Autopia Planes, Trains, Automobiles and the Future of Transportation Ford Goes Back to the Future With Focus EV

Electricity really is the ideal form of propulsion for the automobile because it is clean and quiet. They knew this at the turn of the century, but the problem was batteries and range — that was the main concern back then and it is the main concern people have now.
Most of the major automakers, from Audi to Volvo, are working on electric cars, and we’ll see the first of them on the road at the end of this year. So electric cars are nothing new. We used two electric Ford Focuses to race around the track on my TV show. I’ve also got my own electric car. It’s quite advanced, it goes 100 miles on a charge and it’s fully electric.
And it was built in 1909.
Let’s step back in time a little bit to take a ride in my 1909 Baker Electric. You’ll see just how much has changed and how much has stayed the same. I think you’ll be surprised at some of the similarities.
Nowadays, when most people think of electric cars, they think of glorified golfcarts used by seniors to nip down to the store (or they think of the Tesla Roadster and its six-figure pricetag). The Ford Focus EV is something else entirely. It’s a real car that’s fun to drive. The only difference between it and the gasoline-burning Ford Focus is the electric drivetrain.
Get in the Focus and and press the Start button and the first thing you notice is how quiet the car is. It’s eerily quiet — so quiet, in fact, that all you hear is the tires screeching when you push the car hard. The Focus EV is a bit heavy in the back because you’re carrying 300 pounds of batteries. But people who have driven one really are amazed by how nice it is. You forget after a while that there’s no gasoline.
I contend that the Focus EV is faster than a similar gasoline-burning car because of the low-end torque. Electric cars are quite snappy off the line. The only place an electric car really loses out to a gasoline car is in top speed. But the EV has the added benefit of being cleaner and quieter.

And here’s a look under the hood of the Focus.