Alan B
100 GW
A friend bought a new Ford Focus Electric car a few months ago, and he recently loaned it to me for a week long test drive. So I left my Borg electric bike at work and used the Focus for daily commuting and as a 'family car' over the weekends and evenings.
The only charging cord I had was the factory supplied 'emergency charging cord' which is always stored in a compartment below the trunk, along with a compressor for the tires. This cord charges at 120V 12 amps or about 1.4 KW. If the battery was completely depleted it would take about 16 hours to charge. More about this later.
This was a very interesting experience, and I want to thank my friend again for providing the opportunity for me to try it out.
I had not planned to do this test, so I didn't have a test plan. I just used the car as much as I could.
I have some photos that I may post later if there is interest.
First off, the Ford has LOTS of power and acceleration. Very nice. I didn't time it, I'm sure you can find that kind of info in reviews already, but suffice to say it felt peppy. Of course you may want to temper the enthusiasm for accelerating hard as it reduces your range, but when that isn't an issue it is quite fun.
The handling was okay, reasonable for a small car. The A/C was very loud on recirculate, but it quiets down fine when temperatures recover. It does warm up in the sun while sitting, even though this model had the light color upholstery.
The windshield is tall and sloping, and the dash is deep, likely for good aerodynamic efficiency. This leads to a lot of dash reflection in the windshield, even though the dash is dark. This can make it somewhat difficult to see in some situations, like looking into the shade while the car is in the sun.
The front seats had good room, and the back seat space was adequate for my adult children though they were not spacious. This is not a problem at all since long trips aren't going to occur in this vehicle.
The range is about 90 miles. Ford has incorporated a complex system for estimating range that is thoroughly integrated with the navigation computer, so it shows the surplus mileage you have after programming in your trip plans, which includes stops and where you will charge it next. This system uses recent performance to estimate future performance, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to know about hills. Essentially when going uphill it will assume that the whole future part of the trip is uphill, so the range drops precipitously. When going downhill the opposite occurs, and the range estimates get unrealistically large.
Overall we never ran out of charge, and the actual results exceeded the initial estimate, so it seems to error on the side of conservatism.
Charging with the 120V charger is a slow process. Most folks who get a vehicle like this will equip their home with a 6kw charging setup so will be able to get a full charge in 3 hours or so. Charging from 120V I frequently started out the day with less than a full charge, there just wasn't enough time after using the vehicle after work to recover.
My commute is 26 miles round trip with lots of vertical and narrow winding roads through the hills. The car handled this just fine and was fun to drive. During the test the weather was unseasonably hot, and the A/C was a welcome feature that is lacking on my ebike.
Ford has made a 'game' out of energy recovery during braking. It gives you a 'score' each time you come to a complete stop. It was easy for me to get 98 to 100 percent 'energy recovery' from regen during braking. I usually brake early and gently, and that's all it takes to do well on this, and a readout on the dash does a little 'dance' when you do well.
Enough for now, if you have questions please ask.
The only charging cord I had was the factory supplied 'emergency charging cord' which is always stored in a compartment below the trunk, along with a compressor for the tires. This cord charges at 120V 12 amps or about 1.4 KW. If the battery was completely depleted it would take about 16 hours to charge. More about this later.
This was a very interesting experience, and I want to thank my friend again for providing the opportunity for me to try it out.
I had not planned to do this test, so I didn't have a test plan. I just used the car as much as I could.
I have some photos that I may post later if there is interest.
First off, the Ford has LOTS of power and acceleration. Very nice. I didn't time it, I'm sure you can find that kind of info in reviews already, but suffice to say it felt peppy. Of course you may want to temper the enthusiasm for accelerating hard as it reduces your range, but when that isn't an issue it is quite fun.
The handling was okay, reasonable for a small car. The A/C was very loud on recirculate, but it quiets down fine when temperatures recover. It does warm up in the sun while sitting, even though this model had the light color upholstery.
The windshield is tall and sloping, and the dash is deep, likely for good aerodynamic efficiency. This leads to a lot of dash reflection in the windshield, even though the dash is dark. This can make it somewhat difficult to see in some situations, like looking into the shade while the car is in the sun.
The front seats had good room, and the back seat space was adequate for my adult children though they were not spacious. This is not a problem at all since long trips aren't going to occur in this vehicle.
The range is about 90 miles. Ford has incorporated a complex system for estimating range that is thoroughly integrated with the navigation computer, so it shows the surplus mileage you have after programming in your trip plans, which includes stops and where you will charge it next. This system uses recent performance to estimate future performance, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to know about hills. Essentially when going uphill it will assume that the whole future part of the trip is uphill, so the range drops precipitously. When going downhill the opposite occurs, and the range estimates get unrealistically large.
Overall we never ran out of charge, and the actual results exceeded the initial estimate, so it seems to error on the side of conservatism.
Charging with the 120V charger is a slow process. Most folks who get a vehicle like this will equip their home with a 6kw charging setup so will be able to get a full charge in 3 hours or so. Charging from 120V I frequently started out the day with less than a full charge, there just wasn't enough time after using the vehicle after work to recover.
My commute is 26 miles round trip with lots of vertical and narrow winding roads through the hills. The car handled this just fine and was fun to drive. During the test the weather was unseasonably hot, and the A/C was a welcome feature that is lacking on my ebike.
Ford has made a 'game' out of energy recovery during braking. It gives you a 'score' each time you come to a complete stop. It was easy for me to get 98 to 100 percent 'energy recovery' from regen during braking. I usually brake early and gently, and that's all it takes to do well on this, and a readout on the dash does a little 'dance' when you do well.
Enough for now, if you have questions please ask.