Ford sticks with mediocre 100-mile Focus Electric range

Ford is lagging behind
Tesla and
Chevrolet when it comes to the EV market. The recently-introduced
Chevrolet Bolt EV has an EPA-rated range of 238 miles on a full charge, while the hotly-anticipated
Model 3 is expected to get 215 miles on one charge. The rapidly-aging
Focus Electric, on the other hand, currently has a range of 76 miles and Ford won’t be improving that figure by a lot.

We already knew that Ford would
boost the Focus Electric’s range up to 100 miles on a single charge, but a recent report from
Automotive Newsclaims that Ford will give the EV quicker charging times, as well. According to
Automotive News, Ford claims the upgrade will be able to replenish 80 percent of the Focus Electric’s battery in 30 minutes, which is two hours faster than the current model’s charging time.

Ford is currently struggling to post healthy sales figures with the Focus Electric and the minor upgrade shouldn’t help the vehicle, either. The Bolt starts at $37,495, while the Model 3 should carry a price tag of $35,000 when it goes on sale. Despite being the cheapest model at $30,045,
Automotive News reports that Ford only sold 579 Focus Electric models in the US this year, which is down 48 percent from last year.

The upgrade for the Focus Electric is part of the
automaker’s $4.5 billion investment in electrification that it announced last year. As part of the massive investment, the automaker plans to launch 13 EVs by 2020.

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