Official Ford Focus Electric Thread

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kmp647 said:
over on the Focus EV forum one of the first owners made a trip report, he drove 76 miles home on the highway and arrived with a first battery warning low lamp

whats intersting is he plugged in at home on his L2 evse at 5:45pm and reported a full charge at 10:30pm

5 hours and 45 minutes?

he is using an spx unit I think. on a 40amp breaker and set to the 32amp threshold

if the car was drawing all it could this does not seem to jive with Fords charge time claim
"On the way back I started with 84 miles range, ran 65mph (seems equally as efficient as 60) only getting a couple of surplus miles until I crossed the mountain and then got about 12 surplus. Once over the mountain, I ran the AC some, 3 fan notches. I got home with zero range left, yellow warning light on stating I needed to charge and only the 10 miles surplus left. Made it home at 4:45 PM and plugged in. In the first hour of charging since plugging in after the yellow warning light, I’ve picked up 35 miles. It reached 50%, 40 miles in 75 minutes. But it took until 10:30 PM for the battery to fully charge."

152 mile round trip. charged for 2:45 at his destination, so likly was not full before return trip. Return trip was to second low battery warning, average speed was 65. He also mentioned that the charge was 50% after 1:15. what we dont know was the current draw profile, and how the pack does it's balancing. MINI E took 45 minutes to balance after reaching 100%SOC.
 
All I know is this guy does not know how to hypermile!

I drive 76 miles daily in my LEAF, generally at 55 mph, sometimes with A/C or Heated Seats, sometimes with fan-only (convoluted button setting) and almost always get home with 2-3 bars and also take about 4h45 to charge back to 100%. I know this because it's 4 hours of super-off-peak (max) and 45 or so of off-peak but never more than 5 hours as peak begins at 6am. Some days I don't have enough time to charge to completion and in those I wish I had a faster charger. Imagine what I could do with a 6.6kW. But still, seems a bit laggy compared to our 3.7kW. I can say this, my TOU data says the kW-half-hours I use are almost always around 1.9 (3.8kWh per hour) even for the last complete half-hour of charging.
 
TimeHorse said:
All I know is this guy does not know how to hypermile!
Focus display seems to hold the initial range calculation that counts down with the odometer, and a “Surplus” or "Status" number of miles that you have accumulated by conservative driving. Based on his post he seems to have saved 10 miles of range over his 76mile trip. Judged by that readout, he drove on the conservative side.

FFE Owners Manual said:
Budget Text View: contains basic information to help you reach your next charging destination or to achieve your vehicle range estimate.
Charge pt: is the distance remaining to the next charge point you identified using the Navigation system.
Surplus: is the available range beyond your identified charge point (current Range Estimate shown on Battery Gauge minus Charge pt distance)

Budget: is set to the Range Estimate at the point of departure. This will count down with the odometer.
Status: is your performance against your Budget (current Range Estimate shown on Battery Gauge minus Budget distance). A positive Status indicates you are using less energy than typical and have extended your Range Estimate by the distance shown.
 
kmp647 said:
over on the Focus EV forum one of the first owners made a trip report, he drove 76 miles home on the highway and arrived with a first battery warning low lamp

whats intersting is he plugged in at home on his L2 evse at 5:45pm and reported a full charge at 10:30pm

5 hours and 45 minutes?

he is using an spx unit I think. on a 40amp breaker and set to the 32amp threshold

if the car was drawing all it could this does not seem to jive with Fords charge time claim

Apparently, he (Whit Gallman) was the third retail delivery. First was an internal delivery to a Ford employee, and the 2nd was to someone who wanted to remain anonymous.

Whit was nice enough to do a little write-up for us on his experiences with the Focus Electric, with some extensive details on the charging unit and setup if your interested.
http://insideevs.com/early-ford-focus-electric-owner-is-out-of-gas-and-loving-it/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Galpin Ford's Focus Electric sales estimate hints at low, low numbers

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/06/11/galpin-fords-focus-electric-sales-estimate-hints-at-low-low-nu/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
kmp647 said:
over on the Focus EV forum one of the first owners made a trip report, he drove 76 miles home on the highway and arrived with a first battery warning low lamp

whats intersting is he plugged in at home on his L2 evse at 5:45pm and reported a full charge at 10:30pm

5 hours and 45 minutes?

he is using an spx unit I think. on a 40amp breaker and set to the 32amp threshold

if the car was drawing all it could this does not seem to jive with Fords charge time claim

Isn't that only 4 hours and 45 mins?
 
Or doesn't care to. Not everyone enjoys doing so regularly... I drive only as efficiently as I need to to go the distance that I need on a given day, planning to arrive home at the LBW. If it is a short distance day, I'll happily run along at 70 on the freeways...

TimeHorse said:
All I know is this guy does not know how to hypermile!
 
I went to look at a EV Focus in Livermore. When I arrived I saw a black ev that was completely dead. They couldn't even unlock the doors. I liked the looks of the car but I did not like the $3k markup from the greedy dealer. I left in my working Leaf. I really want a second EV but dealers are making it hard for me to want to buy from them.
 
hd172 said:
I went to look at a EV Focus in Livermore. When I arrived I saw a black ev that was completely dead. They couldn't even unlock the doors. I liked the looks of the car but I did not like the $3k markup from the greedy dealer. I left in my working Leaf. I really want a second EV but dealers are making it hard for me to want to buy from them.
Please take some comparison pictures, especially of the trunk, if you go back. We really want a 2nd EV and don't know if we'll wait for the 2013 Leaf. The closest FFE dealer is 2 hours away and won't have a FFE for another month.
 
