Our One Year Anniversary

[dwf123]

Today marks one year that I have owned the Ford Focus Electric Vehicle. As a little history, I ordered my car on November 28, 2011. I happened to be the first consumer to order the FFEV. My order # is 0001. I live in RI and ordered the car from Schultz Ford in Nanuet, NY. It arrived at the dealership on May 27th, 2012. I paid $33,500.00 after all incentives were received. I was beaten to the delivery gate by a gentlemen from North Carolina (1st consumer delivery) and one from Vermont (2nd consumer delivery). I use the word consumer because Ford made 9 early models and “gave” them to selected customers. However, I am talking about the first manufacturing run of 85 cars and offered to the general public. That’s us!!!
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I have driven the FFEV 16,689 miles. I have used an average 273 wH mile. My car is truly a utility vehicle. I am a commuter and my wife and I drive 80 miles round trip to work and home every day. I have a 240v 40amp ChargePoint EVSE set up in my Barn and use a converted Nissan Leaf 240/120v 16 amp EVSE at work. Drive to work – charge, drive home charge.

If you do the math it has cost me $789.93 for electricity. For all of you math wizzes that is $00.149 per kWh, all service charges and taxes included plus a 15% loss factor from EVSE to Battery. (The 15% loss is my actual ChargePoint usage compared to my completed charge of the battery at 60-70% depleted.) My gasser is an Avalon which I previously used for commuting and averaged 25 mpg. Therefore the cost of gasoline would have been $2,336.46 @ $3.50 per gallon. My actual savings have been $1,546.53 over one year of driving. At that rate I will pay for the car in 20 years. Or, breakeven with a comparable Ford Focus $25,000.00 gasser in 5.5 years.

My downs. I truly did not anticipate the drop in mileage over the winter. In RI you should be able to drive anywhere and get home. But, when it is under 40 degrees you lose 20+% of your mileage. I drive the way I want, which is not like a tortoise trying to milk the snake out of its hole. I drive safely, 60 mph on US Route #1, do a lot of coasting in neutral, use my ac in the summer 72 degrees and heater in the winter 66 degrees. I always pre warm or cool the car before starting out. But!!!! I really wish it had 120-150 miles of range instead of 60-80.

My Ford Mobile is whatever. I use it to pre warm/cool the car. I don’t know how much I trust the stats and don’t like the forum setup.

My ups. $1,546.00 extra dollars in my pocket. Sync is amazing. It is a remarkable navigation, phone and radio which have worked flawlessly for me. The car is bright and cool looking. The gauges for watching your battery are very good and I have mastered most of the settings. Zero problems. I have not had one issue with this car that caused me to return to the dealership.

Please ask questions. There are some interesting stories about how I got the ChargePoint – free!! How I ran out of juice in the battery. How I got the Nissan Leaf EVSE reconfigured for 240v. How my brakes squeal because I don’t use them enough. Why I have put 3,000 miles on my gasser this past year. (It is BS when they say you only need a gasser to drive 100 miles 4 times per year.)

And finally, please share your one year anniversary. We are the “early adopters!!!” It took some kahunas to make that choice. Are you happy with your vehicle? Would you do it again?

 

[v_traveller]

Happy Anniversary!!!

 

[vetboy45]

I'd like to know if you've seen any degradation in the battery. From what I can tell, batteries that are actively cooled/heated are doing much better than expected and batteries that are air cooled (think Leaf) are doing much poorer.

 

[jpc1818]

Congrats on your 1 year!!!
Is there anyway to tell which production # your car is by the VIN?
Thanks,

 

[dwf123]

I'd like to know if you've seen any degradation in the battery.

Vet Boy. I have been keeping track of mileage Wh/mile and remaining battery % charge. I calculate 5 trips every 5,000 miles and to date I have not seen a reduction in capacity. I consistently end up with a charge of 18.7 to 19.5 kWh. Bear in mind this is subjective because I don't consider the data posted by MyFordMobile to be very reliable. Time will tell.

Is there anyway to tell which production # your car is by the VIN?

JCP1818 - I do not know how to read the vin # to determine that. My vin # is 1FAHP3R40CL363848. If you can deduce the production # let me know. Thanks......

