Full Throttle

[TiredEngineer]

So I am in the market for an EV due to the incentives (5k incentive in GA on the chopping block so I am trying to make a decision asap).

My situation:

- 60 mile round trip commute. Half of the time I am moving 75+. Other half is stop-and-go. Atlanta
- Assume full climate, radio/mp3, lights, wipers, EVERYTHING
- There ARE chargers at work (albeit very competitive getting a space)
- Relatively hilly

Assuming I can charge at work (so roughly 30 miles). Would I be OK? When I drive a car I use the features to entertain myself on a sometimes really LONG commute. I want my bass to be loud...the nav to tell me traffic...and not worry about battery.

 

[WattsUp]

Haha... turning up the bass on the radio does not affect range. The only accessory that truly affects range is the climate control (esp. heat). The power required for all the other accessories (radio, lights, wipers, etc.) is negligible and does not affect range.

75 mph on hills? -- well, you could probably make your 30-mile one-way commute without trouble (and have a bit left over most of the time), but you'd probably always need to charge at work to get home. The situation will become tighter in winter or summer when you really crank up the heat or A/C.

I've found that, under ideal conditions, the car is capable of yielding the advertised range (of 76 miles) if you drive on moderately level ground at moderate freeway speeds... like 65 mph or under. Higher speeds and hilly terrain will start to significantly reduce the range. Using climate will reduce it more.

So... based on the style of driving you intend to do, I would count on no more than a 50 mile range year-round... maybe even less. That said, it is possible that you could drive a little slower and maintain a bit more range, and perhaps make your round-trip commute without needing to charge at work.

 

[jmueller065]

I want my bass to be loud

Then get a Titanium gas powered Focus: They have a subwoofer in the trunk that the FFE lacks.

 

[Gigi]

- 60 mile round trip commute. Half of the time I am moving 75+. Other half is stop-and-go. Atlanta
- Assume full climate, radio/mp3, lights, wipers, EVERYTHING
- There ARE chargers at work (albeit very competitive getting a space)
- Relatively hilly

Assuming I can charge at work (so roughly 30 miles). Would I be OK? When I drive a car I use the features to entertain myself on a sometimes really LONG commute. I want my bass to be loud...the nav to tell me traffic...and not worry about battery.

Given your assumptions and charging at work, absolutely no problem. You could knock yourself out driving with the heat and every gadget in the car going full blast and go 30 miles with plenty of range to spare.

We live in East Cobb near Sweat Mountain. My wife commutes to Clairmont and 85 area - Holcomb Bridge, 400, 285, 85 going and Ashford-Dunwoody to 285 coming home (so that she can be in the right lane to turn north on 400). Her round trip is 51 miles. She does NOT charge at work. She arrives home with anywhere between 20 and 35 miles of range remaining depending on how cold the temperature is and how much she uses the heater.

I think you would be fine driving 60 miles round trip in Atlanta traffic WITHOUT charging at work except on those days like we had in January and February when it was down in the teens and 20s. In that kind of cold, 60 miles with the heat on would be cutting it close. If you can charge at work, though. Absolutely no problem.

My wife drives as fast as Atlanta traffic allows her to drive, but not aggressively. She will get up to 75 for short stretches, but most of the time she's creeping in the "parking lot" like everybody else. The FFE does really well in rush hour traffic.

Occasionally she drives I-75 coming home. We went ahead and got the AFV plate so that she can use the HOV lane between the Brookwood interchange and I-285. That saves her a lot of time.

We got our FFE from Sandy Springs. Finn was our sales consultant. He was very helpful. He gave me one of the cars overnight so we could test it out on my wife's commute.

If you don't want a front license tag bracket and the car has one, see my thread about that. http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1741 I had the dealer take the bracket off and then I expressed horror and insisted that they fix the holes. They replaced the grill and had the body man, Kenny, repair the hole in the bumper cover - no charge to me. I had them agree to do that as part of the deal.

Good luck with your purchase or lease. I love our FFE. It's a great car. Send me a PM if I can be of help.

 

[goofygrin]

Yesterday I had to go to a far client (about 23 miles round trip at 65-80mph the whole way). I also went to lunch (about 3 miles) and from my office to home (5 miles). I had the ac on (welcome to Texas) and had 18 miles of indicated range when I got home. I don't hyper mile or anything like that.

 

[pjam3]

Why do you assume you can charge at work? Do you know for sure they have charging stations or outlets there? If so, how many and how many others have Electric or plug-in hybrids?

