I’m
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The Focus is a world car, built in assembly plants across the globe. It was originally introduced in Europe during 1998, and arrived here in late 1999 as a 2000 model. The current version is the third-generation, launched in 2010 for 2011 model year. To say the Focus is a successful car line would be an understatement. Since 1999 over 3.4 million units have been sold in the US alone. This doesn’t take into account Europe, Canada or any of the other global markets it’s sold in.
With
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This brings us back to the question, why would someone purchase a Focus Electric? What benefits do you gain, and possibly more importantly what do you lose when choosing the blue-oval BEV, at least when compared to its gasoline powered siblings?
First off, let’s get this out of the way: purchasing a BEV is going to limit your driving
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Another consideration is the fact that recharging takes a significant amount of time. You’re going to need at least four hours to complete a full charge from a completely depleted battery, and that’s at a high-power charging station. Recharging via standard 120-volt home power will take in excess of 18 hours. So, it’s reasonable to say that living with an electric vehicle has its limitations.
There’s
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Another consideration is price. The regular Focus Hatch starts at just over $18k and tops out at just under $25k (ST and RS not included) before adding freight and
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So with these limitations why choose a Focus Electric? Ford’s BEV has two primary advantages over a comparable gasoline-powered version. First it produces absolutely no emissions. This makes it an extremely environmentally friendly choice. Of course there’s a very real impact on the environment while your BEV’s various
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The second Focus BEV benefit is lower operating costs. While electricity may not be inexpensive, gasoline tends to be a lot more expensive. It’s difficult to make direct comparisons between the cost of gasoline and electricity, because their consumption units aren’t at all compatible, the result being a complicated series of calculations. Instead it’s much easier to compare the actual cost of operating each vehicle by using a similar
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The cost of fuel is just one expense associated with vehicle ownership. As anyone who owns a car knows, motor vehicles require maintenance. A BEV benefit is significantly fewer moving parts, which translates into much less maintenance overall.
Even after weighing all of these considerations, living with the Focus Electric is really quite pleasant. It’s fun to drive, with plenty of straight-line speed and decent handling, plus it’s well equipped and quite comfortable.
So what’s the range? How far can you drive this thing? That’s always the first question
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The bottom line is my actual driving range seems to vary between 120 and 150 kilometers between charges, but I’m pretty certain that could be stretched out much farther under the right conditions.
Check out the next installment of my long-term road test to learn more about such conditions and what life is like with the Focus Electric.
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