 

[jmueller065]

Here is all the information contained in the VIN:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_Identification_Number

You can also use the Ford VIN decoder here:
http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/VIN_Codes.html
or here:
http://www.fordvindecoder.com/

Note that the last 6 digits are a sequence number (thus a higher value for those means that it was made later in the model year). Also note that the sequence number isn't just for FFE's but for all Focuses so someone may have sequence number 123456 but the next built FFE may not be 123457 but perhaps something much higher.

The 10th digit is the model year:
C=2012
D=2013
E=2014

Thus dwf's VIN says:
- North American car (1)
- Ford manufacturer (F)
- FFE (P3R)
- 2012 (C)
- Sequence # of 363848

 

[gunther]

Great post, dwf123! I love seeing the cost breakdown and hearing the stories from the real world! I hope everyone does this on their anniversary. I'm curious about the mechanism for losing mileage in the winter. Is it just that the battery can't take as much charge when it's colder, or is it having to run the heater while driving, or does the battery just run less efficiently when you drive in the winter? I'm curious how much of a difference it will make to keep the car in the garage vs outside in the winter time - if the battery won't take as much charge it could affect the mileage a lot.

Of course, I live in California, which seems like about the most EV-friendly place to be. Never gets too cold or too hot (where you're blasting heater or AC) and you get carpool lane stickers. I salute you guys who are driving EVs in places with less friendly weather and less side benefits. Thank you for blazing the trail!

 

[dmen]

Thanks for the report! I'm at 6 months Friday.

Gunther,

Decreased range in winter seems to be from all of the above.
1. When batteries are cold, car will use some of its stored electricity to run the battery warmer while driving, but not while parked. If plugged in, will use that energy to keep them warmed. Keeping garaged might help if garage is heated and you're taking very short drives, so batteries wouldn't need to be heated by the car. Otherwise not so much. Keeping plugged is good though.
2. Cabin heater is very effective, but not energy efficient at all. Driving mixed city-highway, under 30F I see more than 50% more electricity use, or available range about 60% as much as range w/o heat running.
3. Available battery capacity is less. Not sure if it can't charge as fully, won't deplete as completely, or "leaks" electricity while running, but I see ~16kWh available in very cold weather vs 19.5 in good weather.

Bay Area, Santa Barbara, San Diego, pretty much anywhere on the coast... perfect EV locations. Central Valley, LA on the other hand... Pretty hot. I am in Chicago- despite the cold issue EVs are actually a great fit here too. Terrain is crazy flat. Traffic is thick, favoring EV/hybrids. Summer isn't too hot. Electricity rates are below average. And we don't have the sprawl nearly as bad, so ranges of current EVs work just fine here. Now if the auto manufacturers would just figure this out and start marketing EVs here, things could happen.

I don't mean to be a hater, but the carpool lane thing seems wrong to me. When I was a kid living in LA, carpool lanes were made to ease traffic congestion. Air quality was a side benefit. Now obviously you focus on the air more, but I hope all those with access stickers are bringing a few passengers along for the ride once in a while. Are hybrids still given stickers too? With all those priuses, are the carpool lanes any faster than the main lanes?

 

[gunther]

I don't mean to be a hater, but the carpool lane thing seems wrong to me. When I was a kid living in LA, carpool lanes were made to ease traffic congestion. Air quality was a side benefit. Now obviously you focus on the air more, but I hope all those with access stickers are bringing a few passengers along for the ride once in a while. Are hybrids still given stickers too? With all those priuses, are the carpool lanes any faster than the main lanes?

Plug-in hybrids can get stickers, but just regular gas/electric hybrids cannot.

I'm on the fence about the overall benefit to society that giving electrics carpool sticker provides - but since that's what we as a society have decided I'm happy to take advantage of it!

 

[dmen]

Totally- we don't even have carpool lanes here, let alone special access for zero emissions vehicles. If we did, I'd jump on it too!

My brother had an early model year Civic Hybrid in CA and had HOV stickers on it. I guess CA changed the rules? Does it phase out for EVs after a certain number have registered?

Here in IL we have a nice state rebate of $4000 for an EV purchase, though it takes more than 6 months to receive. And discounted vehicle registration, about 80% off. And some options for home EVSE installation rebates/assistance.

 

[WattsUp]

My brother had an early model year Civic Hybrid in CA and had HOV stickers on it. I guess CA changed the rules? Does it phase out for EVs after a certain number have registered?

