[GerhardRP]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/au...normal.html?hp

[Ziggythewiz]

Since it's an EV, not a hybrid, it will be primarily up against the the Leaf and i-MiEV. Priced above them both, I expect it will sell just enough to meet its CARB mandate.

[somanywelps]

Test drove it, handles far better than the leaf and I-miev and personally better than the CODA.

It actually had fairly stiff shocks for an eco vehicle.

[dladd]

I was at my local Ford dealer getting a little work done on my van (threw an emissions code, I don't have the time or desire to troubleshoot it right now) and I noticed they had a bunch of Focus EV's!



pretty cool car, couldn't see anything under the hood of course, just a big plastic cover. And 1/2 the trunk is taken up with batteries, just like my car.

I did get to take a quick test drive, about 5 miles including a short run on the freeway. Very impressive, felt faster than my EV, and no shifting needed. Funny though, it's programmed to 'creep' like an ICE auto trans car when stopped.

Handled very well, nice and quiet, and quick. And he said they were selling them at MSRP with no markup which is nice I guess. Still though, at over $40k that's a LOT of money for a car that other than a few decals looks like any other Focus.

[Ziggythewiz]

Originally Posted by dladd

And he said they were selling them at MSRP with no markup which is nice I guess. Still though, at over $40k that's a LOT of money for a car that other than a few decals looks like any other Focus.

MSRP includes the standard markup.

[Bags]

Ford had a test-drive station set up next to my office today ... oddly, with little or no publicity. Take a short test drive, get a $15 Visa gift card! So I did. Nice car. Oodles of gizmos. Not sure exactly why your average driver needs an SD card reader in the car. Selling price is supposed to be $39K, minus $7500 tax credit. Batteries take up most of the trunk space, but the car was designed to be very similar to the ICE Focus, sharing parts, so I guess those two factors are related. Range was projected at 40-odd miles when I left the parking lot with the heater blasting, then jumped up to 55 when we shut the heat off. Mashing the pedal to the floor easily spun the tires on a wet road. Used 450Wh (including that heat and one wheel-spinner) to go 1 mile. Average for the life of the car (8 miles) was 330Wh/mi. If I recall correctly. Batteries are liquid-cooled, but that was not an issue today.

[coulombKid]

Originally Posted by Bags

Ford had a test-drive station set up next to my office today ... oddly, with little or no publicity. Take a short test drive, get a $15 Visa gift card! So I did. Nice car. Oodles of gizmos. Not sure exactly why your average driver needs an SD card reader in the car. Selling price is supposed to be $39K, minus $7500 tax credit. Batteries take up most of the trunk space, but the car was designed to be very similar to the ICE Focus, sharing parts, so I guess those two factors are related. Range was projected at 40-odd miles when I left the parking lot with the heater blasting, then jumped up to 55 when we shut the heat off. Mashing the pedal to the floor easily spun the tires on a wet road. Used 450Wh (including that heat and one wheel-spinner) to go 1 mile. Average for the life of the car (8 miles) was 330Wh/mi. If I recall correctly. Batteries are liquid-cooled, but that was not an issue today.

I test drove one here in Chandler, AZ last week. Ditto all of the above. Supercharged Mustang requiring premium fuel setting next to it had a $35,000 MSRP.

[The Toecutter]

It certainly wasn't designed to be affordable. All of the "premium" features that come standard, such as heated seats, and all of the other gizmos(aforementioned SD card reader) probably account for $5,000+ of the cost in aggregate. The tax break doesn't help, as the automakers merely raise their price more to pad their profit margins. In all, a superior conversion of a new ICE Focus without all of the luxury crap, with all of the ICE components sold to recoup some of the cost, could be done for roughly half of the commercial EV Focus' cost. That being said, at least Ford is finally doing something, even if it is about 15 years later than they could have.

[coulombKid]

Originally Posted by The Toecutter

It certainly wasn't designed to be affordable. All of the "premium" features that come standard, such as heated seats, and all of the other gizmos(aforementioned SD card reader) probably account for $5,000+ of the cost in aggregate. The tax break doesn't help, as the automakers merely raise their price more to pad their profit margins. In all, a superior conversion of a new ICE Focus without all of the luxury crap, with all of the ICE components sold to recoup some of the cost, could be done for roughly half of the commercial EV Focus' cost. That being said, at least Ford is finally doing something, even if it is about 15 years later than they could have.

Even Lee Iacoca said they could do it back in '65 IF they had the batteries.

[The Toecutter]

Originally Posted by coulombKid

Even Lee Iacoca said they could do it back in '65 IF they had the batteries.

Thing is, we've had the batteries for about the last 15 years. The NiMH of the 1990s could give a car with ordinary Aerodynamics and build materials a real-world 100-120 mile range, or 150-200+ miles for a streamliner. According to Robert Stemple, they would have been $150/kWh in volume necessary for 20,000 cars per year. Toyota RAV4 EVs have demonstrated an 8-15 year life, and even UC Davis claimed 1750 cycles to 80% discharge. An oil company eventually gained partial control of the technology and it was shelved. LiFePO4 are even better with regard to cycle life, energy per unit of mass, and power. In medium volume without the huge monstrous volume necessary for tens of thousands of cars a year, they are now selling for about $400/kWh, and hobbyists can actually buy them. For the cost of this Focus EV, you could build a world-record setting EV conversion in your garage. For the price of a Nisan Leaf, and hobbyist with the workspace and tools could put together a conversion with twice the range and performance to match many gasoline sports cars that cost far more. Something is wrong with this picture. The major automakers really no longer have any valid excuses for the lack of cheap, long-range EVs on the market. We need some sub-$20,000, 150+ mile range simple Kia/Hyundai-like cars with good Aerodynamics. There aren't any excuses. Lee Iaccoca was absolutely right, but we've had the batteries for a long time now. It's as if we are living in a reverse Atlas Shrugged kind of world, to make a comment upon that vary Ayn Rand novel that dramatically impacted Iaccoca's views.