Ford Launches Electric Focus

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 10, 6:05AM EST · Published Jan 8, 9:11PM EST

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Ford (NYSE: F) announced an all-electric version of its Focus model. The car will be sold in 2012.

Ford will work with Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) to offer a 240-volt home charging station.

Ford said, “The Focus Electric is the first fuel-free, rechargeable passenger car from Ford, and it is one of five new electrified vehicles that Ford will deliver by 2013 in North America and Europe.”

Nissan has begun to offer a competing car–the Leaf.

The problem with the electric car revolution is that there is a great deal of data that says few Americans want electric cars. Gasoline is still inexpensive enough to make electric-powered cars a novelty rather than an alternative.

Electric cars also have limited ranges, usually less than one hundred miles for a round-trip. There is not a set of stations in place to make re-charging practical. Re-charging can also take up to three hours.

The new Ford may be good public relations, but it is not going to be a meaningful addition to the company’s sales.

Douglas A. McIntyre

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.