Ford Focus EV

[DuncanWatson]

I love my Ford Focus Electric. I am averaging 273 Wh/mile and am not trying to hypermill. I have had to use the defrost most days until April but only for a short period. The voice controls are excellent and allow me to turn off the climate system with a single touch + voice command ("Climate off"). I like not having to look down and right to find the buttons or the right spot on the touch screen.

One of my co-workers got a 2013 leaf for a similar price and he loves it. He has L3 charging on his which is a feature I would like.

[hcsharp]

I love my Ford Focus Electric. I am averaging 273 Wh/mile and am not trying to hypermill. I have had to use the defrost most days until April but only for a short period. The voice controls are excellent and allow me to turn off the climate system with a single touch + voice command ("Climate off"). I like not having to look down and right to find the buttons or the right spot on the touch screen.

One of my co-workers got a 2013 leaf for a similar price and he loves it. He has L3 charging on his which is a feature I would like.

What's your opinion of the trunk/cargo space? When will that big intrusion be a problem?

[DuncanWatson]

What's your opinion of the trunk/cargo space? When will that big intrusion be a problem?

It is obviously not a great thing to have. I am using the car in a 2-person family with 2 small dogs and so it isn't a problem for an errand runner, commuter, dog park car. I couldn't fit golf clubs in the trunk but I don't play golf, golf clubs would fit in the back seat, and the seats do fold down.

With some rearrangement I can fit a road bike in the car (seats down, blanket down), it won't fit any of my odd-ball bikes though but then neither do most station wagons. I could probably fit the raptobike ^(link) but I would have to remove both tires and in the current configuration that is not easy (rohloff on front, drum brake on rear).

I can easily pick up groceries and the trunk box Ford puts in provides nice structure to keep groceries from bouncing around too much. I don't do weekly shopping, and tend instead to get 1-3 days of meals, a habit from living in Munich. The car easily transports the tools and components of my 2 hobbies outside of cycling.

My monthly energy costs so far are averaging $20/month of electricity based on comparisions from last bill. My house heating and cooking is gas.

[vetboy45]

I am considering leasing one of these as well. How much would the car cost at the end of the lease and what was the length of the lease? What kind of real world mileage are you getting? Do you have the 240 volt j1779 charger? If so what kind of miles per hour are you getting when charging?

[Doug_G]

The Ford can draw 30A from a J1772 (as observed in the wild - one dropped by our office). Guessing something like 30 mph...

[TonyWilliams]

The Ford can draw 30A from a J1772 (as observed in the wild - one dropped by our office). Guessing something like 30 mph...

In a LEAF, if it could do 30 amps would be about 22mph (although the highest the LEAF can do is 27.5 amps). Of course, this is based on one voltage (240v) and 65mph consumption rate on level, dry roadways with no wind or heater use (4 miles per kWh / 250 WattHours per mile).

The Rav4 EV Gen II will get 3.4 miles per kWh economy (294 WattHours per mile) on that mythical 65mph drive, therefore public 208 volt charging will likely provide 5.5kW into the battery for 18.7 miles per hour charging. At home (or most RV parks with "50 amp" service) with 240 volts, that will likely be 8.8kW for 28.5 miles per hour charging.

I get 2.7 miles per kWh economy (370 WattHours per mile) around town, therefore 14.8 miles per hour of public charging, and 22.7 miles from home charging.

Miles Gained per Hour Charging
Amps/Volts -- Where ---- City Drive ----- 65mph

16 / 208 ------ Public ----- 7.5 miles ------- 9.5 miles
16 / 240 ------ Home ----- 8.9 miles ------ 11.2 miles
20 / 208 ------ Public ----- 9.4 miles ------- 11.9 miles
20 / 240 ------ Home ---- 11.0 miles ------ 13.9 miles
30 / 208 ------ Public ---- 14.8 miles ----- 18.7 miles
40 / 240 ------ Home ---- 22.7 miles ----- 28.5 miles

[DuncanWatson]

My lease is 3 years and I can walk away. I would have to look up the residual as I don't think it will hold its value and don't plan on keeping it. I don't have the home J1772 charger. I charge with 120V since my commute is small enough that it is never an issue about charging speed. The FFE does charge faster than the <2013 leafs and the 2013 leafs are still slower at charging than the FFE. But the availability of the L3 charging in the Leaf makes it the superior choice in a range constrained environment.

I have been extremely happy with the FFE and its largest limitations are the navigation system which isn't horrible just weaker than what I am used to. The maps also need to be updated and that annoys me. OTOH I love the customization of the various LCDs of which there are three under user control.

*Edit*
Thanks for making this thread a sticky. The FFE was missing its own stuck thread. I continue to be very happy with my Ford Focus EV though I think a lot of it is the EV grin.

[DuncanWatson]

For those with an FFE the next MyTouch version 3.5.1 will have some nice EV specific upgrades in it. Some cars are shipping with 3.5.1 now but existing FFEs will probably need to wait until June for the SW upgrade to be available for them.

Here is the youtube video with the information on the upgrades: MyFord Touch® - Programming your Ford Focus Electric Charge Settings Using the Touchscreen - YouTube

[hcsharp]

Ford announced a month or two ago that the FFE is now available in NH which is just a few miles from me. I went to their on-line dealer locator and they listed at least a dozen dealers in the state that were carrying the FFE. With the new lease offer it looked like a pretty good deal - lease pmts about the same as what most people pay for gas and maintenance.

So I started calling the NH dealers on the list but not one of them had a car. None of them had ever had a FFE on their lot, so it's not like they were sold out. Many of the dealers who, according to Ford's web site, were selling the car, were quite negative about it. The comments ranged from very polite to "We'll never get one of those in here if we have any choice about it. Only if Ford forces us to take it." A couple of dealers said they would special order one but they couldn't guarantee it would be there before the lease deal expired, and they would require a non-refundable deposit. Some of them referred me to dealers in MA that had inventory (2.5 hrs away). Ford and their dealers were such a PITA to deal with that I have finally given up.

[DuncanWatson]

@hcsharp,

That is deeply unfortunate and shows why Elon Musk says "It's not possible to effectively sell a new technology like electric vehicles, for a dealer to do that, without undermining the story behind gasoline cars.". I had no problem at the local Ford dealership but they have a specific salesperson dedicated to EVs who is also their Internet sales point of contact. I had similar problems at the Chevy dealership when talking to them about the Volt locally. It was like a frat in there and everyone was a ICE guy.