Lyle's Ford Focus Electric Real World Test Drive

[Lyle]

ffe2.jpg
Hi everyone.

I wanted to share with you my first experience with the new Ford Focus Electric car. I have the car for a 1-week test drive.

Statik and I have started up a new electric car blog called InsideEVs.com and I have posted my first one day review of the car there:

http://insideevs.com/ford-focus-elec...ld-test-drive/

It's no Volt!

[fishhawk]

Thanks for the review Lyle. Seems like an interesting car; much more suitable to my tastes than a Prius.

But what I really want is an SUV with a Volt drive train. Here's to hoping someone will introduce one soon.

[flmark]

'It's no Volt!'

You'll need to expand a bit on this, since the blog review doesn't really help explain why you made this comment. The differences I note from your review would seem to give the edge to the Ford. You discuss that acceleration seems quicker and significantly more room inside the Ford.

[bonaire]

They're going to have to lower that price-tag if they want to sell it. In other threads, it sounds like many of us think they don't really intend to try to sell it like Nissan sells the Leaf but rather offer the Focus EV in limited supply until the C-Max Energi is out to be their electric vehicle for the masses.

[Davem9586]

Thanks for the review Lyle. Seems like an interesting car; much more suitable to my tastes than a Prius.

But what I really want is an SUV with a Volt drive train. Here's to hoping someone will introduce one soon.

According to Motor Trend the next generation of Equinox will be built on the Volt/Cruise platform and will include some type of Hybrid.

[stuart22]

Reading a Lyle-authored piece always seems to be easy to digest. He has an 'average man' style where he conveys a sense of wonder and suprise with discovery, where ego plays no part.

The FFE is very nice looking, I'd be proud to sit behind the wheel, tooling around town. Unfortunately with its limited range, it simply isn't quite ready for the masses. We'll just have to let the Volt lead the way for the next several years, keeping the EV market lights on while battery tech improves to the point where range and charging time become good enough to own a BEV as an 'only' car.

[Ziv]

Thanks for the heads up, Lyle! I will head back to InsideEVs.com to read it.
I really like the look of the FFE, I just wish it had a lower price if they are only going to have an EPA AER of 76 miles. I still like the Volt for the way my driving works, but I think there are a lot of people that a FFE or a Leaf would work well for, especially if they have two or more cars.

[Lyle]

'It's no Volt!'

You'll need to expand a bit on this

Simple. No range-extender.

[DonC]

Fun read! Looking forward to the full review after your week is finished.

My biggest issue with the FFE would be the (lack of) a trunk.

[dgruber]

IIRC, the Motor Trend bit said that the next gen Equinox (introduced in 2014 as a 2015 model) would offer a plug-in hybrid. If that's correct, perhaps it actually would use the Voltec drivetrain or some variation.