Ford Announces Battery Supplier For 2012 Focus Electric

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Ford Announces Battery Supplier For 2012 Focus Electric

Antony Ingram

2,126 views Jul 16, 2010

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Ford doesn't get nearly as many headlines for its upcoming 2012 Focus Electric sedan as other makers may, but the car is still on track to join the 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevrolet Volt a year or so after those two electric cars launch.

Production has now moved one step closer, as Ford Motor Co. has picked the company that'll be supplying the batteries for the Focus Electric. The contract goes to Compact Power Inc. of Troy, Michigan, a division of South Korea's LG Chem Ltd.

Compact Power will begin production of the battery packs next year. The lithium-ion cells are being provided by LG Chem and the packs themselves will be produced in a new $300 million plant in Holland, Michigan.

Yesterday, President Barack Obama visited the Holland plant as part of his administration's push towards electric vehicle development.

Despite less press compared to the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt, the Focus Electric is still due to be an important model when it arrives on the market. As a major competitor to Nissan and Chevy, the car heads Ford's charge to bring five new EVs to the market.

Our editor John Voelcker drove a prototype of the Focus EV back in April last year, and proclaimed it to feel almost production ready even at such an early stage of development.

Production of the gasoline version of the 2012 Ford Focus will begin next year, with the electric version following soon afterwards.

[Wall Street Journal]

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Comments (6)

ev enthusiast Posted: 7/16/2010 8:25am PDT

any link that talks about the 5 models ? good to see another big company getting active.
while it may be sooner than 10 years, i cant see anyone being willing to buy a NEW GAS CAR 10 years from the first release of the evs.
by then, we will no doubt have quite a few improvements to the evs, but most notably increases in range.
every time the range increases, it will bring in a whole new supply of people who want to buy.

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Bryan Posted: 7/17/2010 4:46pm PDT

Yeah, I am one who has a '08 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS with an automatic CVT tranny and 2.0L I4 motor producing 152 hp and 148 lbs. of ft. torque. I get about 31 mpg on the highway and in the city. I keep all the maintenace done regularly, keep all my receipts and love the car's ride and body design, 650-watt Rockford Fosgate stereo, foglights, leather-wrapped steering wheel and gearknob, sunroof, wraparound bodykit and it's black interior. My wife and I bought an every 6 month body polish and protectant service at purchase time, while we were deciding to pay to get the alarm system activated. It is an absolutely beautiful car, I love it so much. The more time goes along and carmakers keep working on introducing viable all-electric cars with longer ranges the more I think I may wait to trade in for another 4 or 5 years, or, just keep my Lancer GTS and buy separately an all-electric in 5 years.

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Bryan Posted: 7/17/2010 4:48pm PDT

Mitsubishi is developing an EVO 11 Hybrid and a Lancer GTS Hybrid for 2013. I may wait another couple years beyond that, though, to join the hybrid or EV game. Give them a bit a time to perfect and further hone the processes. You know there'll be some bugs to building fancier hybrids and all-electrics. The group that can build one of those that stays fully put together and gives great automotive economy will be given a very strong boost over the others. Mitsu's i-MiEV should be very solid but I'm not so sure Chevy's Volt will be rock-solid in the long term. I really wish they would do it right from the start, I sort of like the Volt's engineering plan. Just need to read of other owner's long-term success before even getting close to pulling the trigger on a Volt. I would only buy new when getting a hybrid or all-electric. I only get new ICE cars or SUV's anyway, but with this new technology I'd wany a rock-solid Warranty all the more. And Mitsubishi carries a 10 year and 100,000 mile Warrenty on all of their ICE vehicles. Should be the same with hybrids or all-electrics, but until reading that they are going to similarly back them you don't really know for sure. I do like that Red paint they're putting on the Volt. Looks great. My Lancer GTS is Rally Red so I'm partial to that color on cars.

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Roy H Posted: 7/18/2010 9:43am PDT

I agree. Predictions of only 20% new cars sold in 2020 being EVs is poppycock, more like 80%. When range is over 400 miles and cost is lower, nobody will choose to buy an ICE.

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James Posted: 7/19/2010 8:59am PDT

Thanks for the Focus update and yes this will be an important launch next year! I believe Ford is planning on building 10,000 units in 2011 and hopefully they will announce pricing shortly.
I think the Focus will compete against each other for the early adopters but not long terms. The Volt will compete with other plug in hybrids like the Plug in Prius, the Plug in Fusion and the plug in BYD FDM3. The Fusion BEV will compete with the LEAF, the MEIV and the BYD E6.

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Ford Car Reviews Posted: 8/13/2010 4:44am PDT

cool car, we are waiting to see to run on US road, i had read more about this car. m sure this will be change the vision of car industry. i think relica forgot about the topic & started his marketing, LOL...

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