Tuesday 11 January 2011. The Green Piece Column.
It may not be released to the market until late this year, but the Ford Focus Electric certainly caused a storm when unveiled to the public last week (see article).
In a Manhattan showroom made to look like a domestic garage, Bill Ford, the great grandson of Henry Ford, plugged the car into a charging station as if to symbolically welcome a new era of motoring for the manufacturing giant. However, with the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan LEAF already available is Ford arriving too late to the party?
Focus on technology
Ford has packed the Focus Electric with a bevy of features that should ensure it challenges the LEAF in the areas of range and charging – perhaps the two biggest stumbling blocks to the potential success of electric cars.
The car will be sold with a 120V convenience cord, but buyers in North America will be encouraged to buy a 240V charging station from Ford’s partner Best Buy for around $1,499. The station is said to slash charging times by around four hours – half the time it takes to fully recharge the Nissan LEAF.
What’s more is that even though Ford doesn’t have official figures for the range of the Focus Electric just yet, it is expected to cover the “daily driving habits of the majority of Americans” – so most critics are placing the range in the region of 100miles, meaning it is more or less on a par with the LEAF.
However, where the Focus Electric really comes into its own is with the new technologies it incorporates.
One example is MyFord Touch, a driver connect system especially for electric vehicles. It offers an innovative presentation of vehicle information including battery charge levels, distance to the nearest charging point, the corresponding range budget and range margin. It also allows drivers to access even more information such as the electrical demands of vehicle accessories such as air conditioning. The display uses blue butterflies to represent the surplus range beyond a charge point destination, with more butterflies indicating more range. The idea is said to be inspired by the “butterfly effect” with the hope that drivers will pick up on the idea that small changes can have a huge impact. This is furthered because at the end of each drive, the motorist will be given information on miles gained through regenerative braking, distance driven, energy consumed and the comparative petrol savings.
Similar to the Chevrolet Volt, the Ford Focus Electric also comes with a smartphone app called MyFord Mobile that allows drivers to gain even more information and potentially change how they operate their car. It can even give drivers a heads-up as to when their vehicle needs charging and they can even program the car to a certain temperature before driving on a chilly day.
Potential problems
Perhaps the biggest caveat to the success of the Ford Focus Electric is that demand for electric vehicles in general remains such as unknown quantity.
The company plans to let drivers dictate demand and supply and predictions are that there will be increased interest particularly with oil prices expected to leap towards the end of 2011. However, progress for all electric cars continues to be hampered by the lack of charging infrastructure and the inability to travel long distances.
Ford and other carmakers have committed to building an infrastructure for electric vehicles. At the moment, in the US for example, there are only around 1,800 public charging stations and the bulk of those are in the California area. However, within the next 18months it is hoped that this number will be expanded to around 12,000 charging stations throughout the US and these will be pinpointed on the mapping system that is built into the Focus Electric as well as on the MyFordMobile smartphone application.
Another potential issue is price, with many consumers put off by the initial retail price of electric cars. Ford will need to position the Focus Electric in a similar price range to the Nissan LEAF, or perhaps even the Toyota Prius, if it is to attract customers interested in the technology. At the moment, Ford has yet to reveal any pricing details.
Our verdict – how the Focus Electric can succeed
As time passes, electric cars continue to get more sophisticated and the problems that surround them breaking through as a mainstream success continue to be addressed. The Focus Electric is a clear example of that – its range is more than sufficient for the bulk of travellers and range anxiety as an issue should be addressed as more charging stations are built. Furthermore, charging times have been slashed.
Another key to its potential success is that the Focus model name is already well-established – this isn’t a new name being introduced in the mode of the Volt or the LEAF, it’s a mainstream vehicle with the electric model to be produced on a platform that is also producing a hybrid and plug-in hybrid as well as a conventional petrol engine.
Patience will also be a virtue for success. More charging stations are needed, better understanding of how electric vehicles work is required and the price tag will also be a crucial factor. However, in the Focus Electric, perhaps more so than any other battery electric vehicle to date, Ford appears to have a green hit on their hands.
Faye Sunderland
