Gadgetory

the key to this car might be the fact that you can barely tell it's different by looking at it quite the opposite of what happens when you drive it let's connect with the 2012 Ford Focus Electric and check the tech now spotting a focus Evy isn't that easy and that's part of the story on this car you see car makers fall in two camps if they make electric cars either make it electric and weird-looking see Mitsubishi or make it electric and totally stealth see Ford the main dead giveaway is this face this really good-looking Aston Martin s grille except it isn't the grille at all because there's no radiator you don't need the airflow there's no engine up here just an electric motor so this is a solid fashio over here's another dead giveaway this really slick rotating pop-up charger port door I have grave doubts about it lasting more than a year before you have to replace it or working at all in heavy snow but I still like it now nothing in here is gonna look like a typical engine bay because there's no engine electric motor here a 107 kilowatt electric motor what does that equate to about 143 horsepower but because it's electric it's a torque monster 184 foot-pounds of torque that is a great number in a car in this class in particular and equally dissimilar to the focus you may drive is the transmission or basic lack thereof it's a one speed conversion gearbox is what it is there's no shifting going on here but there's a gear conversion to match up the engines rpms which are relatively high over to the wheels rpm that you want on the road now of course an electric car the batteries as important or more important than the electric motor and here it is it's a 23 kilowatt hour unit it's a big battery about the same size capacity wise as that in a Nissan Leaf but a Nissan Leaf being a clean sheet design has the whole thing buried in the belly of the vehicle here on the Focus evie you do give up a fair amount of trunk space it's just right there in your way you got to bear that in mind now in terms of Range official estimate about 76 miles on this guy and that's also part of a 110 MP GEEP a rating that's that new number that tries to equate the energy used to power a gas car against an electric car now the charge time and cost are interesting to charge this battery this is ford's big headline on this car it takes three to four hours using a level-two charger that's one that plugs into a 240 volt outlet like the one your dryer uses a Nissan Leaf using the same kind of charger takes roughly twice as long not only is it charged just three to four hours for full capacity from zero but the top ups will go much faster as well and that's the real-world charging will be doing more often now the cost of that charge about two dollars and seventy five cents using a national average cost of electricity however is we're about to learn they've got some technology in this car that lets you tell it to charge only when the rates are low which could bring your total charge cost down by more than half now inside the Focus TV is pretty standard high trim focused stuff with a couple of differences first of all the gear selector here looks like an automatic but as we mentioned it's really not such a one speed transfer case you're normally going to be in Drive but if you want to get greater brake regen you'll go too low now on the left side of the speedo one affords unique displays here that's controlled by this left hand wing controller you have a range view a 5-minute history view of course you got your battery range in both level and predicted mileage you've also got something called budget which is the mileage calculation against your destination or the next charging station on the map that you've input and the interface gets even more interesting when you install the my Ford mobile app currently available for iPhone coming shortly after we shoot this video for blackberry and Android you've got a status that shows mile range and battery capacity this next tab here shows you charging stations you can also plot those on the navigation system and the car will figure out if you're going to make it or not and that also goes into that budget readout here's a trip planner that's also cognizant of can you make it on your current charge and if not it plots out charging stations along the way you're going to have to stop at and some standard telematics like remote control to turn the car on or off unlock the doors fine the thing when you've lost it and very interestingly set up the most ambitious charging schedule using some data from Microsoft a database on the backend and the cloud that takes into account where you are the best times to charge based on your usage of the car though so it's not just going to say I only charge between 2:00 and 6:00 a.m. if in fact you for some reason drive a car a lot that time and the system also lets you take your best green driving performance and upload it to Facebook as a challenge to other Ford Focus evie drivers I won't be doing that the power on the focus EB is ample but it's not tuned for performance like it could be I mean there's a lot of torque and power here but it's been tuned for range as well as responsiveness so that's the word I give it responsive but it's not a sports car but by no means does it feel like a slug it's a nice balance I think now the ride quality compared to a leaf I recall the leaf feeling a little more a little more luxurious a little more floaty in this car I feel like is a little more responsive and slightly towards sporting what area I'm not entirely a fan of is the regenerative braking on this car when you get on the brakes with any significance like going down a hail or a short stop in traffic it's not really linear how it kicks in it feels like it kicks in in notches that feel a little bit unrefined but it might just mean I'm driving in a very hilly area in San Francisco now this energy gauge here on the my view panel on the left is a little busy for my taste I'm getting so many indications of budgeted mileage predicted mileage battery charge battery recharge five-minute time slices of battery usage and two other things I have no idea what they are I don't want to study that much all I need to know is how much range do I have left and basically how am i recharging how well am i regenerating power and it does that with brake coach at the end of coming to a full stop it'll show you how much of the energy the kinetic energy of the car you recaptured by braking in the proper manner it coaches you to brake very linearly and very gradually as you come to a stop okay pricing a focus evie it's a $40,000 car but you take 7,500 off in the tax year that you buy one new your federal return and your state may offer a nice chunk off as well here in California right now is 2500 bucks and you get the nice stickers for the HOV Lane now a leaf is anywhere from two to four thousand dollars less depending on trim level this comes in only one trim level the other thing to consider is which ride dynamics do you like better I find the leaf a little more luxurious this car little more sporty if you will and the last consideration is the charge difference a vastly shorter charge time on this vehicle that's the price you pay both in dollars and in some compromised trunk space in the tax year you buy one new not use they're so new that's all Jesus still running if it is what does keep rolling