Scott Leased an Electric Ford Focus

Great news! My friend Scott leased an electric car!

I went to check it out on Tuesday night. It is awesome! It's an all-electric car, which he charges with a regular power cord plugged into a regular electric socket.

He's exactly in the market for an electric car. He has a long, daily commute to his job. But the commute isn't so far that he needs more than a single tank of electricity.

The car's range is about 76 miles, depending on how it is driven. That's 16 miles more than Scott's typical daily commute, which was enough of a margin to give Scott and Carrie the confidence to go electric. Also, because it can be plugged in to any outlet, Scott can charge the car while he is at work.

Here's the steering wheel. Electric cars are expensive because the technology is new, but they tend to come loaded with luxury options.

The car body looked exactly like a gas-powered Ford Focus to me. It is compact. The interior is large enough to fit three child safety seats, which I can't even do in our Honda Pilot.

Owning an electric car requires that you gain some skills at managing your supply of electricity.

The bad news is that you can't stop for gas. The good news is you don't have to stop for gas.

A full tank will move you 76 miles, but you can stretch that amount by driving gently. You can also chip into that amount if you crank up the air conditioning, or drive like a madman.

A gauge on the dashboard lets you see how you are doing, adding to or subtracting from the computer's guess about how many miles are left on the batteries.

The car has a rear-facing camera which gives you a view of what is behind you. The white lines move in concert with the steering, predicting the arc that your car will take when you drive in reverse.

One reason Scott asked me over was so that I could check the amount of power the car was taking to charge. I brought my Kill a watt power meter and plugged it in. The meter reading jumped around a bit, but peaked around the 1300 watt mark.

1300 watts
That's similar to a vacuum cleaner, or a George Foreman grill, and at 12¢ per kilowatt, charging his car will cost about 15¢ per hour. If his car is completely empty, it will take 20 hours to charge this way, using 26 kWh, at a total price of $3.12.

When he charges it at work, he plugs it in for eight hours. That's about $1.20 worth of electricity he owes his boss, assuming they don't pay a special industrial rate for power.

The electricity port on the outside of the Focus has a bright ring of blue LED lights around it, indicating that it is being charged, and the level of charge. This is a great idea. If you are using a public charging station, occasionally it is tempting for a stranger to unplug your car. This light will give an indication if Scott's car is sufficiently charged.

Scott isn't a fan of this exterior light because it may draw unwanted attention if he charges his car in the driveway at night.

Summary
For years I've loved the idea of an electric car. The price of super hi-capacity batteries is going down, and the price of gas remains high. Today, in 2013, circumstances have to be right for an electric car to make financial sense, but the prospect of never again paying for gas is certainly appealing.

Scott was paying 32¢ a mile for fuel in his truck. Now he is paying 4¢ per mile for fuel.

The Tests

Have you been wanting a new car?
Are you spending more than $230/month on gasoline ($54/week)?
Do you have access to another car if you want to go wine tasting?
Does managing your battery level and charging your car sound like fun, or like a pain in the ass?

Most of my calculations involve financing the lease 100% based on gas savings, but of course gasoline cars aren't exactly free either. If leasing an electric car is cheaper than what you are currently paying for gasoline, and your job offers little hope for telecommuting, consider an electric car. You could switch from gas and come out ahead. I hope you do.

http://www.ford.com/cars/focus/trim/electric/
http://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/leaf/
http://www.teslamotors.com/goelectric#

Electric Car Swap
Household Item Power Use Database

Update!

Scott and Carrie applied for and was granted a $2,500 rebate from the California Center for Sustainable Energy. This is amazing to me, because they are leasing the car!

Update 2

My friend Morgan leased a Nissan Leaf! He wrote to tell his dad and CCed me on the email.

I was not looking to get into a new car, but I read an article online Monday afternoon at my buddy Rob's site (cockeyed.com) about how there are some very good lease deals on electric cars right now. Chevy, Honda, Ford, and Nissan are all trying to get a foothold in the EV market and there is a $7500 tax incentive that they can take right off the top.

I called around some local dealers and got some quotes, but then I found an affiliate program through my job that offers fixed pricing. We used a similar program to buy the Van.

So we ended up at $155/month for a base model for 24months. We pay almost twice that in gas for our two cars right now so it seemed like a no brainer! (Of course our electric bill will go up some…I am estimating $15-20 month.)

I've never leased a car before, so I am little leery of how the end game plays out. We can buy off the rest of the car at the end of the lease term, or just turn in the keys and walk away. If it's in good condition and under milage (they gave us 12000 a year, but I put only a little over 6k a year on the truck right now) we don't have to pay anything more.

The full charge range is about 75 miles. My roundtrip to work is only 35 so I should be fine on a single charge. They have a Blink station at work, but you have to pay for a membership and I haven't looked into it yet.

The car only came with the regular 120V adapter. This is the slowest way to charge the car, but it doesn't require a dedicated 220 outlet, (there isn't one in our garage right now) and the 220V adapter is ~$1000 option from the dealer. (I think you can get 3rd party adapter for $500-$600.) I think I can get away with just the 120V for charging, but we will see.

The start up is a little weird, it kind of boots up like a computer. It feels like a big golf cart when you start rolling, but once you are up to speed, it's pretty much like a regular car. It beeps in reverse to warn people since it's so quiet. On the freeway you can take it of "Eco"-mode and it has a little pep. (This reduces the range however. Its kind of the opposite of gas car, city driving is more efficient than highway driving...)

The front panel display is like a little video game. There are white dots that show power, dialing to blue dots that show re-generation when you coast or brake. (You want to minimize your white dots, and maximize your blue dots for max efficiency.) As your trip proceeds, you build up a little tree icon that shows if you driving with maximum efficiency. I got the Full Tree grown on the back half of my way home from the dealership. I only got a 1/2 tree for my drive into work.

-m

Update! 3