Ford Focus Electric

I test drove the Ford Focus Electric today. The dealer had two on the show room floor. At first I wanted to open the rear hatch, but both 12V batteries were dead? After the dealer hooked up a charger to the battery they were able to move one out front for a test drive. I informed them that the 12V battery is charged by the traction battery (that was 95% charged) and simply turning and leaving the car on every now and then charges the 12V battery. The car has excellent acceleration, however it made an odd grinding sound a few times up front where the electric motor is located when stopping or starting (the sound may have had something to do with the weak 12V battery; a couple times warning lights on the dash came on, and the navigation screen did not work). They offered me a three year lease at $298 a month with $3000 down. I've seen lease offers on the internet for $199 and $249 a month with $1000 down. The MSRP was $41,000.00. The FFE has a range of 76 miles and the liquid cooled/heated 23 kilowatt-hour battery recharges in 3-4 hours with a 6.6 kilowatt on-board charger. Ford does not offer DC quick charge. I still like my i-MiEV better. I'm not sure that Ford really has their heart in it.

You're right -- with that lease "deal", Ford definitely doesn't care to move these vehicles. The design of the vehicle also shows me they aren't fully committing to electric vehicles. Look at the sheer lack of space in the back of the vehicle. The car is just the ICE version with a hole cut in the floorboard.

I had to put some large pieces of plexiglas in the back of my i-MiEV the other day and was astounded at the amount of space in the back with the seats folded. AND the seats folded flat. This is something I had only seen in the ICE version of the Honda Fit/Jazz. (Interestingly enough the electric Fit doesn't have those fold-flat seats!)

Personally, I'm not too impressed with the 10,000 buttons on the steering wheel and dash of the Focus either. Drivers have enough distractions. Don't make it worse. The ergonomics of the Focus I drove weren't very good. I expected better from Ford. Maybe I was just used to the nice control standardization that Japanese vehicles have. You drive an American vehicle and there is a learning curve for what control is where. It even took me a long time to figure out where the seat recliner control it was, because it was much higher and farther back than I've ever experienced in a vehicle.

I also test drove the Focus EV. It was a really short drive during a shopping center event last summer.

The lack of trunk was really a show stopper for me. The car is really fast that's for sure but almost too fast. I suppose driving it like hell would probably suck the battery down really fast I don't know that for sure but it would be my guess. Also I don't know if this is an issue but it seemed to me
that the battery is inside the car. Would that cook the battery on hot sunny days ? Heat plus battery = no good right ?

Anyways not sure if It's available here in Canada yet can't find it on the canadian web site.

Don.....