Ford is to delay the roll-out of its Focus Electric with most US launch markets now having to wait until spring next year according to thedetroitbureau.com.

The website reported that although Ford is not saying why, the company has decided to slow down the planned roll out of its first battery electric passenger car which was scheduled to go into 19 US markets before the end of this year.

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It added that the company will now roll the car into dealerships in New York and California by the end of 2011 with others having to wait until next spring.

Ford has posted a promo ad for the Focus Electric that noted the new model would be, “coming in spring 2012”, months later than originally expected. The website said this teaser ad confirmed the delay in the roll out.

It noted that both Nissan and Chevrolet chose to slow initial production of their Leaf and Volt models, respectively. Nissan only recently began ramping up Leaf output while Chevy is turning up the line speed at its factory in Detroit with the goal of pushing Volt sales to roughly 16,000 by year’s end.

One reason for the delay could be to avoid any major quality problems when working with new production technologies.  

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AutoBlog.com quoted David Finnegan, Ford’s manager of electrified vehicles, as saying: “For the first few months of production, we will be concentrating on California and New York. Our dealers in those areas will be the first to have their retail orders scheduled and receive the Focus Electric. We will be rolling out to the remainder of our initial markets starting in spring 2012.”