Ford Focus Electric

[Frank Lee]

Ford plans to hire 7,000 workers by 2012 as it adds electrics, hybrids to lineup | StarTribune.com

Some more about Ford electrics and hybrids...

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by Cd

I'm hoping that they add the sedan to the EV lineup. It looks like it could possibly have a better Cd. ( It does seem to have a rather short trunk /boot. )

I'd say the trunk is hidden by the design : long sloping rear window (reminiscent of old liftback designs), long stratched tail lights.
It looks to me as if it's as long as the wagon.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Cd

Im seeing .27 as the Cd of the ICE 4 door models. Dimensions are 71.7 " width X 57.8 " tall.
I'm hoping that they add the sedan to the EV lineup. It looks like it could possibly have a better Cd. ( It does seem to have a rather short trunk /boot. )

Also note on the propaganda photos that the electric focus has some sort of micro camback, if its significantly better aero than the leaf and weighs almost the same (which I doubt) it probably will have a better highway range but probably a poor city range due to the inevitable ford weight gain.

[NeilBlanchard]

The Focus Electric is nearly 3,700 pounds. I think the Leaf is ~3,200?

[CigaR007]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

The Focus Electric is nearly 3,700 pounds.

That's a lot. That's almost double the weight of my Echo (about 2065 lbs).

[Angmaar]

Looks nice except for the fact that it's 3,700LBS.

[bennelson]

Looks nice overall!

The flip around charging port is cute, but gimmicky. I can see that breaking real quick.

The state of charge indicator ring light around the charging port is pretty neat too. The Tesla has something similar. The ring around the charge plug changes color and how fast it "pulses" to indicate both state of charge and rate of charge.

On my Metro, I simply use an extension cord that has the power indicator light built into the end. That way, it lights up the charging port so I can see to plug in the dark!
I have thought about possibly adding some LEDs in there that would come on when the charging port door is open, and have it indicate AC power to the charger.

[Frank Lee]

3700- it is a porker. Around 3000 for the gasser- should be at least 500 lbs lighter gasser and electric (cuz Tempos are around 2500 lbs and they're early '80s tech).

I'd like it if they offered a stripped version- none of that electronic gook- it'd knock thousands off the price and hundreds off the poundage.

Smore info:

http://www.caranddriver.com/news/car...nfo-auto_shows

[rmay635703]

So in other words, even if this has wicked good aero, it will suck in a normal driving cycle that has stops.

Leave it to the big 3 to ruin something good by not doing anything to reduce weight.

I would guess with minor, possibly unnoticable changes to the interior and seats they could shave 500lbs and if they would actually use the lightweight strong steel prototypes for the unibody they could shave 50% off the body/frame weight.

Ah well.

[Automcdonough]

They screwed up from step one.
FWD.

So far it seems Tesla is the only one not interested in failure.