Ford Focus Hated. Who did not see this coming?

[DKCDKC]

I drove an electric prototype car, the Impact, almost 20 years ago. I like the snappy acceleration, the easy maintenance, the quiet, and the 4WD. It would go 100mi+ back then. I commuted 30 miles a day. It would have been a perfect second car. And the price GM said they would charge for it was not out of the ball park. But GM dumped it and compacted all the protos.

I admit electrics, because of the manufacturing processes necessary and the electricity needed, may still have a large carbon footprint. So does solar power generally, and most alternatives. I favor them primarily because they don't use oil and the US may someday be able to be oil independent and to step back from the Middle East and its political stew.

However, I am also practical about it. I bought a Ford Fusion a year ago and specifically did not get the available Fusion Hybrid. As an earlier poster noted, I would have had to drive the car - at current gas prices - for 200K miles before I saw any savings.

I remain pretty confident that electric cars will eventually be perfected as second or commuter cars, and most US homes will have one... But it will take more years to get there.

 

[Bird]

Never seen it advertised. Still see Volts on TV here with some college aged Asian girl touting what a great vehicle it is.

Its destiny will be failure also if it cost twice as much as a comparable gas car, has crappy range, and has issues like the volt.

Chris

I've never seen it advertised either; didn't even know Ford was making such. So I don't think it's a fair comparison with the Leaf, or any other brand. However, from what I have seen, all the electric autos are just too high priced to be practical.

 

[jeffsw6]

Why is their electric car called a "Focus," rather than something that isn't basically already marketed as their cheap teen/college kid/commuter car? I mean, is Richie Rich going to buy an electric car that is branded the same, and looks the same (?), as the $15k college kid ride? This seems like a dumb move to me.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Not another electric car bashing thread?
Don't buy one if you don't like it.
Maybe they will be practical in the future???

I agree. I could care less what fuel a car runs off of. Just be reliable and economical. I started the Volt thread not to bash GM or electric cars, but to say no one would buy a $43,000 one with no range. Same with this Ford.

Some day when they get the pricing right, range up, ect I would be a buyer. That day is just not today.

Chris

 

[skylarkguy]

New cars generally aren't in my budget (same with tractors) but I picked up a 1991 Honda CRX for 600.00. It is averaging 39.7 mpg. Been logging every drop of fuel that goes into it. (578.3 gallons since 6/5/2010). Had to put about 1k in various small repairs. So all told pretty happy with.

 

[dodge man]

For the way I drive daily, and electric car would be perfect. My drive to work is something like 6 or 7 miles. I run into town to drop my daughter off for swimming and other errands all the time. I think the range would be fine also. The problem is, thats all it would be good for. The range is so limited, I couldn't even make it back and forth to the nearest large town to go to the mall.

 

[71bronco]

I have an 08 Focus 5speed. 38 mpg summer,35 mpg winter,$15 grand brand new and I have 70,000 miles with nothing but oil changes and air filters. still have the original brakes.It would take a long to come out ahead of this with a $40,000 car and higher electric bills.

Jeff

 

[SensibleNick]

I have an 08 Focus 5speed. 38 mpg summer,35 mpg winter,$15 grand brand new and I have 70,000 miles with nothing but oil changes and air filters. still have the original brakes.It would take a long to come out ahead of this with a $40,000 car and higher electric bills.

Jeff

Is there some sort of incentive/tax break for companies who offer and electric/hybrid variant in the US? ... These things don't exist here - and much like you're experiencing, with the prices the way they are, they'd sink like a rock in the market-place. There has to be a reason they make them...

 

[LD1]

One thing I always see left out in comparison on the electric vehichles (NOT the hybrids) is......the 100 mile range isnt exactally free. You have to plug it in. 240v for something like 4 hours.:confused2:

While it is still probablly cheaper than gasoline if driven daily, what about when you leave it set for a week. How often the the charger kick on to "maintain" full charge.

I'd be curious to hear from someone who owns a volt or other ALL electric car. And see how much their electric bill went up vs miles driven/month. That way we would have an accurate representation of what it cost to drive per mile.

If I had an electric car an my electric bill goes up ~$100 and It would have cost me $200 for a comparable gasser, well that just made time to payback double. And electric rates arent exactally going down either.

 

[k0ua]

One thing I always see left out in comparison on the electric vehichles (NOT the hybrids) is......the 100 mile range isnt exactally free. You have to plug it in. 240v for something like 4 hours.:confused2:

While it is still probablly cheaper than gasoline if driven daily, what about when you leave it set for a week. How often the the charger kick on to "maintain" full charge.

I'd be curious to hear from someone who owns a volt or other ALL electric car. And see how much their electric bill went up vs miles driven/month. That way we would have an accurate representation of what it cost to drive per mile.

If I had an electric car an my electric bill goes up ~$100 and It would have cost me $200 for a comparable gasser, well that just made time to payback double. And electric rates arent exactally going down either.

Well lets do some math:

The price of electricity is maybe 11 cents per Kwh.. Now some people pay more, and some less, but lets use this as an average. The effeciency of a charger, I am going to estimate at 85 percent. In other words there are some losses in the charger and wiring but it is pretty good. The Volt battery is kinda small capacity wise, it is only 16kwh. so considering the losses in charging we are going to need to pull around 19kwh from the mains to charge it back up. so 19kwh X $.11 = $2.09 in charging costs.. and that looks pretty good. Now just how far that takes us down the road compared to what some of you claim to get in your conventional cars is up for a lot of debate. some say they only got 23 miles on the volt, some say about 50.. Nick claims to get 67 miles per gallon in a diesel econobox, and LD1 claims to get 42mpg in something else. Diesel here now is about $4 per gallon, and regular unleaded is about $3.59 so the $2.09 for 23 miles is not so good against the $3.59 gas at 42mpg or the $4.00 diesel at 67 mpg.. but over here I don't know of any diesel cars getting 67 mpg with our pollution standards. but let's just say the cost of the electric fill up is half of the cost of the fuel fill for the same distance traveled.. as LD1 points out now that extra $20,000 for the car is going to take even longer to pay off..like past the lifetime of the car and then some... and that My friends is why they are not selling..as most people with a calculator can figure this out. All we have to do is solve this range/cost of battery thing and we will all be driving an electric car. And then we will all be in big trouble while we wait for the electric infastructure to be rebuilt, That will not support us all charging our cars with 240 volt high current loads and for the coal fired power plants to be changed over to nuclear to keep the air clean, and for a place found for the deposit of the spent nuclear fuel.... and and and.. oh heck why don't we just run them on oil? YOU want an electric car?... buy one! our infastructure will certainly support a limited number of people with them.

James K0UA