The Green Car Journal announced that the Ford Focus Electric won the annual Green Car Vision Award at the Washington Auto Show.
This year, Green Car Vision Award finalists included the Ford Focus Electric, Honda Fit EV, Mitsubishi i, Toyota RAV4 Electric, and Volvo C30 DrivE electric. For the first time in the history of this award, all candidates featured electric drive.
The Ford Focus Electric joins previous winners the Nissan Leaf in 2010 and the Chevrolet Volt in 2009.
Green Car Vision Award acknowledges a vehicle that best envisions the road ahead. Finalists must either be in demonstration programs or in their early phases of commercialization for the U.S. market, but not yet on sale.
The Ford Focus Electric, which is based on the automaker’s all-new 2012 Focus model, will be introduced in the U.S. in late 2011. It’s powered by 23 kilowatt lithium-ion batteries and offers a projected 100 mile all-electric driving range. For convenience, it can be charged with a 120-volt household outlet, but for those who need a quicker boost, a 240-volt charger will take three to four hours to fully charge the car and require the installation of a home charging station.