Sticker Price:                 $30,990.00

2015 Ford Focus

Negotiated Discount:   $-2,057.40
Price before Rebates:   $28,932.60
Sales Tax and Title:       $ 1,428.23
Out of State Delivery:   $   300.00
Ford Rebate:                   $-3,500.00
Total Out the Door:       $27,160.83
Federal Tax Credit:       $-7,500.00
5 years of tags:               $    60.00
Price after Tax Credits: $19,720.83

Or about $60-80k less than a Tesla S. To get the max tax credit you have to have paid at least that much in Federal Taxes in the year you purchase the car. Check with your accountant to make sure you qualify. It might make more sense to lease if you don’t get most if not all of it.

In Arizona the License Plates are only $30 a year and you have access to the HOV Lane. In California the plates are more but they give an extra $2500 tax credit which more that offsets that. There are other incentives available depending which State you are in.

To find currently available Federal Tax Credits Click Here. For current incentives and tax credits in you State Click Here.

I did get the windows tinted with SunTek CXP for $370 plus a set of wheel locks for $35 off eBay so I guess I have a few more bucks in it but I still consider that a smoking deal.

That’s a lot of car for 20k. Try and find a used one for that price let alone a gas model Focus with the same trim level.

And to date I have never got home with less than 20 miles of charge left on it. Thats running the AC in the Arizona Sun. I’m also not hypermileing.

My utility company also has a EV value charge plan where midnight to 0500 is 6 cents a KWH and I’m averaging 4 miles per KWH so 1.5 cents per mile. The average car in the same class as the Focus gets 30 MPG.

So if my math is correct, 30 miles in this car costs 45 cents. Compared to a gallon of gas today at $2.19 I’m saving the equivalent of $1.74 per gallon.

That’s almost 6 cents per mile. I doubt gas is going much lower. But even if it did, I haven’t seen 45 cent gas since 1971.

If gas goes back to $4 a gallon then I’m saving close to 12 cents per mile.

Should we see $1 gas again then it’s still a savings of $3k over 100k miles. $2 gas,  $6k savings and $4 gas $12k savings at 100k miles.

And don’t buy the BS that an electric car will be worthless in just a few years. After 3 years the car will be worth at least 14k. Even if the battery loses 10% of it’s range. The odds of that are slim. The Ford Battery is liquid cooled unlike the Leaf.

My 2011 Miata which cost $25k out the door sold 3 years later with 31k miles on it for $14k An $11k loss. It also needed 3 oil changes during that 3 years and only got 26 MPG with $3 a gallon gas average.

Any car should easily get 100k miles and if taken care of 300k miles or 15 years before repairs cost more than its worth..

The Focus Electric is much more practical than the Miata with room for 4 and some Cargo space. The back seats also fold down. I have put a bicycle in the back with both wheels on it.

In the 3 years I owned my Miata it only went more than 70-80 miles in a day twice. Those two times we could have rented a car. It went 600 miles in 3 days and it would have made more sense to rent for those trips.

If you are interested in a Nissan Leaf you won’t get as much car for the money. I spent about 2 weeks negotiating on one before I decided it wasn’t a sound financial decision. At least not yet at their current prices. A fully loaded Leaf is almost $6k more than a Ford Focus. A bare bones Leaf S is comparable in price after dealer incentives but with far less luxury.

Thanks to Justin Tezano at Santa Monica Ford for making this deal happen. Mossy Ford in San Diego and Frankie Musilli had the deal first but their F&I guy got greedy and blew the deal.

A version of this post is in my other blog at www.imreallycheap.com