Electric Ford Focus will get liquid battery thermal management
Ford are going to manage battery temperature in the electric Focus to improve range and battery longevity.
Just like everyone else, Ford is working on battery electric vehicles. And in particular – certainly in the UK – they’re working on an Electric Ford Focus. Which for us is a daft way to go. Electric cars are only viable as city cars and who wants to lug a full sized Focus round a city centre? Much better to make an electric KA.
Still, Focus BEV it is and Ford are busy with real world trials in Hillingdon to see how the BEV Focus stacks up in the real world (taking tips from BMW – let Joe public to the fettling). That said, Ford are at least being fair to the testers by providing both home charging points and recharging facilities around the area. And it looks like they may be being fair to eventual Focus EV buyers too.
Unlike Nissan with the LEAF and Mitsubishi with the i-MiEV, Ford intend using automatic liquid thermal management for their batteries. Which is far more efficient than air cooling and a very good idea indeed.
Why is that, I hear you ask? Simple; batteries that are too hot or too cold are inefficient and degrade quickly, so using some of the electricity to manage the temperature of the batteries will not just potentially increase the range when the weather is hot or cold, but should make the batteries last longer.
Which is great. But even with liquid thermal management the electric Ford Focus will probably have a real world range of around 75 miles. As we said – a city car; nothing more.
Bring on the electric KA.
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