With the "Green Car Challenge" segment of his soon-to-be-terminated 10 pm show, Jay Leno has been a frequent proponent of electric cars--among them the upcoming electric version of the Ford Focus.
Now that car has a name, as Ford happened to mention during a 2010 Detroit Auto Show press event.
Ford Focus BEV for The Jay Leno Show's Green Car Challenge
Ford Focus EV - the power electronics sit above the electric motor
Ford Focus EV
The company was talking about its decision to bring design and production of advanced battery packs for electric-drive cars "back home" to Michigan, but in the handout, the car was referred to as the Ford Focus Electric.
2013 Ford Focus Electric
No model year was specified, but since the new 2012 Ford Focus--our Best Green Car of the 2010 Detroit Show--will go on sale early next year, we'd be that the Focus Electric model will be dubbed a 2013 model.
A test version of the electric Ford powertrain, installed in a current European Focus model painted bright orange, had a cameo on an early September cameo on the then-new 10 pm Jay Leno Show.
Leno gets dibs, journos get leftovers
Meanwhile, journalists and conference attendees all over the country have made do with driving an earlier Focus EV prototype, installed in a current U.S. Focus--whose basic mechanicals now date back a decade.
Celebrities and cars are a topic of endless fascination, but Leno is a serious car aficionado whose collection of several hundred historic vehicles may well be the broadest and best in the country.
What would Conan drive?
We can't help but wonder whether poor old Conan O'Brien, now that he's going to have some spare time on his hands, should get into the green-car game too.
So tell us your thoughts: What would Conan drive?
