Ford had just announced the nineteen cities fortunate enough to be the first acquire the all-electric, zero emissions Focus Electric when it hits the market late next year. (Drumroll please.) Atlanta, Austin and Houston, Texas, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, Tucson, Portland, Raleigh Durham, Richmond, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. will be the cities the rest of us will envy — though we could just drive to one of these places to purchase one (even if it defeats the purpose of reducing our carbon emissions).
Consumer Reports writes, "The markets were chosen by the automakers using a similar set of criteria, which includes the number of charging stations the cities or states are planning to install, penetration of current hybrid buyers, utility company partnerships, commuting patterns, and others"
The Focus Electric, which is just one of four plug-in vehicles to debut in the next few months, can travel 100 miles on a full charge and leaves zero CO2 emissions in its wake. It has a 23 kwh lithium-ion battery and a liquid heating and cooling system which will aid battery life and driving range.
This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2010.
