It might not look like much, all bandaged up with black tape and driving round a suburban part of America, but recent snaps of the forthcoming Ford Focus Electric should be getting our pulses racing. A huge array of questions will no doubt start beginning to surface, as the reality of mass market electric vehicles come into our lives and into our car ports. How fast will it go? How expensive will it be to run? How often will I be calling my vehicle recovery provider?
The practical issues of running a totally electric car are endless. The Ford Focus Electric will be able, apparently, to reach speeds of 85 mph and have a range of 100 miles. Being limited to a mere 85 will no doubt make a lot of petrolhead’s fuel-injected hearts sink a little, but unless we’re planning to take our cars down to the Autobahn, we shouldn’t need to surpass this respectable velocity. The 100 mile range might not be as far as many would like, but that all depends on how easy it is to recharge.
And if you do run out of electric on the hard shoulder, will your vehicle recovery company be able to give you a re-charge, for example – or will you have to be towed away?
It does seem odd that cars are going the way of air travel. The Concorde, developed over 40 years ago, would remain the fastest passenger liner in the world – if it still flew. We have instead been given larger planes with higher capacity, but which fly much more slowly. Cars, it seems, will suffer the same fate.
But switching to electric might be much more palatable if it means spending less to fill it with ‘juice’. Equally, if electric cars reduce the need to dial up your vehicle recovery provider, many will be a happy to consign their old petrol guzzlers to the museum. With both Ford and Nissan heading towards mass market electric car offerings, it seems even the most dedicated combustion lover will have to consider the new world of electric cars very soon.
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