Tag Archives: Cars

Ford Focus Electric car after first 2500 miles

I bought the 2015 Focus in March. After rebates, less than 20k out the door.

I have not needed a quick charger and there are very few anyway. At least in AZ near me. Of the two closest one is always broken. So if you are considering a Leaf over a Focus because the Leaf has the QC then you should ask yourself if it’s really important or just a want.

Only one person has asked me what it’s like driving an electric car. They saw it plugged in on my driveway. The Focus is so not noticeable as an EV. I am going to have it advertise my Amsoil synthetic oil business with a full graphics kit. I doubt anybody will notice the irony. A car that needs no oil advertising oil. But since the only way to use less oil with a normal car is use synthetic oil then why not. Amsoil can reduce you oil changes to once a year or every 25,000 miles.

I am glad I did not buy the Leaf. Not that the Leaf isn’t a nice car. It’s just far more expensive for what you get compared to the Focus.

Many of you who haven’t read all my posts may not know I decided to buy a Mazda 6 instead of a Nissan Leaf before I bought the Ford EV.. Which I love by the way. 30 MPG average and well worth the 25k OTD. Although I bought the Mazda first and the Ford second that 7k I saved not buying the Leaf paid for more than 1/3 of the Ford.

When I got my Mazda home i then started to notice most of my trips were 12 miles or less and very few were more than 65 miles per day. In the 2600 miles and 3 months I have driven the Focus there have only been 2 occasions where I chose the Mazda by necessity (round trip over 90 miles. And even on those 2 days I probably could have used the FFE had I wanted to stop and charge for a bit. Probably less than an hour. And I do like driving the Mazda. It a really nice car. The other day someone got in an asked if it was a Tesla. Really.

Today is actually the first day I needed to charge to get home. Half hour of Level 2 was all it took and I had 9 miles left when I got home. I got caught by surprise. I got called into work. It’s 22 miles from my house to work. I had 40 miles of range as I had used the car to do some things earlier in the day. About 45 miles worth.

There are chargers at work. I would charge overnight and have a full battery the next day when I got back. When I got to work they had already found another pilot to fly my flight so it didn’t delay waiting for me.

I saw two things that I had never seen in the time I have owned it. On the way to work when I had a range of 24 miles showing it told me I had reached a point where I should go back home (I don’t remember the exact words). And on the way home when I got to 10 miles left the battery symbol turned amber and I got a low charge message. That was about 4 miles from home.

When I got home I had 9 miles left. The power of regenerating brakes and taking a stretch of road where the speed limit was 45 and not 55-65 for about 6 miles.

I guess I didn’t have to spend the half hour charging to get home from the airport and they had Blink Chargers there. I guess I spent a dollar for insurance.

If there were an abundance of quick chargers around where you could drive anywhere like Tesla Superchargers and had the range to get from one to the next I might find quick charge necessary. They would also have to be competitively priced. $9 for a charge is excessive. You can drive a ICE car like my Mazda for 90 miles on gas for that.

I guess the Nissan would let you charge at their QC for free with their NCTC program but with only one of the two local dealers with a working charger and that one behind gates for 12 hours a day it is not really convenient. The Blink QC at the mall is the only other QC anywhere near me. I have never seen anyone using it. They should put a Level 2 There.

So far 2 thumbs up or 5 stars for the Ford Focus Electric.

Speak not of what you know not.

Originally posted by a naysayer when debating the merits of a new Corvette to a new Tesla S.

“It’s great until you run out of charge on your way to grandma’s house carrying five people and lots of stuff.

Teslas are great second cars to run about town. But then again I reckon the Corvette would be a second car too.”

A reply from a verified Tesla owner.

 

Speak not of what you know not.

I have a plain vanilla Model S 85 kWh hour battery version, that I got in December 2014. It’s my only car; the daily driver. It has 95% of the cargo space of my wife’s Highlander SUV. It does 0-60 in about 5.0 seconds, the Tesla that is.

This is THE BEST car I’ve ever owned, and that includes a BMW 535, and a Saab 900T, both of which were very fun to drive.

