Why I Didn't Buy A Ford Focus Electric

[Focused]

While still deciding what car to buy and doing in depth research to find out which car is right for me....doing research on the Ford Focus Electric, I came across this article that talks about someone that didn't buy a Focus Electric.

What are your guys thoughts on this article?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddwood...ocus-electric/

[jmueller065]

I kind of made the same decision that he did for a different reason. When I leased my "conventional" Focus Michigan didn't have any Focus Electrics (or even dealers selling them) yet--this is despite the fact that my dealer is right across the street from the plant!
On the whole I've been extremely happy with my Focus (but then again I would have been extremely happy with an electric one too! LOL).

[redEV]

for that 'potential' EV buyer; the scenario in the midwest (where I'm from) or other areas, may be quite different, in this case I believe it's their only car, etc., etc. so not totally surprised.

Despite the mention of earlier, limited market EV's (like the RAV4 which wasn't widely available outside its 'test' market, primarily was used as a fleet vehicle) these cars are still pretty much considered in their infancy so I would fully expect the cost of entry to be high; mfg. being unsure of the future value, etc. Each person needs to weigh their own unique pro's and con's as well as timing on when these are available -- FFE's are still NOT out here so if you needed to trade/sell an older car due to any number of factors (resale value, road worthiness, etc.) you couldn't wait unless you rented and/or parked the ICE trade, etc. and that gets old fast!

This article is a good start but would be just as relevant to feature one with WHY the person bought an FFE versus not so others who read it can either relate to it or not. With so few sales of these, it would be good to see why a person chose the FFE over say the LEAF or Mitsu 'i', etc. ... in this case they didn't like the look of the LEAF but chose an ICE Focus instead which I'm sure can happen and will happen when out of pocket rules over buying advanced technology before the price gets more 'reasonable'.

To share my own story quickly -- my LEAF replaced a 6 year old ICE, is not our only car, purchased it outright to get the 10% MSRP IL EPA rebate as well as paid enough fed taxes to use the $7,500 tax credit so net to me was ~$17K. We cross shopped a Lexus CT200h and Audi A3 TDI; the LEAF was both cheaper to buy and run over the expected life of the car but the whole zero gas thing won me over as well as we have a long trip car that's only 3 years old. FFE, Mitsu 'i' and Volt were still not readily available when we took delivery this past December so weren't even considered.

[yakers]

Plenty of reasons to not buy any particular car, harder to decide 'this is the one'. We did not drive the Leaf, my wife didn't like the looks and I had some concern about their battery design. We did drive the Mitsu and couldn't get out of it fast enough. It reminded me of the GEM cars which are really decent 25 MPH delivery vehciles where I worked but not designed for real streets much less the freeway. My wife really likes the 'greenness' of the FFE and I am really impressed with its build quality and ride, I call it 'mercedes like'. We are getting a 240 fast charger in a couple weeks but the first month has been adequate even with 110. Now we do have a 'distance car' but find it doesn't get used much. I live in LA so the FFE would not do as an only car but if I lived in a denser city I might just have the FFE and rent a car whenever I needed to cover distance.
As to the particular point of the price of the FFE, there are some great deals on 2012s if you can find one, would have completely changed the economic calulation of the writer. But at full price the FFE is not as compelling.

[pdw]

I was checking the FFE out today over in Niagara Falls Ca. Noticed a good number of charging stations set up recently to provide the power, however have not seen a car charging yet.

It should be easy to be well connected since many new station owners allow customers to charge. Right now starting .... Walmart, Home Depot, Zappies, Hilton Garden Inn, Holiday Inn, Four Seasons ... the list goes on.

[JeffAnd]

When trying to figure out if an electric car was right for me, I had get over the range anxiety issue. One thing I did notice was that my daily driving 95% of the time was less than 50 miles a day. For the other longer trips I would simple use my old car. For anyone who is considering electric should use the 50 mile rule in deciding if it's right for you. The exception to this rule would be the Tesla model S. For me the Tesla was ruled out because of the sticker price. When comparing the Leaf and the FFE the capabilities were similar. What pulled me towards the FFE was that it was a much better looking car. The Leaf is the odd looking car going down the road. I like the idea that when parked next to another Focus the cars look the same to the untrained eye.

[Focused]

Originally Posted by JeffAnd

When trying to figure out if an electric car was right for me, I had get over the range anxiety issue. One thing I did notice was that my daily driving 95% of the time was less than 50 miles a day. For the other longer trips I would simple use my old car. For anyone who is considering electric should use the 50 mile rule in deciding if it's right for you. The exception to this rule would be the Tesla model S. For me the Tesla was ruled out because of the sticker price. When comparing the Leaf and the FFE the capabilities were similar. What pulled me towards the FFE was that it was a much better looking car. The Leaf is the odd looking car going down the road. I like the idea that when parked next to another Focus the cars look the same to the untrained eye.

Yup! Making commutes under 50 miles a day you won't have a problem, this is why I feel EV's at the moment are only for people living in suburbs or busy "downtown" cities where they don't need to commute as much as say......someone living out in no mans land that does a 50 mile commute alone to just to get the city.

[redEV]

Originally Posted by Focused

Yup! Making commutes under 50 miles a day you won't have a problem, this is why I feel EV's at the moment are only for people living in suburbs or busy "downtown" cities where they don't need to commute as much as say......someone living out in no mans land that does a 50 mile commute alone to just to get the city.

Another aspect for flexibility includes whether you can charge it at home (those who have ready access to an L2 charger) or even work if you're a bit longer than the 50 mile rule. Those out in the western states seem to get more access to charging at work aspect but we're seeing some more L2's being installed at business locations and/or at nearby parking garages. I was recently in downtown Chicago and although someone else drove, the parking garage off Michigan Ave. (a main drag in town) had two L2 ChargePoint stations that we passed by as we went up a few floors to park (right around the corner from a Marriott where our conference was). If I'd have known that I might have driven myself (one way trip for me would have been 48 miles -- so 96 miles in the cold at speeds (at times) in excess of 70 would have put me in limp mode (at the very least) on the return trip home); it turns out that these were 'reserved' for hotel guests but as we were at a conference there I guess I could have asked for a 'pass' -- too bad it wasn't mentioned in the conference package but it will take time for these to become more commonplace. As I already mentioned we own a LEAF as FFE wasn't yet available (coming in on a year with it) we find that we also at times take two trips on either one of the weekend days -- one Saturday I logged 120 miles by splitting up the trips with an 'opportunity' charge in-between (we went out to dinner on the second trip out) and it worked fine for us, requires a bit more thinking ahead but it's definitely doable with EV's.

[fordfan21]

I'm kind of weary about cars you have to charge, not too many stations but I also think the gas prices are going down right now so it's not TOO bad

[GearCranium]

Hey Guys, I was at Tindol Ford over the weekend and heard someone mentioning smartphone apps to locate charging stations. Anyone have any experience with one of these or have a recommendation?

THX!