Thanks again to some persistent work by one of our forum members, the Ford Focus Electric Forum learned this morning that Ford has pushed back production of the Ford Focus Electric to early March 2012.It all started when the forum member emailed their local Ford Dealership to ask if there were any new details on the Ford Focus Electric. The reply was that Ford has not released the order guide yet for the Ford Focus Electric because “they have officially moved the start date on production to early March 2012”. When asked to confirm if that was all of the initial roll-out areas, the reply came “Our Ford Rep. said that the Focus EV line in general was moved back about a quarter.”

It looks like this means 3 months more waiting before we can drive the Ford Focus Electric.

Nancy Gioia, director of Global Electrification for Ford Motor Company has responded saying “We start delivery of 2012 model year Focus Electrics in 2011. The majority of deliveries will be during the 2012 calendar year starting in the first quarter as production ramps up.”

I don’t want to suggest that Ford will release a couple Ford Focus Electrics in 2011 to keep their word on the 2011 launch dates, but it almost seems that way? We aren’t fully surprised by this though – Nissan went through the same challenges and delays with their electric Leaf last year, and some electric vehicles, like the Aptera, may never make it to production.

We were the site to release information about the first delay of the Ford Focus Electric back in August of this year. Originally Ford had stated there were 19 rollout areas for the Ford Focus Electric in late 2011, which was carefully re-stated in August. Ford went on the record at the time saying the first few months of production will focus on California and New York, with the rest of the rollout areas starting in Spring 2012.