Competition in the growing battery-electric vehicle (BEV) market took a big step up last week, as Ford Motor Co. announced that it has launched production of the Focus Electric.
The Focus Electric, which carries no gasoline onboard, will go head-to-head with the Nissan Leaf and will be the only other high-volume BEV to be marketed by a major automaker. In many respects, it will be similar to the Leaf, offering a miles-per-gallon-equivalent figure of around 100 and an all-electric range between 70 and 100 miles. The new vehicle's major differences are that it will charge in about half the time, will cost slightly more than the Leaf, and will be built in a flexible setting that can handle large or small production volumes .
Click the image of the Ford Focus Electric below to view a slideshow of the five-passenger vehicle:
Ford's five-passenger Focus Electric will compete head-to-head with Nissan's Leaf.
Source: Ford Motor Co.
"If the Ford Focus EV starts selling like gangbusters, they'll be ready," says Dave Hurst, senior analyst for Pike Research, in an interview with Design News. "Ford will be building the gasoline Focus, the Hybrid C-Max, and the Focus EV in the same plant, and they can shift from one vehicle to another depending on demand."
Up to now, no BEV has turned in big sales numbers. The Leaf is expected to hit about 10,000 in 2011, accounting for nearly all the industry's BEV sales. Pike Research predicts overall BEV sales will hit about 30,000 in 2012, out of an expected total of 13 million vehicles sold in the US. Other battery-electric vehicles will vie for their share of these 30,000 sales, however. Honda, Toyota Scion, Tesla, and BYD Motors will roll out pure electric cars in 2012, and GM is expected to follow with its Spark EV in 2013.
The Chevy Volt, which is referred to as an electric car, doesn't fall in the BEV category, because it carries gasoline onboard.
Ford says the Focus Electric is the first pure electric car to offer fast-recharging technology. At 240V, it can be recharged in three to four hours -- about half the time the Nissan Leaf takes. The difference is Ford's use of a 6.7kW onboard charger, as opposed to the Leaf's 3.3kW charger. At 120V, the Focus battery will "fill up" in approximately 18 to 20 hours.
In a press release, Ford declared that its fast-charging capability will translate to greater range. "Faster charging with 240 volts also can extend range as drivers can more quickly recharge between stops," the release states.
Ford was not forthcoming with its miles-per-gallon-equivalent figures or single-charge range numbers, however. It said only that its MPGe will be more than 100mpg, and its range on a single charge will be "competitive with other comparable all-electric vehicles." The Nissan Leaf clocks in at 99 MPGe and the Volt offers 93 MPGe.
Ford's new EV will employ a 23kWh lithium-ion battery supplied by LG Chem Ltd. and manufactured by Compact Power Inc. In terms of capacity, the battery is very similar to the Leaf's 24kWh unit and almost 50 percent larger than Chevy Volt's 16kWh product.
Ford has priced the Focus Electric at $39,995, making it identical to the Chevy Volt, and more costly than the Leaf, which has an MSRP of $35,200.
Hurst says that most electric vehicle makers are as yet treading lightly and not expecting huge sales numbers for the Leaf, Focus, or any other BEV in 2012. "These companies aren't looking for big numbers right out of the gate," he says. "We're still seeing questions because there are a lot of new technologies here, and everyone wants to be sure they're ready."
To keep up with our Chevy Volt coverage, go to Drive for Innovation and follow the cross-country journey of EE Life editorial director Brian Fuller. On his trip, sponsored by Avnet Express, Fuller is driving a Volt across America to interview engineers.
That's an excellent point, Beth. And the EV makers are aware of the potential problem, so Nissan and Sumitomo have partnered to deliver a charging station that costs $9,900. According to Nissan, that's about one third the cost of the charging stations that are currently on the market. Be that as it may, I think it makes sense that an EV producer would take action to try to make the infrastructure affordable.
These high cost'charging stations' are a complete rip off. They should have been just a standard RV outlet for $10 plus the box, post to put it in, on.
But no they have to make completely new expensive units that are completely unnessasary.
My EV's don't even need 240vac as they can charge from almost dead in 4 hrs from 120vac!!
