Ford charges up Focus EV for 2013

With major engineering support from Magna, Ford's first battery-electric passenger car promises Leaf-blowing features including half the charge time as that claimed by Nissan using a 240-V SAE J1772 Class 2 charge source.

Ford's Global C1 platform is rapidly turning into one of the industry's most flexible and prolific vehicle architectures. By the middle of next year, the automaker will have doubled its production of C-segment vehicles from the approximately one million units built in 2009. The Focus nameplate will represent the largest chunk of those two million vehicles, its annual production volumes expected to exceed 850,000 units globally, according to IHS Automotive.

Electric-vehicle advocates might hope that even a fraction of Focus's global scale will rub off on the Focus Electric model that's due to enter production next spring at the Wayne, MI, assembly plant. The 2013-model battery-electric, five-door hatchback is among five electrified vehicles the automaker is launching in North America next year and in Europe by 2013.