Ford Opens Ordering for Electric Focus : $39,995

That's kind of what I'm getting from the buzz, too, and it's disappointing. I suppose I didn't articulate it correctly. Everything about the car seems a bit half-baked. Perhaps even electrifying an existing model, come to think of it.

My family has long been associated with Ford. I drive the '73 Pinto I've had since high school and am piecing together a '66 427 Cobra (difficult and extremely time consuming on my relatively modest income). It pains me to admit that I have mixed feelings at the moment. And, tellingly, I bought a Fit when it came time to choose a daily driver.

Clearly lots of Ford engineering muscle is going into powerplants like the one in the new Mustang GT—over 400hp!—as well as the V6 with over 300hp, and the truck line. And Ford styling, while still not everything it could be, seems fairly cohesive for once. But somehow I just don't feel it when it comes to this car.

And worse, if I can feel it, others can too. It doesn't bode well.

 

^^^Excellent.

I continue to have confidence in Alan Mulally's leadership, and Bill Ford Jr.'s pragmatism in bringing him on board.

I suppose I'm still a bit cautious, having experienced some of Ford's less well evolved engineering solutions firsthand.

Is that little flat thing the traction battery?!? It's tiny!

 

The Chademo QC can put out over 100amps of 400v, but the rate turns on the vehicles' state of charge. The car tells the charger what it can handle, and the QC delivers accordingly.

 

For DC QC, there's CHAdeMO Association which the Leaf and i-Miev are compatible with along with CHAdeMO - EVs compatible with CHAdeMO, so far. That connector is next to the J1772 connector on Leafs (optional on '11 SL and standard on '12 SL). On the i-Miev, IIRC, the J1772 and CHAdeMo connectors are on opposite sides of the car.

pEEf outlined his QC experience at My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - My first DC Quick Charge.

Unfortunately, there's at least one standards battle going on relating to QC or a combination connector (like adding onto QC onto J1772, something like that). I haven't followed closely.

I believe German Automakers Endorse a Unified Standard for D.C. Fast-Charging - NYTimes.com has a pic of what the new connector looks like which looks a bit different than This Monstrosity Will Be Your Next Electric-Car Charging Plug.

To quote from My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Agreement on Charging Standards? on one (?) of the standards battles

The above is reasonably accurate but I'm sure there are other QC stations that exist which aren't CHAdeMO. Perhaps the new "standard" is incompatible w/90+% of the world's QC stations?

The comic at My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Agreement on Charging Standards? is great!

Unfortunately, besides the above divergence already, Tesla's doing their own thing for the Model S.

 

Uh oh, I didn't even think about the higher CG due to the placement of the traction batteries. One of the downsides of retrofitting a car for electric operation, apparently.

Personally, a large flat cargo area is really important to me in this class of car. It's one of the big (no pun intended) reasons I bought a Fit.

Fearful it's sounding more and more half-baked all the time.

But...hey, did I mention the Mustang GT has over 400hp?!?
[laughing]

 

As I understand it, the Focus EV design was done out of house, and may have even been initiated by that company. As you point out, Ford themselves is focusing on other things, but giving the Focus EV the greenlight is a good sign.

While a 400hp Mustang and the ecoboost F150 are getting press, they aren't ignoring the other side of the spectrum. The C-max hybrid and Energi will be out soon. The upcoming 2013 Fusion will be new. Including the hybrid, and a small ecoboost option introduced. The powertrain options are expanding on the Focus and Fiesta. The 2.0 ecoboost might also be going into the F150. Except for the diehard customers, Ford could offer a 1/2 ton truck without a single V8 option.

 

I don't know much about Ford, but as i have stated in other threads, I get the feeling from car companies other than Toyota, they are not all in on their hybrid or ev models. The feeling is they make them because they have to ( toyota) not because they want to which goes through many layers of employees down to sales.

 

LOL...might want to check out the recently released pricing on that Tesla S

 

After reading this thread, I will stick with the original idea....Leaf it is. I think the price is to high for the Focus EV. Only time will tell the practical value of the active battery cooling.

 

Yep, the LEAF strikes me as the clear commuter EV leader right now. I liked it a lot when I test drove it last year.

 

And faster level 2 charging compared to Leaf (if you get a Leaf before 2014.) But I agree the price is too high. Like many said in the thread, Ford intend this to be a limited production.

 

I think you have gotten the wrong impression on Ford. They have been interested in hybrids for awhile. They just weren't in the position to pursue it. Their past financial reality was likely a major reason for this. North America got a refreshed Focus when Europe got a new model because of it. Then we all had financial worries.

Back in '05 or '06 I came across a paragraph stating Ford was planning to offer the Fusion with the standard I4 and V6 engines, plus a hybrid and a direct injected turbocharged 4 cylinder (ecoboost hadn't been coined yet). It's years later than projected in that article, but the new 2013 Fusion will have a 1.6L ecoboost option in addition to the hybrid. The 2 C-max hybrids will be here earlier. The current EV Focus is more to have something on the table right now, but reports before the new Focus arrived stated Ford had taken possible hybrid and EV drive trains into account during the design process.

 

Ford just announced highest profits in 13 years and they expect to have regained all the money lost during the downturn sometime within the next month or so.

i also have to agree that branding the Focus EV was a mistake especially with the SFE model coming out. this creates a half dozen options that many consumers don t have the math chops to sort out.

this could have justified the "EV premium" since it would only have been about a $10,000 difference. there was an announcement that gas prices may touch $5 a gallon here (previous all time high was about $4.30) due to various unsubstantiated rumors (isnt that how gas prices always seem to rise? on expectations and not cost to deliver or demand??)

 

Imagine what they might have made if europe wasn't a mess, and they had their hybrids and plug-ins ready They should beat the figures this year, but they are being fairly conservatives in case the bad times come back. Toyota, GM, and VW seem to be blowing it out.

This was the low risk strategy. They want ev experience but didn't spend much money. They used many off the shelf magna parts. If its sucessfull, they can probably get jci to design the interior of the c-max for more batteries full bev (its already on the focus c-platform), but that will more directly compete with leaf.

Gas prices move based on speculation and opec cartel control. Cost doesn't matter that much when most is controlled by a cartel in politically unstable countries. Cheating could drop it fast, but summer driving can easily pop it above $5. My best guess is $4.30, with prices back down in the 3s next winter.

 

nearly everytime gas prices spike they settle back down about a quarter higher. now last winter set an all time high here for winter prices settling into the mid $3.30's

so i expect $4.50-4.75 here (we pay the highest gas tax so will be higher here) and settling to no lower than $3.50-3.60.

keep in mind that gas prices stayed above $3.50 a gallon until the first week of December which was also very unusual. normally it drops pretty fast after labor day.