Ford to launch all-new Focus Electric

Ford’s Director of Global Electrification Nancy Gioia said that the auto maker is gearing up to launch the all-new Focus Electric in the U.S. later this year and C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid in 2012. Its target is for electric cars to account for 10-25% of its car sales by 2020, from 1% today. The company does not intend to sell electric cars in China yet, however. Instead, it will bring a demonstration fleet of new-energy vehicles, which will feature the gasoline-electric Ford Fusion Hybrid model. Ford’s vehicle sales in China increased 19% in the first quarter from a year earlier to 140,566 units, and its sales in March rose 20% from a year earlier to 53,440 units, amid sustained demand for passenger and commercial vehicles. Ford said its passenger-car sales in China in the three months ending March 31 totaled 85,123 units, up 11% from a year earlier, and commercial vehicle sales rose 34% to 55,443 units. (April 19,2011)