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Mulally: Ford Will Be Patient with EV Sales

Ford Motor Co. won't be deterred by slow growth in demand for electric vehicles, CEO Alan Mulally tells Fortune magazine's Brainstorm Green conference in California.
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Ford Motor Co. won't be deterred by slow growth in demand for electric vehicles, CEO Alan Mulally tells Fortune magazine's Brainstorm Green conference in California.

Mulally says Ford won't consider its new Focus compact electric car a failure even if it sells fewer than 5,000 units in the model's first full year. The company has not disclosed a sales target for the $32,900 EV.

Mulally contends that Ford considers the Focus EV part of a long-term investment in the technology. He says the EV doesn't need to achieve high volume to cover basic engineering and production costs because it shares a platform and many components with Ford's global compact vehicles.

Mulally discloses that the Focus' lithium-ion battery costs $12,000-$15,000, or $520-$650 per kilowatt-hour. Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates the average price for such batteries fell to about $690/kWh in the first quarter of this year.

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