I drive the Tesla (license plate [redacted]) regularly between Tucson and Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (110 miles one way), Tucson and our place in Flagstaff (240 miles one way, Flagstaff and Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (153 miles one way). Range and charging is never an issue, with the ability to charge easily at home, and then use Tesla Superchargers at either Casa Grande or Cordes Junction.

For example, the drive from Tucson to Flagstaff is 240 miles, but the real issue is the net 6000 elevation gain from the Phoenix area to Flagstaff. A Model S cannot make it non-stop in that direction even driving as economically possible. But I leave Tucson with 265 miles of rated range, and then drive the 160 miles at 80 MPH (that’s faster than max range speed) to the Supercharger at Cordes Junction. I get to Cordes with about 50 rated miles left. I do a 20 minute pee-break and sandwich stop. In that 20 minutes the Supercharger adds 120 miles of rated range to bring the rated range up to 175. The distance to Flagstaff is 85, and that much range lets me go up the big hill coming out of the Verde Valley at 80, and get to the Flagstaff place with 35 or so miles left.

Coming back from Flag to Tucson, I can make it non-stop at 65 MPH, but I usually drive 80, and then stop for a 10-15 pee break at the Casa Grande Supercharger. 10-15 minutes of fast charge adds enough range to let me drive the remaining 65 miles at 80 and get home with plenty of margin.

I’ve been to San Diego and Los Angeles, and with the Supercharger network (that’s -no cost- fast charging) the drive is a no-brainer.

Now, if you’re the kind of person who has to drive 4 hours at a stretch, 10 minute pee break then another 4 hours of driving, the Model S is not for you. But I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t mind a 20 minute stop every 200-220 miles or so.

This is a totally practical car for most people with average driving needs.

Volt Drivers! and some Tesla drivers.

While more Volt sales will be good for the environment it’s not really that good for the EV only population.

My workplace just opened a bank of 6 charge spots. They made the mistake of putting the cord where it can only reach 1 spot at a time. Not 2 or 4.

All of a sudden Volt drivers have found out and changed parking lots because of the free chargers. From closer to work to free charging. Talk about cheap! They are willing to take a train just for a few free miles.

In the other lot the chargers weren’t free, they were Blink.

If I don’t leave for work fully charged, and I often don’t since I usually go to work later in the day, I need to get at least some charge to get home. Volt drivers don’t. And if they had put a faster charger on the car you wouldn’t need all day to do it.

Volt drivers like to tout how many EV miles they get but they forget to tell people that they plugin like cigarette smokers take smoke breaks. Often. Although not as often as Plug-in Prius Drivers. All ten of them.

With the proliferation of Plug-in Hybrids EV’s are finding it harder to get a charge when they really need one.

It is also common to see Tesla’s and Volts using EV Only Spots like handicapped parking spaces. Some even have the nads to not even plugin. Some just put the cord in far enough to just make it look like they are charging.

How many companies do you think are going to keep putting up chargers when they expect some revenue from those chargers. I know your Teslas and Volts tells you when your done charging and if not the Charging Company does. They don’t put them there for the environmentally challenged driver.

Now that EV’s are getting into the mainstream or at least Hybrid EV’s you really need to teach your peeps some etiquette. Charging spots are to charge. Pure BEV’s while we are few really need to charge at these spaces. If you want to see more of these spaces as more cars hit the road the companies who provide the chargers need to see the revenue.

With more of these cars on  the road it will be you who won’t be able to charge. And while that may or may not matter to you since you have a backup engine I’ll bet it will. You will no longer be able to tout what great gas milage you get. Especially you Gen 1 owners. It will be because the charge companies don’t get enough revenue to support a charger. Will they have to resort to putting vending machines next to their chargers?

EV spots should be EV spots, not hybrid spots. While you usually don’t have enough capacity to get all your days charge at home and I do, when I need to charge on the road I’m not doing it because I want to, I’m doing it because I need to. Admittedly not all that often do I need to charge on the road but you need to move when your ten minutes are up.

When the EV becomes ubiquitous will the drives be as annoying as everybody on their smartphones in public?

Volt headed for the dustbin of automotive history?

“The Chevrolet Volt, meanwhile, seems headed to the dustbin of automotive history, like GM’s original EV-1 and the entire Saturn division.” At least that’s what Alex Taylor, III of Fortune Magazine says. To read the entire article Click Here.

