Electric Ford Focus starts European production

Ford has started to build the electric Ford Focus in Saarlouis, in Germany, alongside the regular Focus, with the Focus EV reaching customers in July.

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The electric Ford Focus is already in production, and on sale, in the USA, and now it’s gone in to production in Germany ahead of arriving with owners in July.

So far, the Focus EV hasn’t been an overwhelming success in the US, with just over 700 sold in the first five months of 2013 but, even though Ford see the EV as a niche product, they’re still hoping to make a dent in sales of the Nissan LEAF in Europe.

The Focus EV comes with an electric motor producing 143bhp and powered by a bank of lithium-ion batteries. Ford say its range from a 2-3 hour charge is around 60 miles and a full charge – which takes 3-4 hours – will yield a range of around 100 miles. Although those range figures are dependent on conditions.

In the States, the Focus EV did start of at around $40k, but the price has dropped. We’re expecting the Focus EV to cost around £30k in the UK – the ICE Focus starts at £14k – which is comparable to the Nissan LEAF.

Barb Samardzich, Ford’s European VP, said:

Focus Electric marks the dawn of an exciting new age of full-electric Ford passenger vehicles in Europe, and demonstrates the success of the One Ford strategy in making this sophisticated vehicle available to our European customers.

If the US experience is anything to go by, sales of the electric Focus will probably be around 20 cars a month in the UK, and perhaps as many as 150 a month across Europe.

Is that enough to make building the Focus EV a profitable exercise for Ford? Not a chance. Will it steal sales from the LEAF? Perhaps, especially in the fleet market.