Ford Focus BEV

You just never know what you'll hear at conferences. You might, for instance, hear Nissan America's director of product planning, Mark Perry, casually mention that the Nissan Leaf electric car now permits Level II 240-Volt charging at 3.3 kilowatts--"and we'll raise that in a year or so." In other...

Ford has been burning the midnight oil for several years now, and its hard work is paying off. The automaker's One Ford philosophy has resulted in a slimmer product lineup, two fewer brands, and a healthy bottom line. Ford also boasts a much spiffier brand image among shoppers these days, thanks in...

There’s something terribly fickle about the bright lights and flashy sets of the TV talk-show genre. But while Jay Leno’s chat show on NBC may have failed to receive positive viewing figures the bright orange 2009 Ford Focus electric prototype used in the show has just found a new home...

Just a few days after unveiling the 2012 Ford Focus Electric at the 2011 Consumer Electrics Show in Las Vegas, Ford has expanded its green fleet for 2012/13 with yet another plug in vehicle: The C-MAX Energi Plug-in Hybrid From the specifications and the way Ford is talking about its new vehicles...

October is the month of electric-car media this year, with major press rollouts and lots of coverage of both the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and the 2011 Nissan Leaf. Next year, several more electric cars arrive on the U.S. market. One is the 2012 Ford Focus Electric, and yesterday, Ford discussed volume...

Ford announced today that it will partner with Texas utility giant Oncor to prepare the northern region of the state for electric vehicles (EVs). The collaboration will range from consumer education to working behind-the-scenes to gather data and prepare the grid for EVs. The automaker announced a...

Many houses, stores, and factories across the U.S. now have arrays of photovoltaic solar cells mounted on their roofs. These days, that's hardly news. But Ford's announcement that it will install half a megawatt of power-generating solar panels at its Wayne, Michigan, assembly plant has a new...

We've been watching it roll closer for years, and now it's all but here: A new era of electric cars. Just three or four months from now, the first highway-capable electric vehicles sold in volume by global automakers will appear in showrooms in California and other regions. By the end of 2011...

Ford was the first U.S. automaker to offer a hybrid, introducing the Ford Escape Hybrid crossover in 2004. It recently expanded its portfolio with the well-received 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. More recently, the company has announced plans for limited numbers of plug-in hybrids, as well as electric...

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. The...

Next month's North American International Auto Show in Detroit promises to be greener than ever before. That's a recognition that more fuel-efficient and smaller cars are a permanent part of the U.S. automotive landscape, but it's also desperation to fill space in a show that's losing exhibitors...