This morning CEO of Ford Motor Company, Alan Mulally, introduced the Ford Focus Electric.  The vehicle is Ford’s first full production electric vehicle.  The Focus Electric has the same basic shape as the regular gasoline engine version of the vehicle and seats 5.  The car is powered by a liquid cooled lithium ion battery pack with a capacity of 23kilowatt hours.  The battery can be fully charged within 3 hours when charged from a 240 volt source.  The Focus Electric can reach a top speed of 84mph but the speedometer in the demonstration unit went up to 120mph.  An official range of the vehicle on a single charge was not released but Ford hinted that it may be up to 100 miles on a full charge depending on terrain and driving style.  Fully loaded, the Focus Electric has a leather interior, Sony sound system, Microsoft Sync, and a new service from Ford called MyFordMobile.  MyFordMobile will allow users to interface with the vehicle from smartphones running iOS and Android operating systems.  Users can control when the Focus Electric charges to minimize utility costs.  MyFordMobile will be  free for the first five years.  The car also has a strong cloud presence with synchronized navigation bookmarks.  Something not seen in other vehicles before is the addition of driving achievements.  To unlock achievements, drivers must complete certain goals such as braking in an efficient manner or reducing their carbon footprint by one ton.

In order to accommodated electric vehicles on the road, Ford pledged to build 12,000 new charging stations over the next 18 months across the United States.  These new charging stations are said to be compatible with other electric vehicles from other manufacturers.  For the home chargers, Ford announced Best Buy’s Geek Squad service would handle sales and installation of the in home chargers.

No release date was announced.