Ford Announces 19 Launch Markets For 2012 Focus Electric

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Ford Focus EV

Ford's first all-electric passenger vehicle, the 2012 Focus Electric, has just received its list of initial launch markets. Totaling 19 cities in all, the vehicle will roll out across the country with Nissan LEAF-like targets for range and performance.

Ford says the Focus Electric will be shooting for "up to 100 miles of zero C02 emissions, gas free driving on a full charge" of its liquid-cooled lithium battery pack. That's about what we've come to expect of the only other mass-market pure EV announced to date, the Nissan LEAF. But unlike the LEAF, the Focus EV won't be on the market until late 2011.

The first cities to get the vehicle will be: Atlanta, GA; Austin and Houston, TX; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Detroit, MI; Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco, CA; New York, NY; Orlando FL; Phoenix and Tucson, AZ; Portland, OR; Raleigh-Durham, NC; Richmond, VA; Seattle, WA; and Washington D.C.

Those markets, aside from Atlanta, Austin, and Houston, mark the largely East- and West-Coast areas you'd expect for such a green vehicle, though the three Southern markets aren't unexpected, as they're among the most forward-looking cities in terms of transportation outside the rim states. Ford says it chose its launch markets on a range of criteria including existing buying trends, collaboration with utilities and government to help ensure the infrastructure necessary will be in place, and Ford's own outreach programs to help publicize and familiarize the vehicles with consumers.

The 2012 Ford Focus Electric will be built at the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, MI, on the same production line as the regular gas-powered Focus, with a target sale date of "late 2011."

[Ford]