My local Ford dealer has one and actually let me drive it since we have a different Ford model on order from him... The trunk is, shall I say, tight; it felt as if it had a lot less usable room than the Leaf's.

DANandNAN said:
Please take some comparison pictures, especially of the trunk, if you go back.
 
DANandNAN said:
hd172 said:
I went to look at a EV Focus in Livermore. When I arrived I saw a black ev that was completely dead. They couldn't even unlock the doors. I liked the looks of the car but I did not like the $3k markup from the greedy dealer. I left in my working Leaf. I really want a second EV but dealers are making it hard for me to want to buy from them.
Please take some comparison pictures, especially of the trunk, if you go back. We really want a 2nd EV and don't know if we'll wait for the 2013 Leaf. The closest FFE dealer is 2 hours away and won't have a FFE for another month.
Boomer23 already posted Trunk photos from EVS26 here.
 
hd172 said:
I went to look at a EV Focus in Livermore. When I arrived I saw a black ev that was completely dead. They couldn't even unlock the doors. I liked the looks of the car but I did not like the $3k markup from the greedy dealer. I left in my working Leaf. I really want a second EV but dealers are making it hard for me to want to buy from them.
I'm looking for one to drive, and I'm on the bay west of you. Did they say what the problem was? Markup on this car is ridiculous, as it's already right up against the 'affordable' limit. If they want people to lease Honda Fit EVs instead, that's the way to go about it.
 
There's a Ford and Nissan dealer across the street from each other near my house. So, today I took a quick test drive of each car without mentioning that I owned a 2011 LEAF.
First stop the Ford dealer, to add to Boomer's pics referenced above, the FFE trunk measured about 27" deep by 42" wide.
The depth is variable as you can see from his pics since there's an added compartment. I'd estimate the FFE has about 2/3 the rear cargo space of the LEAF.

I introduced myself to both salesmen as a serious prospect and said I plan to test drive the Honda Fit, LEAF, FFE and Tesla S (ok, just dreaming about that last one).
The FFE was plugged in and salesman happily let me drive it. Said he'd sold 2 so far. No markup.
This one only had 15 mi of range showing. Turns out the Leviton charger wouldn't charge the thing. I re-plugged in J1772 and it engaged the relay but then cut out. They were gonna wait for the service dept guys to investigate that issue. So, my drive was short and the salesman didn't know much about the warranty or the real-life range (he quoted the 105 mi on the sticker).

The LEAF salesman knew about as much as the FFE guy. Although, to his credit, when pressed, he did say the realistic range is about 70 mi on the freeway. After my test drive he introduced me to their LEAF sales "expert". This guy said they've seen absolutely no problems with the LEAF. I didn't mention that during my annual battery inspection the service mgr of same dealership said he's already had one LEAF with a lost capacity bar. I then asked same sales "expert" about the battery warranty and he said, "Nissan guarantees the battery to have 80% of it's capacity after 5 years or they will fix it or replace it"... sigh. The arrival of mass market EVs has not altered the veracity of car salesmen it seems. YMMV.
 
TomT said:
Yep, I too have no interest in hypermiling unless I absolutely must for a given trip's range requirement.

GRA said:
TimeHorse said:
All I know is this guy does not know how to hypermile!
Or perhaps he has no wish to hypermile, and just wants to drive his Focus like any other car?

You don't have a 70 mile mostly highway round trip with no charge at work on a daily basis with many after-work activities in your weekly routine.
 
Thanks for that Tom, KeiJidosha and Sparky, those pictures completely slipped my mind.

Occasionally we have a passenger that uses a mobility scooter. We test fit it in the back of the Leaf and it fit, but I didn't bring the umbrella stroller too so I don't know if it would fit too. Thanks for the measurements, it's going to be even tighter on the FFE :(
Pics from Boomer23's post
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It's funny, I think Ford took the "flat load floor" too much to heart. It looks like a nice ramp for launching eggs, apples and whatever else didn't fit underneath in the cubby.
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After reading through the thread (should have done it sooner :oops: ) those are drop down feet to make the floor level.
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Does anyone know if the "floor", support foam, and cargo cover can be easily removed?

Thanks
 
With Leaf I already have difficulty getting the stroller (i.e. the stroller frame) and some groceries in the car. FFE would be almost impossible ...
 
evnow said:
With Leaf I already have difficulty getting the stroller (i.e. the stroller frame) and some groceries in the car. FFE would be almost impossible ...
That's something to consider for sure. The upright nature of the trunks of the Leaf & FFE make stacking hard (possibly easier for the FFE with it's standard(?) shelf). We did see that the Leaf will hold a double stroller but do you put $$$ of groceries on top of the stroller or underneath. I think the Volt would stay our primary grocery store vehicle.
 
DANandNAN said:
evnow said:
With Leaf I already have difficulty getting the stroller (i.e. the stroller frame) and some groceries in the car. FFE would be almost impossible ...
That's something to consider for sure. The upright nature of the trunks of the Leaf & FFE make stacking hard (possibly easier for the FFE with it's standard(?) shelf). We did see that the Leaf will hold a double stroller but do you put $$$ of groceries on top of the stroller or underneath. I think the Volt would stay our primary grocery store vehicle.

you have the entire back seat for piles and piles of grocery bags and cartons of vino. :cool:
dont tell me that you take the kids with you to the grocery store so they can pick out their own cereal and snacks. :)
 
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