Official Ford Focus Electric Thread

[GRA]

On the off chance that there are people that care, via IEVS:

Detailed Range Ratings For Updated 2017 Ford Focus EV: 126 Miles In The City!

http://insideevs.com/detailed-range-rat ... -the-city/

101 HWY, 115 combined.

If they proportionally increased cargo space I could bite.

Sure, if Ford thought it worthwhile to spend some money developing a true multi-powertrain-option platform ala' MQB, but until then it's still the same battery-pack limited space.

[DNAinaGoodWay]

Could be interested in this new one. But did a search for inventory within 100 miles and found nothing. Can't go sit in one or test drive it. Probably no trained EV techs around if they won't stock them. So, can't seriously consider one.

[DaveEV]

If they proportionally increased cargo space I could bite.

Ford is only doing the minimal effort here with their PHEVs. Cargo space is severely compromised in their EV / PHEV conversions. If they were serious, they'd build an EV from the ground up, or at least make some half-way effort to package the battery without giving up a huge amount of storage space.

In addition, with their CEO making comments like this, I can't in good conscious buy a Ford. They don't care - they know that they make most of their money on trucks and SUVs, environment be damned.

Ford CEO Told Trump U.S. Fuel-Economy Rules Risk 1 Million Jobs

[spirilis]

Not more than 2 cents to add, but I jumped into the EV market last month with a 2017 Focus Electric. Had test driven a Leaf for a whole day and liked it but... cargo space isn't THAT big an issue for me, and the dreaded battery life issues of the Leaf were a no-go as I like to keep my cars a while (and do over 20K/yr in miles so leasing is rarely economical).

Couple other items to note:

FFE's suspension feels sturdier than the Leaf, one particular hilly curve near my house demonstrated this (the Leaf gave me some pause, but the Ford handles it like a champ)

Standard HID headlights on the FFE. Never had those before, it's a nice touch.

I was impressed to see the Focus Electric not only has a liquid cooling system for the battery, but a chiller module plumbed to the A/C compressor to keep it cool in extreme heat (see http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/vi ... 027#p27462 )

Otherwise it's not that different from the Leaf, similar range, same Level 2 charging capability and the 2017 FFE has CCS/SAE DC fast charging. I do think the Leaf SV/SL's heat pump would be a benefit though, as the Focus just has a PTC resistive heater. I'll rely on preconditioning at home and hopefully my workplace gets some charging soon... the bug is in the ear of some facilities folks who can make that happen.

[edatoakrun]

Not more than 2 cents to add, but I jumped into the EV market last month with a 2017 Focus Electric. Had test driven a Leaf for a whole day and liked it but... cargo space isn't THAT big an issue for me, and the dreaded battery life issues of the Leaf were a no-go...

Sorry, but up to the point AVTA testing program was terminated, the FFE arguably tested the worst of all BEVs, not only suffering rapid battery degradation in the extreme Phoenix climate, but also very high energy consumption/poor efficiency.

The Focus Es used 360.3 AC Wh/mile (cumulative average electricity consumption) as compared to 303.2 AC Wh/mile for the LEAFs tested, evidently due to the additional kWh consumption required by the Focus's ATM.

https://avt.inl.gov/sites/default/files ... cusBEV.pdf
https://avt.inl.gov/sites/default/files ... eafBEV.pdf

(p.59) News from AVTA testing of pack capacity loss for 2013 FFEs conducted in the extreme Phoenix climate.

ICD 2 results (after ~14 months and ~12,000 miles, from baseline) for two of the FFEs have been posted, and show ~10% capacity loss so far:

http://avt.inel.gov/pdf/fsev/batteryFocus1700.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://avt.inel.gov/pdf/fsev/batteryFocus2578.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So, IMO these very preliminary results suggest the FFE battery pack's ATM may produce limited benefits (when considering differences in time, miles, and seasonality) over the results now showing up for the 2013 LEAFs, as discussed:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.p ... 55&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We should know a lot more when the results for more of the packs, over the longer terms, are posted.

All reports for all tested BEVs available at the main page here:

http://avt.inl.gov/fsev.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DaveinOlyWA]

Dont know the specs on the 2017 but went thru training for the earlier model while I worked there and Ford has 3 AC systems including two that can do double duty to cool passengers or battery and two heating systems, one for each passengers and battery with the battery component that can assist with cabin heat.

I thought that was a bit of overkill but it now appears it was because they knew their chemistry was crap.

[DaveEV]

Sorry, but up to the point AVTA testing program was terminated, the FFE arguably tested the worst of all BEVs, not only suffering rapid battery degradation in the extreme Phoenix climate

The Fusion/C-Max Energi model seem to be losing 15% capacity after a couple years in coastal California weather, so yeah, if the Focus is similar, the rate of capacity loss is not that much different than the LEAF despite having TMS.

That said, haven't heard much about Focus EV capacity loss. Maybe there's just not enough of them out on the road.