Actually I think he has that part all wrong. While the volt is heavy and slow and pretty much everything else he says about the car, it’s not going away anytime soon as long as GM doesn’t get cold feet.

Yes they stopped making the old Volt and have reduced prices to sell what they have left. That’s what technology companies do. And the Volt is technology as much as it is car.

But where the next Volt will succeed, it will not be in beating out the Tesla, because sorry folks, it’s no Tesla. What it is, a Prius Killer. That’s right, you heard it here first. Why spend $30k for a Prius Plug In that can go a whopping (sarcasm) 11 miles on the battery before you need to plug back in. And then it gets the same gas milage as a regular Prius, about 50 MPG.

The 2015 Volt gets 38 all electric miles while the 2016 is projected to get 50 miles on a single charge. That’s enough so most people will rarely if ever put gas in it. I should know. I currently drive a Ford Focus EV and rarely do I drive more than 50 miles in a day and I hardly ever drive more than the average 80 mile range.

Sorry but Toyota better watch out. And Tesla, they aren’t even in the sub $50k market, at least not yet.

This is a place where thanks to Tesla American Car Manufactures have the potential to really shine.

Toyota is betting that Hydrogen is the next big thing. Wrong. That’s why the Prius doesn’t get better, only bigger (Prius V) and Smaller (Prius C). They gave up on the Rav 4 EV. A car loved by almost everybody that has one. I know 3 people that have them. Sadly that’s actually a lot of people to know with an electric car. Two of them cut their EV teeth with a Nissan Leaf and one still has his.

The Prius is pretty much everything Alex Taylor, III says about the Volt. Heavy, drives like a washing machine. My mother has a Prius. I like riding in the back seat a lot more than I like driving it. Maybe that’s why cabbies or at least their passengers like them. (Edit) And as one person who read my post stated. The Volt is very responsive from 0-30 MPH. Actually most EV’s are. It’s fun to beat most cars from 0 to the posted speed limit of 45 or less. Be careful though.  You would be surprised how many kids in a Camaro or Mustang don’t like that.

By the way, I said the Prius was slow and heavy, Alex Taylor, III said the Volt was slow and heavy.

Tesla will continue to build the “BMW” of electric cars, at least as long as BMW keeps building half ass EV’s like the i8 and i3. Cool but not Tesla cool. Both way to expensive for mere mortals.

The Ford Focus EV is the only real EV Ford makes and it’s just a compliance car. Try to buy one out of a Compliance State and you will come up empty. The rest of the Fords are just Hybrids and Plug Ins and no better than Toyota. They need to redesign the Focus so the batteries don’t take up all the cargo space. Maybe they should ask Tesla for some help. The battery pack, the rear view mirror (needs HomeLink) and no moonroof are my only complaints. And that’s only because when my son farts in the car I have to roll down the windows to get fresh air.

Sorry Alex, The Volt is a great car technologically and is getting better in the next model. Greater range, both gas and electric. 5 seats instead of 4 and some more advanced driving safety options as well.

And, I almost forgot the best part. The price. It’s going to have a sub 30k price tag after the tax credit. That puts it smack dab in Prius territory. If you have ever talked to a Volt owner they rarely ever use the gas engine.

Right now I own one American Car. The Focus EV. While it’s heavy it’s actually fun to drive.  If the Volt handles as well and is as nice inside as my 2015 Mazda 6 I will without a doubt consider putting the Mazda to the curb and I love the car. It is everything Car and Driver says it is. Actually it would be really nice if it could have a Tesla conversion. Elon? The Volt may just do it. Make me want to sell my Mazda.

Then the only car to get rid of is the Honda Pilot my wife drives. The 18MPG wonder. With gas prices headed back up and global warming becoming more of a reality every day Honda better hope Elon doesn’t figure out how to make a sub $50k SUV.

Americans may have finally figured it out. Nissan may be the Japanese’s best and only hope. They have sold the most EV’s of anyone. And they are actually really good as well. They are just to expensive still.

The Volt is here to stay. If not we will be stuck with Pri-i. Is that what you call more than one Prius?