Yeah, the CA HOV sticker program has evolved over time. To date, there have been three types of HOV stickers, which you can find described in detail here:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/carpool/carpool.htm
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/vr/decal.htm

Basically, the original "yellow" stickers (of which 85,000 were issued, and smacked on a lot of Prii) all expired mid-2011, and now only the "green" (limited to 40,000, mostly plug-in hybrids) and "white" (unlimited, mostly electrics) stickers are valid.

All green and white stickers are currently valid until 2015, though that could possibly be extended. (Has once before.)

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Btw, when I received the stickers for my FFE, I was pleasantly surprised that their "white" color was virtually an exact match for my Platinum White paint, even down to the metallic look:



The stickers almost appear "transparent" over the paint.

 

[v_traveller]

When I was a kid living in LA, carpool lanes were made to ease traffic congestion. Air quality was a side benefit. Now obviously you focus on the air more, but I hope all those with access stickers are bringing a few passengers along for the ride once in a while.

I remember stepping out of LAX for the first time on a hot August afternoon after spending the first 17 years of my life growing up in Honolulu, and actually tasting the smog. It was bad back in the '80s.

Been here for over 30 years as an adult, and from what I've seen and read, every initiative, policy, measure, law, or whatever, that had to do with reducing traffic congestion, was rooted in the desperate need to improve air quality around here, at the cost of billions of taxpayer dollars. The carpool lanes were created to reduce smog, and the incentive for drivers to help reduce smog was (and still is) the convenience of a potentially shorter commute.

In my case, the coveted white stickers were initially the primary reason why I got my FFE. I really wanted to shorten my commute time. It was that incentive that caused me to abandon a perfectly good ICE that I loved driving every day, and try out an EV for 3 years. Now I won't go back, even if the privileges of the white stickers fade like the yellow ones did. So AQMD's ploy to stop me from vaporizing 3.5 gallons of petroleum into the LA basin five days a week worked like a charm.

My hope is just the opposite... I hope that those ridesharing in ICE vehicles, particularly those riding two-by-two in Expeditions and Suburbans, eventually find themselves in a full electric vehicle... they're spewing way more than twice the amount of pollutants when compared to my little 4-cylinder ICE.

 

[AireV]

All of a sudden this forum's celebration on one year anniversary of one owner's FFE ownership turned its focus(?) on one of its ownership privilege in California.
Without diverting too much the congratulation on the original poster, let me chime in a little bit to explain what I see about the HOV lane access incentive.

When people complain about allowing the use of High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, so called carpool lanes by EVs, their complaints mostly originate from unfairness standpoint, the fact that the space designated for multiple occupant vehicle is being occupied by a vehicle that seems go against such rationale.

More important aspect of this privilege is an "incentive" to help spread the technology (totally separate from the congestion issue). That is why there are limits on the time or number of stickers to be issued, until enough number of these cars to be on the road. Many owner/driver, if not almost all general public, are hesitant to purchase EV as their next vehicle. Once there are enough number of these EVs are on the road, unwarranted fears will dissipate.

The privilege of being able to drive in the carpool lane in congested areas like Los Angeles and San Francisco when you are driving alone can be a significant motivator for general public to purchase one for herself. This is no different from the $75,000 federal income tax credit or $5,000 GA state rebate. In California, the carpool lane access as a single occupant can be a very valuable and thus effective incentive.

From a perspective of single driver stuck in a freeway traffic, it can be viewed unfair that the other single driver can move faster. Or even, another multiple occupant vehicle would not like to see a single occupant vehicle in the same carpool lane, especially when carpool lane speed drops because it is too busy there as well.

But, for an incentive to be effective, the benefit or privilege has to be big enough to be enticing. Would you all have purchased your EVs if the purchase price dropped only by $500 instead of $7,500?

These HOV privilege in California is scheduled to last only 1.5 more years (good only until 12/31/2014). The green sticker for fake EVs (aka, plug-in-hybrids) will go away even sooner, when it reaches 40,000 (There is no number limit for full EVs). I hope EVs will gain much more acceptance by general public by then.

Back to the original posting: dwf123, Congratulations on your one year anniversary achievement!!! Thank you for the informative summary.