 

[WattsUp]

Why do you assume you can charge at work? Do you know for sure they have charging stations or outlets there? If so, how many and how many others have Electric or plug-in hybrids?

In the first post in this thread, TiredEngineer said there were chargers at his work. However, he did mention that access is getting competitive.

 

[EVA]

It is the 75+ MPH that will kill you. No you won't make the roundtrip driving like that. You also realize the FFE is limited to 84 MPH, it will not go faster than that.

Yes you could go ahead and drive 75MPH. Get to work and you will have to charge to make it home driving 75. Or you could drive 55-60 MPH, get to work 2 minutes later and make your round trip on one charge.

This car completely changed the way I drive. I was the guy in the left lane flashing his brights at anybody going less than 70. I now drive in the middle or right lane at 55-60 in traffic that runs around 70. I'm very aware of not being a rolling chicane. And guess what - I get where I'm going at virtually the same time. And I'm 100% more relaxed.

If you are married to driving fast, there is exactly one option you have, a Tesla. Nothing else will do your round trip without charging at that speed.

 

[jmueller065]

This car completely changed the way I drive. I was the guy in the left lane flashing his brights at anybody going less than 70. I now drive in the middle or right lane at 55-60 in traffic that runs around 70. I'm very aware of not being a rolling chicane. And guess what - I get where I'm going at virtually the same time. And I'm 100% more relaxed.

I completely agree: The FFE changes your entire attitude towards driving..its much more a cruiser than a racer.

 

[Richmond72]

Charging at work in Atlanta is pretty rare (at least I think it is). Do you mind if I ask where you work (I have a friend that gets to charge his Leaf at UPS)?

I think if you drive a little more conservative in the mornings (which to me is easier to do), you will have plenty of range without charging especially if you can preheat in the winter mornings. When I got my Volt I knew the 35 Miles on the battery wouldn't be enough for my 42 mile commute. I was able to make some changes with my route and speed in the morning that changed my route to 40 miles and allowed me to make it on battery alone. I found that driving a little slower in the mornings was easier and didn't really affect my commute time very much. In the evenings, I didn't have to affect my original speed very much because the trip in the mornings saved me enough battery power to get home.

 

[jmueller065]

Keep in mind that the entire dash of the FFE pretty much turns driving into a "save energy video game" (my coworker described driving the FFE around as a "real life simulation"). If you are competitive at all the dash turns your competitive nature towards saving electrons instead of getting there first ("My driving score was 98 today! Beat that!" "Oh yeah! I only burned 215 Wh/Mile..so there!").

 

[Gigi]

Oop! Sandy Springs Ford is down to just one FFE listed on their webpage. Suppose TiredEngineer snagged one of the two that were left?

 

[TiredEngineer]

Wow, great information.

For anyone familiar with Atlanta I live in the Canton area and drive to powers ferry / windy hill area.

I actually did not get one. There are apparently over 20 Leaf owners alone in my building. I think around 3 Volts and I have seen at least one FFE. There are 4 chargers with 8 parking spots. I just feel like my drive is too iffy to commit when I cannot guarantee a charge. I can never drive "the gang" to lunch. I couldn't even make it to my barber from work unless I could get a full charge to make it home after that (he is in Alpharetta for anyone who knows the area).

 

[EVA]

TiredEngineer - that is probably prudent.

The other thing to consider, the FFE also gets you to think about where there are charging stations. Maybe there is one by your barber? Or one by a restaurant you like.

I have always kind of liked Whole Foods - I love it now. They have free Level 2 charging in their parking lot. I can go over there, grocery shop, have some lunch (relax), and my car has a bunch of charge added while I enjoyed myself. Of course they make it up in what I spend there - hopefully you get the idea.

And no kidding about the video game - I get mad if I don't get a 100% on braking. All things that make your driving better, more relaxed, and more comfortable for your passengers.

 

[pjam3]

My entire existence is really finding charging stations. Whole Foods is great where I live because it's in a promenade, but they only have 2 chargers and one is a super charger I can't use. Half of the time it's being used and there aren't any other stations that close.

The biggest challenge has become lack of charging stations or many charging stations broken and never fixed. There have been quite a few malls that have been out of order for months now and no word on when they will ever be fixed. Others have slower L2 chargers. I know one station where it's a L2 but it takes like 8-10 hours to charge.

