Ford Focus Electric Price
Update: In 2013, Ford lowered the price of the Focus Electric by almost $4,000. In October 2014, in order to be more competitive with the Nissan Leaf, Ford lowered the Focus Electric by another $6000 bringing the starting price below $30,000.
Ford has not announced the price of the 2012 Ford Focus Electric. However, many on the Ford Focus Electric Forum have been discussing the possible prices, and the following is a summary of many of those ideas. Ford could decide to go with a price point on the 2012 Ford Focus Electric less than the Nissan Leaf (starting at $32,780), or similar to the expected price of the Honda Fit EV and Mitsubishi I (to be priced in the U.S. at $29,990 or less). From Ford’s marketing standpoint, they could decide to make the Ford Focus Electric profitable, or under price Honda’s EV. Add on the cost of one of the best level 2 ev chargers before calculating your total cost to drive electric!
From the production standpoint, the price of the Ford Focus Electric will depend on the cost of the lithium battery packs. The prices of batteries have changed over the past three years because of refined battery chemistry, and could be about half the price they were 3 years ago.
Ford is currently in a race with Nissan and GM to sell the first 100,000 cars with lithium battery backs in one year. Ford plans to have all their hybrids and electric vehicles including the Ford Focus Electric using the lithium battery packs by next year. In addition, Ford will begin making its own battery packs.
The 2012 Ford Focus Electric battery pack currently weighs 500 pounds, but Ford envisions the battery being reduced to the size of the traditional Focus gas tank, and about 1/5th the weight using new battery chemistry. Even with the current battery pack making a completely flat cargo platform impossible, Ford has designed an interior that maximizes space. The Ford Focus Electric includes 60/40 rear reclining seats, and is a well-fitted compact car.
Ford is producing a wide choice of cars on one assembly line, which reduces the car’s cost. They are using common chassis and components, and could therefore afford to price the 2012 Ford Focus Electric competitively and further improve their profit margins.
It is expected that Ford will announce ordering of the 2012 Ford Focus Electric, with their preferred drive system including gasoline engine, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or battery electric, available to consumers within the year.
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Actually Ford initially stated there would be a slow launch, with ‘some’ delivered during the Fall of 2011 and ramping up production for Spring 2012. But they also said that the production/launch could be ramped up based on demand.
During Alan’s interview on David Letterman, he stated that the Ford Focus Electric will get 80+ miles per change. Since current Leaf customers average about 35 miles of driving per day, lowering the mileage to 80 helps Ford reduce the battery size and reduce the overall cost of the Ford Focus Electric by thousands.
My guess is that Ford wants to offer the 2012 Ford Focus Electric at a few thousand less than the Leaf at launch. With the 2012 Leaf starting at $36,500 and $38,100 after adding just the battery warming technology and DC Fast Charging.
So if the Ford Focus Electric could start around $32K, since it’s using a shared platform and car body with the high volume Focus and Euro C-Max.
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