Recent content by Kakkerlak

My local Ford dealer just advertised a 2013 FFE with a strikethrough price of $14,999, and an "Internet Special" price of $9,980. They claim it has just over 15K miles, so it's probably not a lease return. I expect the $15,000 to $18,000 buyout values of the FFE leases to inspire laughter in...

I'm in Washington State and have had my FFE insured both with MetLife Auto and now with Safeco. I agree it's a bizarre thing to not want to underwrite an electric vehicle. It's not the same as providing warranty coverage. EV's tend to have excellent traction control and tend to be driven by...

1. Does the Focus travel the full 76 miles the sticker says it can? Yes, in the summer my range predictor suggests 82. In the winter (low 40's) it's down to maybe 60 miles, less if you use the heater. 2. How fast does the battery degenerate? Nobody knows for sure. Ford's thermal...

I saw familiar-looking headlights in my rearview the other night, going up the I-5 express lanes over the Ship Canal in Seattle. Sure enough, I was overtaken by an identical 2014 Ice Storm FFE. I presume he saw the Plugshare sticker and the Electric badge and we did a nod. Last summer I...

The drive system of a Focus Electric is obviously very different from a gasoline Focus, so the process of disconnecting the main and battery contactors is very different from shutting off the ignition and fuel to a gasoline engine. But maybe the Body Control Modules are the same and they just...

My salesman had to show me that, saying that nobody expects it to be there. I think that all Titanium-trim (and therefore also Electric) Focus models have the unlock button there. I'll have to peek inside an SE Hatch to compare.

I just wanted to post that I'd jump on an extension of my 36 month lease in a heartbeat, too. Mine is up in August 2017, which is probably going to be right on the cusp of availability for next-generation Tesla, Nissan, and GM EVs. If Ford has something new, or even an Energi variant of the...

My money is going to go to the first automaker bold enough to not put a fake radiator grille on an EV. The existing Leaf at least only has enough of an air inlet for its cooling needs. Why do a blacked-out hexagon grid to catch bugs and create turbulence ? So that it "looks more...

One of the things I do for a living is design touchscreen operator interfaces for industrial machines. So I hungrily steal ideas from automotive applications. My own FFE's good and bad points are reflected on my machines, and the couple of times I've sat in a Tesla I've been madly scribbling...

For me, the iEV app was right on track with my actual power usage of the FFE, with the exception that it always expressed the data in metric even when you switched it to English units. What it didn't do was account for heater and defroster use. It does have the ability to adjust for ambient...

Blink and ChargePoint are most common in Washington State. In general, I've found Blink units to be poorly maintained; I've never returned to a unit that I knew was out of order due to vandalism or other damage and found it has been repaired. Fortunately Blink stations are almost always are...

After a handful of short trips, I can report that the main MFT screen switches to the "White/Ford Logo" shutdown mode immediately when I open the door after shutting off the vehicle, and turns off promptly. The change in behavior seems to correlate with a Master Reset and then a reconnection of...

Today I went through the process of re-registering the FFE with MyFordMobile, since the Master Reset evidently cancels the registration of the car with MyFordMobile. And tonight when I got home.... the screen turned off right away, just like it used to. The one drive I performed this...

I concur; most of the open-charge-door incidents are certainly because of forgetfulness and they have become less frequent the longer I've had the car. Yes, it can pop open from jarring on the road, but I agree that it is most secure when you close it as intended.

I took the time to watch that interview with Yahoo Finance very carefully and transcribe the whole thing over on reddit.com/r/electricvehicles. And my impression is the exact opposite of every article I've read about the interview. Mark Fields did not say that Ford is going to make an...