This is the first drive of the 2014 Ford Focus Electric. It is the company’s first offering in the rechargeable passenger car segment. It’s competitive, well-designed, easy to operate stylish and fast.
Everybody seems to be going electric. It started with crazy experiment by General Motors with the EV one that didn’t end so well when GM took them and crushed them. Who would have thought that one day Car buyers could walk into your Showroom and purchase a vehicle that plugs into refuel. This is the first drive of the 2014 Ford Focus Electric. It is the company’s first offering in the rechargeable passenger car segment. It’s competitive, well-designed, easy to operate stylish and fast. And it’s just one of a host of electric cars that are available to buy lease or drive in America today.
On a full charge the 2014 Ford Focus Electric that we tested tells us we will get a 71 mile range. But is you drive aggressively that number begins to drop quickly. Ford has installed a monitoring system in the vehicle to tell you how well you are doing with your driving. The more ecologically you drive the more butterflies land on your screen. If you drive too aggressively those butterflies leave.
You will notice that the driving dynamics are very different in an Electric car. It has a one gear transmission, it is a fast accelerator, but the regenerating breaks are very grabby, and make slowing down and stopping a little rough.
The Ford Focus Electric has a 107 KW engine under the hood. The trunk space is dramatically reduced due to the liquid cooled lithium-ion battery. The driver infotainment technology is centered with Fords comprehensive Myford Touch system that integrates Communication, information, entertainment and navigation.
The all-electric Focus is capable of fully recharging in three to four hours at home using the available wall-mounted 240-volt charge station ? charging in half the time of the Nissan Leaf according to Ford.
The new 2014 Ford Focus Electric offers value charging, powered by Microsoft, to help owners in the U.S. charge their vehicles at the cheapest utility rates, lowering the cost of ownership. Focus Electric owners in North America will be able to maintain constant contact with the car anywhere they have mobile phone access using the Ford-developed MyFord Mobile app. The owner can perform key functions remotely.
The most attractive things about the Ford Focus Electric are the environmental advantages of reducing your carbon footprint by a significant amount.
The big downside is the cost of such new technology. The cost to get into the 2013 Ford Focus Electric is $39,200. However Ford do point out that up to $7,500 federal tax credit is available. I am Nik Miles