Remember when the German’s bombed Pearl Harbor?

 

I hate CNBC

Ok, it’s not just CNBC but pretty much all so called news outlets They don’t report news as much as sell you something.

I was on Yahoo.com doing some financial research on Tesla. While I’m looking at the research there is a video from CNBC with some talking heads and a so called expert from Garage Monkey  or some crazy name telling people that we will never give up our loud sounding big horsepower muscle cars. Or at least he won’t. We love the sound and the smell. Just look at how many classics are still around.

Well, yeah, there are lots of classics still around. In garages and museums. Unless you count the thousands that are rusted out and decaying in the barns and backyards of America. About the only place people still drive Classics everyday, Cuba. And I doubt that’s because they want to.

I remember the days of my youth riding in my fathers ’67 (maybe ’68) Dodge Charger. I remember what a cool car it was at the time. It was also a real piece of crap. It always had trouble starting and it didn’t have air conditioning . The sad part is I was to young to drive it. Had I drove it I surely would have never look at a classic ever.

In the late 70’s and early 80’s I got to drive classics like the Chevette, Chrysler K car, and Nova. There are more as I drove a lot of real junk back then. They sure didn’t make them any better. I can’t or don’t want to remember all those really bad cars of the day.

But like many folks in their late 40’s and feeling flush with cash after the market boom of the early 2000’s I went out and bought not just one but 2 classic cars. A 1967 Chevy Chevelle SS. Wow, what a cool car. Well not really. It would make a lot of noise and sounded really neat but it really drove like crap. It’s amazing people drove those things more than 10 miles a day even when they were new.

But being a glutton for punishment I bought a more luxurious classic car. A 1964 Chevy Impala. Also the SS version. This was a boat. I should have driven it before I bought but I got it sight unseen off eBay.

What these cars did most of the time was sit in my warehouse. I had to move them every time I got a delivery. After the market crashed in 2008 I decided they were just to much trouble to keep moving. They were so crappy that I never wanted to drive them. They were pretty to look at though. If I want to do that there are plenty of people who have them in garages all around me. My best friend has a 1964 Corvette sitting in his garage. He’s not a big fan of driving it either. He’s afraid that if he leaves it parked to get something to eat that someone might steal it or crash into it. It’s around 64k of wasted potential. While it keeps going up every year if he had taken the 22k he paid for it ten years ago and bought almost any decent stock it would be worth twice what it is now. And instead of parking his Kia Soul in the driveway he could fit it in the garage. That’s right, he’s driving a Kia Soul. At least when he doesn’t need his big Dodge Diesel for moving motorcycles everyday. He buys and sells them.

So as long as we are giving opinions, here are some of mine.

Just like people hated answering machines when they first came out or cellphones (the people who didn’t have one yet). The technology and price of the electric car gets more attractive every few years. It might take 10-20 years to get to the point where that’s what people want or can afford but there is no question that the technology is here and if automakers actually build them and sell them in every market people will buy them. As more people get them, more people will want what everybody else has. Just like the Navy Converted from Coal and Wood to Oil back in the day.

Used cars will hit the market as well. Just like some people wait for last years iPhone before they buy it there will be people buying 5-8 year old electric cars and loving them.

No buying gas. No oil changes. No filters to change. The scheduled maintenance is pretty much rotate the tires every 10,000 miles.

I have about 2000 miles on my Ford Focus Electric and there has only been one day where I was afraid to take it on the trip I had planned. If I had known I was going to be where I was for as long as I was it wouldn’t have been a problem. They had a charger there and in 2 hours I would have been good to go. I was there all night.

While todays ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars are really pretty good, O.K. really good they still burn gas. A product that we fight wars for. A product that we have no control over the pricing or production since most of it is imported. We use almost 80-90% more than we produce. And while people still debate if fossil fuels cause global warming there is no debate that they cause pollution. Oil spills cause catastrophic losses to wildlife and livelihoods.

Do we want to go back to the days where air pollution was so thick in many cities you couldn’t see more than a couple miles. Do we want Los Angeles or Chicago to look like Mexico City or Shanghai. Should we go back to the days where Lake Erie is dead and the rivers of Ohio burn when you light a match?

