Ford Focus EV

[smkettner]

I like the look of the front grill better than Leaf

What does the L position of the shifter get you?

[LEAFfan]

I like the look of the front grill better than Leaf

What does the L position of the shifter get you?

Maybe that's the equivalent of 'ECO' mode.

[GroundLoop]

My two cents: It looks GOBS better than the Leaf -- front, side, and especially rear.

If it is priced close to the Leaf, and available while I'm still Pending, I'm on it.
Hell, if Ford will be as transparent as GM when it comes to order placement, that would be worth money right there.

My last Ford was a 1977 Maverick, and I swore never again -- but this, well, might have to give them a second chance after all.

[mitch672]

My two cents: It looks GOBS better than the Leaf -- front, side, and especially rear.

If it is priced close to the Leaf, and available while I'm still Pending, I'm on it.
Hell, if Ford will be as transparent as GM when it comes to order placement, that would be worth money right there.

My last Ford was a 1977 Maverick, and I swore never again -- but this, well, might have to give them a second chance after all.

I'm with you GroundLoop, it depends on the price, and if I can get a Volt sooner though.
Either the Volt or The Focus EV would work for me...

[evnow]

How much more would you guys pay for Focus compared to Leaf ?

[smkettner]

How much more would you guys pay for Focus compared to Leaf ?

If usability was the same I would pay another $1000 for the look. But I am not sure usability will be the same such as range or trunk space.
Not enough difinitive info to really compare and know for certain. And for waiting another year might actually make Leaf more desirable.
Right now if Focus was same price as Leaf I would buy the Leaf.

[evnow]

I'd buy Leaf because it is distinctive - I want people to see a lot of EVs everywhere and thus think of EVs as practicle and buy them.

[sjfotos]

How much more would you guys pay for Focus compared to Leaf ?

I will buy the one that arrives in Pennsylvania, or near, first. (Unless there is some huge disadvantage). As I am now also entertaining the Volt as Plan C, anything less than about $38,000 would get my attention.

[Boomer23]

My two cents: It looks GOBS better than the Leaf -- front, side, and especially rear.

If it is priced close to the Leaf, and available while I'm still Pending, I'm on it.
Hell, if Ford will be as transparent as GM when it comes to order placement, that would be worth money right there.

My last Ford was a 1977 Maverick, and I swore never again -- but this, well, might have to give them a second chance after all.

My first and last Ford was a 1997 Probe GT. I thought "Ford design and Mazda quality, can't miss." Hot little car, but it cost me more in repairs as a percentage of the price of the car than any car I've owned. Eventually I got scared to drive it because the power steering would quit at dangerous times. I wrote to Ford about it and they blew me off. That was my "Never Again" moment, both for Ford and for any car that is a joint project of two different car companies.

[TimeHorse]

How much would I pay for the Ford Focus EV above the Nissan LEAF?

Hmm. Again, this question comes down to what do you get for each:

• LEAF comes with 120 VAC J1772 Charger
• Focus EV has 6.6kW charger
• LEAF has optional ChaDeMo port
• Focus EV has lighted fuel gauge at receptacle
• LEAF has 4% larger Battery
• Focus EV has the same range as the LEAF, or so it seems
• LEAF is 8% lighter than the Focus
• MyFord seems like a very nice in-dash system
• CARWINGS sounds like it will have real time traffic from other CARWINGS users
• MyFord iPhone app seems to have more features than LEAF

I have an EVSE so although Leviton wins hands-down over Aeronvironment it doesn't matter a spin to me; only thing that matters is if the EV Project will start naming homes in D.C. and make mine amongst them. Also, I'd pay at least $500 for a 120 VAC NEMA 5-15P J1772 portable charger, which the LEAF comes with, but maybe the Focus EV will to, so I'll hold off on this. Also, I think by the time the LEAF and Focus EV come to my area, I'll be able to get a 120 VAC NEMA 5-15P J1772 Portable charger for much less than $500.

I once told Nissan I'd pay up to $1000 for 6.6kW charging in their survey. In fact, I'd pay more. How much more? I don't know? $3000? It means a lot to me! I have a 2.98% Easy Start Savings Bond at the Credit Union for that amount so I'm already covered for it ATM. But the LEAF has ChaDeMo for $700 and I'd loose that with the Focus EV so now we're at $2300. A lighted fuel gauge is nice, but so are lights around my license plate and since I can get that info probably from my phone for free. So let's say $100 for that feature: $2400.

Next we come to the batteries; with 4% more capacity, I expect to pay 4% less: $2300. As I've said before, it's range that matters, not weight. But weight isn't likely calculated fairly in the EPA tests (I still don't have details) so I'll let the Focus EV pass on the Quadratic Acceleration penalty assuming it's range is still the same as the LEAF (the EPA tests do measure acceleration), but I'll penalize if 8% for the linear effect of hill climbing: $2116.

As for the electronics, it's too early to say what will specifically go into the MyFord EV edition. The in-dash screen is clever but so is the LEAF, so I'm taking that as a wash for the moment unless the Focus EV can give me detailed usage both real-time and logged for comparison of, say, driving at different speeds, with different levels of climate control and total battery capacity to make some cool predictions about long-term range and battery desegregation. So far, the LEAF doesn't seem to log this on an interval (only per trip) and doesn't give you actual numbers for kW usage, only a dial with a few kW markings. Will MyFord and Sync have real data? I don't know. It could be better than the LEAF, it could be worse! So at this point it's a wash.

CARWINGS has IMHO a lot of potential. The problem with driving in D.C. that now I have a Garmin with Cellular traffic updates (as opposed to Radio) because I figured that would be more up-to-date than Radio. What I find in reality is a) it's hard to connect to the Mobile Tower some times and b) when I do, I get the major roads in Northern Virginia, but none of the roads in the District and none of the secondary roads in Virginia. VDOT doesn't capture the secondary roads and D.C. doesn't capture anything. So I figure the only real way to get real-time traffic information is to have the data come directly from the cars on the road. The best way IMHO to balance traffic is to have every car anonymously report its position and speed to a server which would analyze all traffic on all roads and thus pass back that information to the cars to tell them about less-used secondary roads. And also to take into account stop lights in travel times. My point here is that CARWINGS has a lot of potential to do this, but if only LEAF drivers are going to have it, I don't expect the information to be anywhere near complete. And we know nothing about the Focus EV. So again, it's a wash.

Finally, although the apps are free, they are both value-added apps, and as such should be considered in the cost of the car. I've played around with the LEAF iPhone App and am pleased. But looking at the MyFord App, I'm even more impressed. How impressed? Well, let's just round this out to $34 worth of impressed.

So how much more would I pay for a Ford Focus EV over a LEAF? $2150.