In the meantime, everyone please stop referencing this vehicle as the future Focus that the electric drivetrain will be in. If you really want an idea of what it will look like, go to ford.com and go to their european website. That focus is about what we will be getting in a year or two with the electric drivetrain in it. The North American market Focus will soon be defunct, so don’t worry.

You are absolutely correct and completely miss the point all at the same time.

The first generation Prius also made no sense based on how much fuel it would save over the life of the car (let alone the first 100,000 miles), especially considering gas cost $2.00/gal back in 2002. But here we are today with the 3rd Generation Prius-one of the best selling cars in America.

In the beginning, thousands of enthusiasts, “tree huggers”, and geek engineers will flock to the first mass produced electric car. It really doesn’t matter whether it makes economic sense. Over time gas prices will rise, and electric technology will improve, especially battery technology, and electric cars will become economically viable, just as hybrid cars are doing today.

That said, I’m not going to spend a load of cash on a short range vehicle either. Out of pocket (after whatever kick back) should not be more than $17k for this car.

The car doesn’t look like it would be worth $30,000 in terms of breakeven cost. You have to figure, if the Prius starts around $22,000 and the average sells for $25,000 then the average leaf is going to sell for $33,000. Assuming a vehicle is traded out of a fleet at 100,000 miles, The average price of gas would have to average about $4.00/gallon over the life of the vehicle for it to break even between the two cars.

Besides, it looks more like a Versa than anything else. Who wants to pay $30,000 for an electric Versa? That’s a premium of $17,000 just for the electric engine.

The Focus interior is pretty nice, but I do love the Leaf’s interior quite a bit. That’s what cars should head towards in the next decade. 100 mile range is okay if that is accurate (with air conditioning, radio on, etc.). But if that number jumps down to around a 75 mile range, then people who live 35-40 miles away from their jobs might be a little concerned every time they take it out. A solar panel option would be ideal for that. I’m also concerned about the batteries only lasting five years. That could be a huge expense or hurt the resale value a lot.

Anyway, I know that a lot people who are afraid of change will go for the Ford Focus … but there are a lot of new drivers out there that like to move away from the pack and be different, so they’ll pick the Leaf. I think Ford should have something a bit different for their new Focus EV, maybe a fusion of the two cars, but they definitely need a change from what they have now.

I haven’t been to Europe recently enough to know what their Fusion looks like.