My other car is electric... ownership experience

[Triggerhappy]

We traded in a 2013 VW Passat diesel for a 2015 Ford Focus Electric. My wife is going to drive this as her daily driver. We miss how spacious the Passat was, but this vehicle has more features and cheaper to operate. We bought this so we can get the $2500 rebate from the state of Texas which expires on 6/25. Other states have rebates too for buying electric vehicles. This car is pretty much loaded with navigation, bi-xenon headlamps, back-up camera and sensors, remote start, and LED taillights. We paid extra for the leather seats which adds a power driver seat. We paid $25,900 before taxes. We'll get back $2,500 from the state and $7,500 back from the IRS.

After leaving the dealer with a full tank (charge ), we drove 50 mostly highway miles and arrived home with about 25 miles remaining. Once plugged in, it took about 13 hours to charge it at 120V. It will take 20 hours to charge from 0 miles. We purchased a Level 2 20A 240V portable charging station from ClipperCreek which will fully charge the battery in 5 hours. It will only take 3.6 hours if using a level 2 30A charger.

Our cost for electricity is currently 5.2 cents per kWh and it takes 20 kWh to drive 75 miles, so about $1 to charge it from empty. Compared to the cost of gas ($2.20/gal), it's equivalent to 165 mpg. Compared to the cost of diesel ($2.50/gal) it's equivalent to 187 mpg. In the summer, our kWh will go up to 10.2 cents, so the cost to operate will double, but still cheaper to operate than a regular car.

The best part about this car is no more oil changes, transmission flushes, etc. This is what the maintenance schedule looks like:
- Every 10K - rotate tires
- Every 20K - change cabin filter
- First 150K - change battery coolant and filter, then every 50K thereafter

I'm aware the car will loose range as it ages and the battery will eventually need to be replaced. This car does have a superior cooling system than the Nissan Leaf so it won't loose up to 10%/yr like some Leaves. Some owners have said about 1-2%/yr for the Focus Electric.

If you live in CA, OR, or MD, Chevy has a really good deal on a Spark EV lease, $139/mo with $0 down. In CA, there is a $2,500 rebate, and MD, $3,000 rebate. That brings the cost to down to about $50/mo. EVs are not for everyone, but for some, it makes a lot of cents, pun intended.

[sx4rocious]

Just our of pure curiosity, how does remote start work on an electric car?

Car looks great BTW, and it makes me wish I lived in the city where it would be feasible to own a EV.

[Triggerhappy]

Just our of pure curiosity, how does remote start work on an electric car?

Car looks great BTW, and it makes me wish I lived in the city where it would be feasible to own a EV.

Thanks. There are two ways to remote start it.

1. Using the remote. Push the lock button once and hit the remote start button twice on the remote. You still have to unlock the door, get in, put your foot on the brake and push the start button on the dash to start driving. If you leave the A/C or heat on, it will resume from when you turned the car off. The car will shut off after 10 minutes if you don't push the start button.

2. Using the App MyFordMobile. Run the App. Select the remote icon, select start. The rest is the same in method 1 above. It uses AT&T 2G network which is spotty and doesn't work well when the car is under a roof. I think Nissan's app is better and lets you control the climate control.

[KuroNekko]

Sounds very interesting. I think EVs and PHEVs are great commuter cars and make a lot of sense if you already have a fossil fuel vehicle in the family fleet. Keep us posted on the long term ownership experience. Other than battery life depletion, another thing that has me concerned is drive unit reliability. I can't say about other EVs, but Teslas have a rather high rate of drive unit failures therefore their motors, inverters, etc. are commonly replaced in their cars. Just about every auto publication's tester Model S I've read about seemed to have a drive unit replaced at least once. The good thing is that Tesla covers it and even extended the warranty on their drive units. However, it makes me a bit worried about long term reliability. That being said, PHEVs and hybrids like the Prius, Fusion Hybrid, and Volt enjoy some of the best reliability out there for any vehicle.

[Moto]

Yeah, I think Tesla might have a bit more trouble just because of the performance.

Realistically you could get a lot more out of cars like the prius an Fusion, but they have them backed off for reliability... The electric chevy spark is actually a quick little car it will hold its own with most 2L turbo engines.

