What is it?
Ford’s first-ever all-electric, series-production car, a five-door Ford Focus hatchback powered solely by a lithum-ion battery pack and AC electric motor. On sale now for delivery towards the end of the year, the Focus Electric seats five and is claimed to have a range of 100 miles and a top speed of 85mph, although not both at the same time.
The 23kWhr liquid–cooled battery is said to be capable of being charged in 10-11 hours from a standard 240volt/10amp UK domestic socket, while a fast charger operating at 32amp can fill-up the empty battery in ‘three to four hours’.
Priced from £33,500, which drops to £28,580 when the government’s plug-in car grant is deducted, the Focus Electric is considerably more expensive than a Renault Fluence ZE, which lists at £21,495, reduced to £17,495 by the grant and a Nissan Leaf, which starts from £16k.
Although drivers of the Renault also have to factor in the cost of leasing the battery, which can add up to £138 a month on a 15k mile/year, 12-month contract, likewise battery rental on the Nissan works out to £113 a month if you do 12k miles a year.
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Affordable, Reliable???
£33,500 - £28,580 is affordable?
and,
How the heck can Autocar assume that it is reliable? Driving it just for a day or so??
I thought a reliability of a car should only be judged owning it for at least, 6 years. Ideally 10 years in my honest opinion judging by the fact that an average life of a car is about 15 years.
Another biased journalism from Autocar, sadly.
rocketscience wrote: £33,500
This is why we're stuck with cars with increasingly flaky reliability and expensive repairs once out of warranty that never come close to claimed economy figures.
The manufacturers know that to sell a car they need to impress car journalists and fleet managers. One is impressed by the appearance of quality, the other by a decent warranty and low (on paper) emissions.
For private buyers not lucky enough to afford newer cars and wanting real world fuel economy, you're stuffed.
Real reliability
I can't agree more.
Some times I wish there are "Real" automobile journalism for the "Real" end users.
I am rather tired of reading childish reviews from joy riding journalists whos only concern is handling at unrealistic speed.
This review is a, um,
This review is a, um, whitewash. While mentioning the Leaf and Renault, Randall astonishingly fails to mention the BMW i3 is 3k cheaper!! And there's no contest which is the more desirable car. The only explanation for this omission is banal patriotism. Oh, and I loved my Mk1 Focus.
Commitment vs. half hearted
Indeed - this car demonstrates the difference between a manufacturer like BMW who have committed significant resource into producing a serious electric car and Ford who are just dipping a toe in the water with a pretty poor effort. The BMW is quicker, significantly lighter, probably has just as much space inside and cheaper. Even the Leaf has the measure of it, Nissan did a good job all that time ago!
Patriotism can't explain the review (unless the author is American) - I wonder what the reason is?
Autocar wrote: the Electric
...errr....?!
Where does patriotism come
Where does patriotism come into it? The Focus is a German designed, German built car produced by an American company. Since launch in 1998, not a single Focus has been sourced from the UK. Nothing British about it at all. It still amazes me that people still regard Ford as somehow British. They havnt built a single car here for around 12 years. Even the Southampton Transit van factory has stopped production, with the "backbone of Britain" now built in Turkey!
re: patriotism
I hear the same thing from my in-laws. They only ever buy Fords and Vauxhalls. Whenever we have the nerve to buy something else we get snooty comments like "why would you buy that foreign rubbish" and, just as silly, "the parts and servicing on that will be really expensive". Regardless of the actual cost of these things... I feel like I've been transported back to 1979 when I hear this for the nth time.
Ironically, this included my British built Avensis... Naturally, the Fiesta they own wasn't built here (or the Corsa before that), but try telling them that!
Don't let the facts get in the way of a good bit of hyperbole eh?