Reducing fuel consumption of gasoline and diesel engines is a must for every car manufacturer. All-electric vehicles have no such issues, right?
Well, that’s not entirely accurate. After all, they do run on electricity, so the new standard is the miles per gallon equivalent or MPGe with which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rates all-electric vehicles.
Ford announced that its Focus Electric achieves a combined rating of 105 MPGe, and gets 99 MPGe on highway and 110 MPGe in city driving. This is the best result for a five-passenger car in the States, beating the former “champion”, Nissan’s Leaf, by 6 MPGe in the combined rating and 7 MPGe in the city – just as Ford had promised.
“We’ve been working for three years to make the Focus Electric America’s most fuel-efficient vehicle of its kind”, said Chuck Gray, Ford chief engineer of Global Core Engineering Hybrid and Electric Vehicles. “The entire group feels like a sports team that has just won a major championship. It’s a good feeling to be at this point now.”
According to the EPA certification, the Focus Electric has a slightly longer driving range as well at 76 miles (122 km), or 3 miles (4.5 km) more than Nissan’s EV. The Blue Oval claims that, thanks to its new charging system, the batteries can be topped up in half the time needed by its Japanese rival.
Ford says that the EPA-approved label will say that Focus Electric buyers can save up to US$9,700 in fuel costs over five years compared to an average, non-electric vehicle.
