I test drove a Leaf today – they finally have them here in western New York. It was a very good experience – I think Nissan did a great job. Now I need to decide whether I want the Nissan Leaf or the Focus Electric. Here are the pros and cons of each as I see them:
Focus Electric
Pros – I like the way it looks – seems similar to the new Fusion design. Has the liquid battery temperature management system. Comes with the 6.6kw charger. American made. My dealer will sell it at substantially under MSRP (about $1000 over invoice) or about $39100 including leather seats and standard paint. Supposedly the handling is excellent. Supposedly the interior room for driver and front seat passenger is greater than the Leaf. Supposedly it gets better than 100 mpge (more than the Leaf).
Cons – not available to test drive. Not available to sit in. Costs more than the Leaf . Don’t have any idea when one will get here to Western New York. Ford is only making maybe 500 of them in 2012 – I could be wrong about this, but I know they are having a very limited roll out. The drivetrain is not made by Ford which means there is a greater probability of it becoming an orphan with difficult-to-get parts. No reliability history. Ford doesn’t seem to really be embracing the technology otherwise the rollout would be much larger and faster. No idea when the one I ordered will get here.
Nissan Leaf
Pros – I don’t dislike the way it looks. For someone like me, who is an electric vehicle advocate, it makes it easier to preach the EV gospel. People know it is an EV, and so the more of them they see, the more mainstream it appears and the less risky the purchase of one feels. I actually got to test drive one to see how I fit in it. The control panel/console is very high tech. Nissan has sold 20,000 already, so there is some real world reliability history available. Nissan is committed to the technology as shown by their aggressive roll out of the Leaf. Drivetrain is made by Nissan. Soon to be manufactured in Tennessee. I liked the way it drove – very smooth and quiet. Lots of legroom in the back. I could actually take possession of one in about 3 months!!!!
Cons – I’d rather buy American. Air cooled battery pack vs. liquid cooled. 3.3kw charger instead of 6.6kw charger results in a much longer charge time. They just raised the price by $3000 (although the increased price includes a cold weather package that was optional last year). My local dealer will only sell it at MSRP – no discounting (he said Nissan doesn’t allow it- sounds like BS to me) so the price will be $38,000+.
So there you have it. I’m tempted to cancel my FFE and order a Leaf. If Ford doesn’t make one available soon for a test drive, I probably will. There hasn’t been any news out of Ford about the FFE for quite a while. I’m getting tired of waiting!!!
I think your pros and cons are on the nose. I suppose there is the possibility that Ford will at some point develop their own electrical components, but I think that would be gen 2 or 3 at least. On the flip side, since the vehicle is exactly like the ICE focus except for drivetrain components it will insure parts availability for a long time and they should be less expensive since we are dealing with a car already produced by the hundreds of thousands. Also there should be more of an after market for Focus parts.
Production of only 500 for 2012? Where did you hear that? It makes since to go slow the first year to make sure there aren't any issues before ramping up, but 500 seems low. That would be less than 30 cars per launch city. I think we can expect more than that.
I think Ford is playing it low key, to set expectations low, so that when they beat those low expectations it will be a positive.
GM and Nissan have both have very good first model years, consider how revolutionary the technology is, and yet to hear the press they've blown it because they didn't hit certain levels. rubbish, they have both blown away what the Prius did in its first year, and their technology is way more revolutionary than that.
Can stress enough how important the faster recharge rate will be. Being able to add 25 miles of recharge per hours versus 10-12 it worth waiting for, based on my experience with the Volt.
Come to Detroit this week for the North American International Auto Show running through this weekend (ends 1/22/12). I sat in one. The only difference between my ICE based Focus is the dash: On the ICE focus the dash has two dials one for vehicle speed and one for RPM in between sits a color LCD panel for trip meter, vehicle settings, etc. The FFE dashboard uses the same dash as my wife's Edge: A single speed dial in the center flanked on either side by LCD panels (like you see in all the FFE videos Ford has provided).
Other than that small difference the rest of the dash and seating is the same as the ICE version. Thus if you're looking for legroom, seating feel, etc. just go to your dealer and sit in an ICE version--they are very very close.
As a bonus you can see the new Escape, C-Max, and the new Fusion (I couldn't sit in the C-Max or the Fusion but I did in the Escape: Exactly the same dash there as the Focus as well! Go figure!). Of course all the other automakers are there as well (looked and sat in a Leaf--still don't like the styling).
Other than that small difference the rest of the dash and seating is the same as the ICE version. Thus if you're looking for legroom, seating feel, etc. just go to your dealer and sit in an ICE version--they are very very close.
jmueller065, thanks for that. Were you able to look into the trunk? I understand the battery takes up a lot of space. How much do you think you could put into it?
Unfortunately, I didn't even think to look in the trunk--there were a few people around waiting their turn to look in the car. I didn't think to snap a few pics of it either..
The NAIAS gets pretty crowded, by late afternoon its really difficult to get close to any of the hot cars (in this years case the hot cars were the Fusion, and the new Dodge Dart).
Since Ford now has a lot of plugin vehicles (FFE, Fusion PHEV er Energi, and the C-Max Energi) they had the "charger" showing on a stand by each plugin vehicle. I was a little surprised the box was bigger than it looks in the pictures and the few videos.
The Leaf and the Focus Energi both have smallish trunks. To make up for this Ford is doing some interesting things to maximize the utility of the space. But even if you fold the seats down you still have the battery box intruding on trunk space on both vehciles.
EVNOW over mynissanleaf.com lists the Leaf at 23 cf. The Volt is only listed at 18 cf, but in reality I think the Volt has more usable space.
I actually thought we would see the FFE well before the LEAF here in Chicago as Ford had designated Chicago as an initial launch city but alas it just didn't happen. No regrets on getting a LEAF myself as we have a L2 charger in our garage and most trips (even in winter) don't take the entire capacity of the battery. On one weekend day recently, we did recharge a bit from about noon to 4 PM because we needed to do another errand and even that was OK so depending on how you intend to use the car may be a deciding factor. L3 (or quick chargers) are just starting to get rolled out so that factor will not be one as time goes on. In the photos on the rear Focus trunk, I can see the battery pack in the beige/tan but the blue one looks like the regular one? I know the seats fold on both ICE and FFE versions but the FFE has the battery 'hump' that intrudes and prevents a flat floor -- in any case, we traded in an '06 Mazda3 5-door and find the LEAF a bit easier (we like the deep 'well' at the bottom as it keeps things from rolling around) and a bit bigger for storage for us. The FFE is still many months away to show up in Chicago so it's also your time horizon to think of ... I have one other vehicle that I'd like to swap for a C-Max (hope to see it in February at the Chicago Auto Show) but perhaps not as time sensitive as when I was shopping for my first EV so we'll see.
That blue one is not an ICE Focus: On the ICE Focus you can fold the two rear seats flat and get a flat load floor from the rear all the way to the back of the front seats. In one of those pictures the load floor is raised up above even the decklid. Those pictures also show some "black boxes" (for lack of a better term) that are not present on the ICE version.
BTW: The "Energi" labelling for Fords is restricted to the PHEV's and not the Focus Electric (note that on the previously linked page "Energi" doesn't appear anywhere).
Thus you have a C-Max Energi and a Fusion Energi but no Focus Energi.
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Leaf vs. FFE
