Last week, Ford CEO Alan Mulally went on The Late Show with David Letterman to unveil their new battery-electric vehicle (BEV), the Ford Focus Electric. Today, reports have confirmed that Ford has decided to delay the release of their new, first-ever battery-electric passenger car. The Focus Electric was originally slated to hit 19 markets nationally before the end of 2011, however now Ford will only release them only in the New York and California markets before the end of this year.

Concerning the launch plans for the Ford Electric vehicles, Ford's manager David Finnegan told Autoblog: "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." Ford has several models of the new plug-in BEVs scheduled to launch over the next few years and the Focus Electric was set to be the premier edition released. No official reasons were given for the delay, although Ford ads say they will be delivered to dealerships by spring 2012.

Speculation is that Ford wants to avoid any quality problems that may arise due to the use of new production technologies. This is also the first time the American automaker has employed the use of lithium-ion technology in their vehicles. The Focus Electric is set to rival more established hybrid cars such as Nissan's Leaf and Chevy's Volt. As mentioned earlier, the BEV will launch soon in California and New York and will come to markets nationally in spring of 2012.