I did some reading on the battery packs. I think all of those problems will be fixed within the next couple of years. There are even youtube videos on how to replace cells in the Prius now. If you know much about electronics and have some tools you should just be able to replace bad cells.

[Moto]

Our cost for electricity is currently 5.2 cents per kWh and it takes 20 kWh to drive 75 miles, so about $1 to charge it from empty. Compared to the cost of gas ($2.20/gal), it's equivalent to 165 mpg. Compared to the cost of diesel ($2.50/gal) it's equivalent to 187 mpg. In the summer, our kWh will go up to 10.2 cents, so the cost to operate will double, but still cheaper to operate than a regular car.

Your kw/hr go up in the summer, but your range is going to go down in the winter, don't expect that 75 miles when it's 20° outside. But even if those calculations change to $1 per 50 miles winter and $2 per 75 miles summer, that's still pretty sweet.

The best part about this car is no more oil changes, transmission flushes, etc. This is what the maintenance schedule looks like:
- Every 10K - rotate tires
- Every 20K - change cabin filter
- First 150K - change battery coolant and filter, then every 50K thereafter

That's VERY cool. I think charging it the slowest way possible will help reduce the fall off in the battery life.

So by "remote start" they mean turn on the heat/AC.

Sorry this got lost when I made the switch

[Triggerhappy]

Our cost for electricity is currently 5.2 cents per kWh and it takes 20 kWh to drive 75 miles, so about $1 to charge it from empty. Compared to the cost of gas ($2.20/gal), it's equivalent to 165 mpg. Compared to the cost of diesel ($2.50/gal) it's equivalent to 187 mpg. In the summer, our kWh will go up to 10.2 cents, so the cost to operate will double, but still cheaper to operate than a regular car.

Your kw/hr go up in the summer, but your range is going to go down in the winter, don't expect that 75 miles when it's 20° outside. But even if those calculations change to $1 per 50 miles winter and $2 per 75 miles summer, that's still pretty sweet.

The best part about this car is no more oil changes, transmission flushes, etc. This is what the maintenance schedule looks like:
- Every 10K - rotate tires
- Every 20K - change cabin filter
- First 150K - change battery coolant and filter, then every 50K thereafter

That's VERY cool. I think charging it the slowest way possible will help reduce the fall off in the battery life.

So by "remote start" they mean turn on the heat/AC.

Sorry this got lost when I made the switch

Yeah, range in the winter might be almost cut to 50 miles because the heater is inefficient, unlike the heat pump on the Leaf.

As for the remote start, it's similar to an internal combustion engine car where the engine has to be running to heat or cool the car.

[Triggerhappy]

The most miles per charge I've gone so far is 87, mostly highway miles. It would probably get closer to 100 if driven mostly city with the a/c off. I used almost 20 kW and it took almost 25 kW to charge it since about 20% is lost when charging.

I tried public charging at a Whole Foods once. It was a ChargePoint brand and it was free. I shopped for about an hour while my car was charging. My car's highest charging rate is 6.6 kWh, but it only charged at 5.5 kWh, maybe it's only 208v and not 240v. It's a rate similar to what I have at home.

The car has over 1000 miles in a little less than a month. I will update when my electric bill comes.

[bootymac]

Very cool, thanks for sharing. An electric car makes a lot of sense for commuting. Unfortunately we don't have "off peak" rates here; we pay 8c/kWh on the first 22kWh/day then 11c/kWh after that

[Triggerhappy]

I drove for the FFE 1137 miles during the first month. Used a total of 310.8 kWh. About 983 of those miles were charged at home, so I used about 269 kWh. Since it's about 80% efficiency to charge, that equals 336 kWh. My electric rate for April was $0.0365 per kWh, so I have spent $12.26 last month to charge the FFE. Too bad my electric rate will go up to about $0.105 per kWh in June. My rate is so low because I get a $55 credit each month I use less than 1000 kWh.

The average cost of regular unleaded in my area is $2.30 in April. I spent an equivalent of 5.33 gallons of gasoline, $12.26. 983 miles / 5.33 gallons = 184 miles per gallon. My fuelly number is lower because I thought my electric was going to be $0.05 per kWh.