Ford Motor Co. is expanding its network of dealerships that can sell
plug-in electric or
plug-in hybrid vehicles across the United States,
expecting to have 900 dealers certified to sell the cars sometime this
spring.
Ford, which came to the plug-in market a bit after Nissan Motor Co.
and General Motors Co., is now jumping in with both feet. By spring,
Ford will sell the Focus EV, the C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid and the
Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid. Ford’s strategy is to offer plug-in
vehicles as variants of existing vehicles so that it isn’t under
pressure to hit volume goals in order to keep manufacturing humming
along.
Still, without dealerships that can sell them, sales will be pretty miniscule, and that has been borne out to date.
Ford has sold nearly 700 fully-electric Focuses since they went on
sale last summer. Ford has sold about 2,700 C-Max plug-in hybrids, which
use a battery to travel about 20 miles before a gasoline engine kicks
in to drive the motors. The Fusion Energi, using a similar powertrain to
the C-Max, isn’t on sale for a few more weeks.
The relatively high price tag of the Focus EV – almost $40,000 –
makes the car far more expensive than Nissan Motor Co.’s Leaf. Ford has
been putting incentives of the Focus EV to try to boost sales, but it
faces a daunting task because its chief rival, the Nissan Motor Co. Leaf
electric vehicle, just cut its entry level price by around $6,000.
Nissan has been on the market longer and now sells its EV across the
country. It started manufacturing the Leaf in Tennessee late last year
will begin selling the 2013 base model at under $30,000, about a $6,000
discount off of the 2012 model that was built in Japan and exported to
the U.S. With a $7,500 U.S. tax credit, the Leaf can now be purchased
for around $22,000, putting it in the realm of affordability for the
average person.
Nissan, which failed to hit the halfway point of its 20,000 Leaf
sales goal last year, might see a significant sales jump after the price
reduction.
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