That's the complete problem EV's we are getting have in a nutshell, too big, too heavy, too expensive when forklift EV drives and medium tech composites can do the same job for 50% or less!! There is no reason a great 2 seat commuter EV can't be made for under $10k in real mass production.
And no reason a 12.5kw charging station cost more than $200/vehicle and installation.
I agree that there needs to be more focus on how these vehicles can be used pratically in smallville USA. And I think that's where the future of inovation lies. Whether it be in replaceble batteries that you drop off and replace at the local gas station or plugins at every parking meter. The how to is still a little fuzzy in the electrical vehicle world.
Good points Jerry. It looks like they're building EVs for the luxury market, and thus they have add-ons that drive the cost up. Are any of the car companies building a stripped-down EV designed for city use?
I like both of those ideas as options for recharging. Retrofitting parking meters with EV charging outlets seems like a great idea. And the cities and towns (even my Smallville town of Newburyport has meters) could charge a premium price for those meters with charging capabilities and generate a little more tax revenue.
I would also think it would make sense to have these charging units packaged and priced as a simple extra on the total vehicle package. After all, who gets a phone or a tablet these days that doesn't come with a charging unit?
It's the fact big auto see selling a small light EV as them not being able to sell a higher profit one. Plus they want to prove EV's are too expensive so they can keep selling all those 20x's overpriced engiine/trans, etc repair parts they make a lot of their profit from.
Most of my custom EV's use 25-50 yr old E motors most of the time I just clean them up and put them in as they last near forever even with their brushes, their supposed bad feature. But that feature allows 66% savings in the controller too.
Not that any of big auto has spent much if any of their own money to build EV's but have received over $1b in grants so really they have no cost in them, only profit. Just another thing they don't bother mentioning along with how really cheap they are paying for the batteries they use, around $250/kwhr or less.
I got tired of waiting for them to do cost effective EV's so shortly I'll start selling plans so most anyone can have a good EV with some learning, sweat, build their own for under $2k.
While that is happening I'll set up production lines for my composite 2-3wh ones. The sad thing is why does it have to come down to someone like me to get the vehicles many want and need?
They are charging what they are Because they can as no other EV's are available except some older big auto 70's/80's/90's ones and conversions, about 60k on the road of these now.
Why almost no other company(Tesla has) has done it is the Fed DOT rules which cost about $10 in paperwork, lawyers to get through before you can start a 4wh production line. You need at least $100MM to start one.
Or go my way, make rather cool 3wh cars and aero cabin MC's from medium tech composites and forklift EV tech.
Many have tried like Aptera where VC's came in and stole the company from the founders then tried to use it to scam others. We'll see how I do.
Rob - I think they are targeting the higher end markets because of the lack of penetration. The base cost of ownership has not yet come down to a competitive level, so the majority of people who are buying them are the early adopter - those that want something cool, are willing to pay for the environmetal benefits, have another car for long trips or hauling. The people that would mostly want the "cheap" version would also be looking at it as a replacement for their sole car, and these aren't there yet.
Just wondering, with these pure EV's coming out what is there for emergency power? If you aren't paying attention to your gas powered car, you walk to the nearest gas station, get a gas can and walk back with enough "power" to get back to the station for a complete fill-up. What happens when your stranded with an electric vehicle - especially since it seems that the miles-per-charge vary a lot more than mile-per-gallon such as due to temperature?
Good points, Jack. The heart of your argument is that the EVs can't replace a conventional vehicle. That makes EVs the vacation house of the auto world, primarily a luxury vehicle for those who are not seeking value as a primary quality of their auto purchase.
This has always been the issue with BEVs. Many years ago, spurred by oil price hikes and supply problems, the idea of a switchable battery pack was the solution. The idea was that, instead of charging at home (which I guess you could do as well), you would pull into a "station" and the battery pack would be switched out. The "station" would have a large number of packs and fast chargers. At that time the batteries were not as capable, expensive or comples as the current ones. My understanding is that the battery in the Tesla (which is arguably a much more capable device) is several hunderd pounds and costs about $25K. I am not sure that these are the current figures, but they give the order of magnitude.
The real answer is that the BEV is relegated to a second car for local driving. That wil limprove over time, but it does limit the market at the current price.
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