Ford have revealed that it will not be leasing the batteries for its new electric version of the Focus.

The company announced this amidst rumours they would be operating a contract hire style program where owners would have to rent the battery from Ford at an extra subscription based cost.

Managing Director of Ford UK Nigel Sharp said:

“We’re waiting to see how the market reacts to other electric cars, but we are sure leasing batteries is not the way to go, the Focus must be sold as a conventional car would be.”

The reason behind Ford’s original proposal to lease the batteries was to lower the initial cost of the vehicle, recent feedback based research has found the a large majority of the public would be put off buying any brand of electric vehicle due to the price.

Ford will be playing their trump card with the release of the electric Focus, the battery takes half the time of the current crop of electric vehicle to recharge and they are also targeting a range of 100 miles off a single charge.

Contract hire is becoming more and more popular especially given the increasing costs of maintaining a car and it’s not hard to understand why Ford had this idea, The Independent newspaper even recently endorsed leasing vehicles urging would be leasers to make use of sites like Leasebam.

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