The other issue around me is none of them are free anymore. They all charge $1 per hour or more if you're a member. So I'm a member of evGo and Blink and ChargePoint. Today it cost $3 to charge. Not terrible as I walked around town and to the beach with my kids, but it's still 3 bucks. And getting back home meant going from 76 miles to 66 miles for a 5 mile trip home. EvGo is better as it isn't $1 per hour, but they are like $14 bucks a month or something for unlimited. That only works out if you always use them multiple times a week.

In areas where there aren't that many electric cars, I don't think it would be an issue for most people. But there are so many electric cars (teslas are rampant around here) it becomes a pain to find an open charging station. There are also companies that have charging stations but they'll have 4 stations but 10+ people with electric cars.

I honestly started looking at the Hydrogen Fuel cell cars, but the Hyundai isn't offered in my area yet.

 

[ChrisC]

Charging at work in Atlanta is pretty rare (at least I think it is).

It's actually pretty common now, at the big corporations. I can easily name a dozen major corporate sites that offer it.

The smartest companies (e.g. Coca-Cola) offer dozens of Level 1 outlets (regular outlets!) which are super cheap to install and don't require any network connectivity expense.

Then the next smartest ones (e.g. Turner/CNN) offer Level 2 chargers for a small hourly fee for a few hours and then jack the price WAY UP after the initial cheap period. This incentivizes poeple to come down at lunchtime and move their car so someone else can plug in. The Turner/CNN pricing is awesome in this regard -- $0.85/hour for the first four hours, then $20/hour (yes you read that right) after those first four hours. Contention problem solved. BRILLIANT.

Back to the original post ... We'll know what the Georgia tax credit situation is by midnight this Thursday when the legislature wraps up. But the latest compromise as of last Thursday is that THE TAX CREDIT WILL NOT BE KILLED, just given an annual cap.

Further, you aren't exactly the first person to read the news, and MANY people are panicing and buying up the EV stock. So if you are really worried about it, you need to grab what you can immediately. Since FFE's are so hard to find, that generally means getting a Leaf, which sucks because the Leaf compares so poorly to the FFE (just my personal opinion).

But I really don't think you need to settle, because the Georgia tax credit will survive. After the House nonsense, cooler heads have prevailed in the Senate.

 

[Gigi]

TiredEngineer - that is probably prudent.

I wouldn't worry about you driving Canton to Windy Hill/Powers Ferry and back without charging at work about nine months out of the year, even driving at speed coming down 575 until you hit the wall at the merge with I-75. When it's cold, however, you would be cutting it awfully close.

If you think that you can depend on being able to charge at work the months or the days you need it, go for it. But keep in mind that demand for charging spots is likely to be higher on cold days than the rest of the year since those are the days people will need extra juice in order to get home. What you don't want is to become a Mad Max in search of public charging stations or wasting time there in order to make it home comfortably.

If you're intrigued by saving money driving on electricity, consider a Volt or one of the Ford Energis. The Volt will get you most of the way to work and home without charging and you will have the option of driving as far as you want on gas. An Energi can do the same thing, but the electric range is only a little more than half that of the Volt. Where these cars can save money is the short trips around home to the store, out to dinner, etc., most of which can be done on electricity, saving gas.

Before we got an FFE, my wife drove our Fusion Energi on her commute. She didn't charge at work. In spite of her driving only 21 of her 54 mile commute on electricity, we were getting 64 mpg in the Energi, which was astounding to me since I was accustomed to her getting less than 20 mpg in her previous car. Driving the Fusion Energi saved us almost $150 a month.

The Focus Electric is a great car for people who are able to charge at home and whose needs for driving range are within the capabilities of the vehicle.

Prudence is the name of the game in the decision to purchase an electric car or not. Thinking things all the way through can save needless frustration and misery.

 

[unplugged]

The other issue around me is none of them are free anymore.

That is actually a good thing, so long as there are sufficient stations. Too many plug-in hybrids (especially Prius) grab every station they can and hog it for a few hours. By charging a $1 an hour or even less, the charging stations keep plug-in who don't need to charge away. To charge a plug-in Prius, it isn't worth the $1 to charge, so they park somewhere else.

 

[twscrap]

The other issue around me is none of them are free anymore.

You have to pay for gas in an ICE, why is paying for electricity an issue?

 

[kelver]

Oop! Sandy Springs Ford is down to just one FFE listed on their webpage. Suppose TiredEngineer snagged one of the two that were left?

I don't know when that one disappeared but I bought a FFE from Sandy Spring Ford on the 1st of March.