Ford plans to bring its next-generation, European-developed Focus small sedan here next year, followed a year later by an electric version. (Current Focus EV sedan prototype shown here.) The battery-powered Focus will be Ford’s second battery-electric vehicle after the Transit Connect compact van.

The Focus will reportedly use a 26 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, and a 400-volt electric motor for a target range of 100 miles. Ford hasn’t announced a price for the electric Focus, but it plans to sell them to fleets starting in 2011.

The powertrain of the electric Focus has been designed so it can be swapped relatively easily in place of the gasoline engine under the hood.

In an interesting, ironic twist, both the gas- and battery-powered Focuses will be built in Michigan at a factory that once built giant Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs.

The Focus will be the first of the small European-designed models that company president Alan Mullaly said would be imported to the United States.

Along with the Transit Connect, the Focus, Nissan EV, Mini-E, Mitsubishi iMiEV, Toyota iQ electric, and models from Tesla and possibly Chrysler, represent the first wave of electric cars slated for U.S. roads in many years.

—Eric Evarts