The price of gas in Phoenix is over $2.70 a gallon again. Up more than a dollar a gallon in less than 4 months. The cost of my electricity is down. At least between midnight and 5 AM. The electric company wants me to charge my car at night. They need people to use all that excess capacity that’s available at night when people are sleeping and the temps are cooler so the AC doesn’t run as much.

Another thing is there are no refineries in Phoenix using a ton of electricity to turn all that crude oil into gas. Yeah, it takes a lot of electricity to make a gallon of gas. Then it takes a lot of diesel to truck it to the gas station. Then it takes more electricity to pump it into your car.

Almost everybody in the U.S. now days has electricity already coming to their house. It doesn’t take any more modification to get it to your car than it does to hook up an RV.

The only reason I go to a gas station now is to buy a snack and use the washroom.

Finally, an affordable Electric Car that isn’t ugly.

The Ford Focus Electric.

The 2015 Ford Focus Electric Car has a list price of $31,990 with Leather Seats,  Without leather seats it’s almost $1k less.

If you are in a Compliance State they have many of them and not so many buyers.
They should have more buyers but people fear all electric cars. They shouldn’t.
If you live in a non-compliance State like I do they sell for a premium. That’s why I went out of State to get it. Actually I never left my house to get it. It was all done using email, phones and FedEx.

I bought this car in March.
Sticker Price:                 $30,990.00

Ford Focus

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

EV Parking Only

Maybe the problem is with the sign and not the EV Driver?

T5615In the week I have had my BEV I have seen some pretty poor charging etiquette.Electric-Vehicle-Parking-Sign-K-8559

There is a Level 2 charger near my home. Less than a block away as a matter of fact. It is also close to the home of a Tesla Driver. While we are both BEV drivers he plugs in, goes home and doesn’t unplug when he has topped off. He stays there till he decides to leave again.

So while the sign says “EV Parking Only” it doesn’t say your are the only EV that can park there.

The problems with parking your car and leaving it as long as you feel like it are many. This is not your personal parking space. There are people who actually need to charge their cars.

You wouldn’t go to a gas station, fill up your car and then leave it there while you go to a movie or have lunch? or would you. Do you think the owner of the gas station might have a fit if you were blocking their gas pump. They put it there to make money. Or in the case of my friend with is Tesla, they put it there as a convenience to the people who live there or visit friends.

When you are done charging, move your car. I doubt you would keep your car there if your were charged for time in the space vs. time actually charging?

There is also the question of being a Plug in Hybrid vs. a pure BEV. Yes your Plug in allows you to use a charger but as a BEV owner I might really need that charge to get home. So as a Plug In you really need to get out of the way when you are done. I’m sure many of you have fits when you see and ICE vehicle parked in the EV space, don’t you?

Just like many States now are limiting or eliminating exemptions for Hybrids it won’t be long before they eliminate special privileges for PEV’s. You are not committing to the cause, you are just testing the waters. Pretty soon if you need to feel special you will have to jump into the deep end and go pure BEV.

So, since somebody has to make the rules I propose the following.

If you have more than enough juice to get home (if you have a home charger) then leave a note saying that it is OK to disconnect you. If you have a PEV and a BEV needs the juice please move ASAP or let the BEV disconnect.

And so businesses will keep installing and expanding the charger networks please let them get as much paid time as possible. If we want more places and spaces we are going to have to show that we can be responsible consumers and that we are not just looking for Rock Star Parking.

If you stay parked in a space and not charging you are no better than that friend who comes over to your house every night to drink your beer, eat your food and play footsie with your spouse when your not home.

Parking at the airport

Parking at the airport

There is one and only one place where I have seen an acceptable place to park for an extended period of time. An airport parking lot. There were 2 spaces that had a 72 hour limit on the sign and 4 spaces that had a 10 hour parking limit sign. They want you to drive and park there. Odds are really good you can’t get back to your car quickly.

Tesla S

As for my neighbor, either you live nearby or your girlfriend lives nearby. Get of the couch, stop drinking for a few minutes and go move your car. Either that or go home to your wife and kids.The excuse that daddy is just going out for a charge isn’t going to work for long.