Leaf Vs Focus: The All-Electric Vehicle Battle Begins
Enviado: 06 fev 2012, 15:44
Leaf Vs Focus: The All-Electric Vehicle Battle Begins
"If you are planning to invest in an all-electric vehicle and find Nissan’s Leaf to be the only viable choice, then wait before you rush to order. There’s a new rival of Leaf in the form of 2012 Ford Focus EV, though it is yet to arrive in the market.
Focus has sent back quite a few pre-orders of Leaf to reconsider their decision. Leaf has been out in the market for quite some time now; so it’s easy to assess it, but we’ll have to evaluate Focus based on some expert opinions.
[IMG]http://nissentric.com/wp-content/upload ... ehicle.jpg[/IMG]
Read on to know the contrasting features of these two electric vehicles and then decide if you’ll go in for Nissan Leaf or wait for Ford Focus EV. Here’s a brief comparison of Nissan Leaf Vs Ford Focus EV with respect to different aspects.
Handling
Both the vehicles are extremely fun to drive and come with all the advantages of electric drive in addition to stabilizer bars and 4-wheel disc brakes. Focus has an additional benefit that is not seen in Leaf- it’s a torque vectoring control, wherein a computer monitors the car 100 times/second and it puts on a superior brake force when you come into a corner, thus transferring more grip to the wheels. This gives the driver a feeling of race car driving.
[IMG]http://nissentric.com/wp-content/upload ... n-Leaf.jpg[/IMG]
Torque is a very important aspect of an electric car’s acceleration performance. Leaf excels in terms of produced torque (207 pf), while Focus lags behind at 181 pf. The Nissan model also reaches a greater top speed of 95 mph as against 84 mph of Focus.
Charging Time
Leaf has the ability to add around 15 miles range for one hour of charging on a standard home charging unit, while Focus can add around 30 miles range for one hour on the same unit. However, if the claimed DC fast charging stations turn practical, Leaf will be able to add almost 80 miles for half-an-hour of charging. So, we’ll have to wait to see if this happens.
Storage Space
With a vast hatch at the rear and spacious legroom and headroom, Leaf is amazingly monstrous in terms of space. On the contrary, it seems like Focus is crammed with the batteries in the space actually reserved for cargo. So, we probably cannot expect too much room for storage. Leaf is undoubtedly the winner in this regards.
[IMG]http://nissentric.com/wp-content/upload ... terior.jpg[/IMG]
Battery Technology
Though similar type of batteries are used in both these vehicles (large, flat, prismatic, lithium-manganese batteries), the main distinguishing feature lies in the way these batteries are managed. The batteries used in Focus are actively healed and cooled by making use of a liquid coolant that is passed in the tubes adjacent to the flat cells. However, the technology in Leaf is not so sophisticated and the batteries used here depend on the circulation of air across the batteries to maintain the optimum operating temperatures. Though this approach assures fewer expenses in manufacturing, we would say the Ford batteries are more reliable with an extended life of batteries.
Pricing
We already know that Nissan Leaf comes with an MSRP tag of $33,000, but there is no word about the cost of Focus EV yet. But as per speculations, it is likely to cost more than Leaf, especially because of the battery technology that it uses."
Em: http://nissentric.com/nissan-leaf-vs-ford-focus-ev/
"If you are planning to invest in an all-electric vehicle and find Nissan’s Leaf to be the only viable choice, then wait before you rush to order. There’s a new rival of Leaf in the form of 2012 Ford Focus EV, though it is yet to arrive in the market.
Focus has sent back quite a few pre-orders of Leaf to reconsider their decision. Leaf has been out in the market for quite some time now; so it’s easy to assess it, but we’ll have to evaluate Focus based on some expert opinions.
[IMG]http://nissentric.com/wp-content/upload ... ehicle.jpg[/IMG]
Read on to know the contrasting features of these two electric vehicles and then decide if you’ll go in for Nissan Leaf or wait for Ford Focus EV. Here’s a brief comparison of Nissan Leaf Vs Ford Focus EV with respect to different aspects.
Handling
Both the vehicles are extremely fun to drive and come with all the advantages of electric drive in addition to stabilizer bars and 4-wheel disc brakes. Focus has an additional benefit that is not seen in Leaf- it’s a torque vectoring control, wherein a computer monitors the car 100 times/second and it puts on a superior brake force when you come into a corner, thus transferring more grip to the wheels. This gives the driver a feeling of race car driving.
[IMG]http://nissentric.com/wp-content/upload ... n-Leaf.jpg[/IMG]
Torque is a very important aspect of an electric car’s acceleration performance. Leaf excels in terms of produced torque (207 pf), while Focus lags behind at 181 pf. The Nissan model also reaches a greater top speed of 95 mph as against 84 mph of Focus.
Charging Time
Leaf has the ability to add around 15 miles range for one hour of charging on a standard home charging unit, while Focus can add around 30 miles range for one hour on the same unit. However, if the claimed DC fast charging stations turn practical, Leaf will be able to add almost 80 miles for half-an-hour of charging. So, we’ll have to wait to see if this happens.
Storage Space
With a vast hatch at the rear and spacious legroom and headroom, Leaf is amazingly monstrous in terms of space. On the contrary, it seems like Focus is crammed with the batteries in the space actually reserved for cargo. So, we probably cannot expect too much room for storage. Leaf is undoubtedly the winner in this regards.
[IMG]http://nissentric.com/wp-content/upload ... terior.jpg[/IMG]
Battery Technology
Though similar type of batteries are used in both these vehicles (large, flat, prismatic, lithium-manganese batteries), the main distinguishing feature lies in the way these batteries are managed. The batteries used in Focus are actively healed and cooled by making use of a liquid coolant that is passed in the tubes adjacent to the flat cells. However, the technology in Leaf is not so sophisticated and the batteries used here depend on the circulation of air across the batteries to maintain the optimum operating temperatures. Though this approach assures fewer expenses in manufacturing, we would say the Ford batteries are more reliable with an extended life of batteries.
Pricing
We already know that Nissan Leaf comes with an MSRP tag of $33,000, but there is no word about the cost of Focus EV yet. But as per speculations, it is likely to cost more than Leaf, especially because of the battery technology that it uses."
Em: http://nissentric.com/nissan-leaf-vs-ford-focus-ev/