible to kiss your own elbow. So when he got his own show, The Jay Leno Show on NBC, was anyone surprised when he added a segment about cars?

The segment is called the Green Car Challenge, and it debuts next Monday, September 14. The segment will feature celebrity drivers (like the lovely Drew Barrymore) racing a specially-built Ford Focus BEV, giving Ford's battery technology the sort of attention that's usually reserved for the current media darling, the Chevrolet Volt. Ford's BEV team worked with Ford Racing to build the one-of-a-kind Focus for the show, spending more than a month at Ford's Michigan Proving Grounds on the development, build, and on tuning the suspension.  Other racing modifications include a roll bar and a five-point harness.

"Having our Focus battery electric vehicle on the show is a great way to demonstrate how fun to drive these cars really can be," said Lisa Drake, chief engineer, Ford Hybrid and Battery Electric Vehicle Programs.

Ford is thus far the only automaker to participate in the Green Car Challenge, so we're not really sure what the actual "challenge" part of the Challenge will be, but it's certainly worth watching, just to get a peek at the car.

The Focus BEV will be available to U.S. consumers in 2011, without the five-point harness. 

Source: Ford Motor Company