Ford missed no opportunity to talk up the ability of its Focus Electric at it's unveiling at CES. The FOrd Focus Electric will have the ability to charge in half the time of the Nissan Leaf when connected to a Level 2 (220 - 240V) charger - the type that Best Buy will gladly install for you for just $1,499. That would charge the FOcus EV in about 3 or 4 hours, as opposed to the Nissan Leaf's 8 hours.
However, with the Nissan Leaf's DC fast charge using CHAdeMO would give it 80 miles of range in a mere 30 minutes! SAE is working on it's own fast charging DC system and Ford is backing it. "Fast charge will not be included on the Focus Electric until an industry standard has been set by SAE. Once an approved/accepted standard is in place, we will work on getting the car ready for [it]."
That leaves us with lots of questions: Will SAE have an approved version before the Ford Focus Electric is finalized? And what about the Leaf? Will the SAE system be compatible with the CHAdeMO system in Japan?
Source Article: http://www.plugincars.com