Ford Builds One-Off Focus EV for Leno's New Show
Jay Leno may be well-known for his personal collection of rare cars, but his new show, aptly titled The Jay Leno Show, will be host to a one-off all-electric vehicle that aims to highlight the performance capabilities of these zero emission vehicles. As a proper to end to its debut week, Leno's show featured an all-electric European-spec Ford Focus being piloted by Drew Barrymore for the celebrity Green Car Challenge bit. Developed in under two months, the Focus BEV donated to the show is much more stylish than the Focus EV sedan that Ford has been flaunting all year, and it is much more indicative of the styling of the future North American Focus when it makes its debut next year.
Since last fall, Ford has been flaunting a battery electric prototype version of its 2009 Focus sedan with intentions of having the technology available for consumer use by 2012, but the North American-spec Focus is hardly a sporty looking car. For the bit on Leno's new show, which made its debut this week, Ford started off with a stylish European-spec Focus ST five-door hatchback, tossed in the necessary battery-electric components and retuned the suspension for Jay's Green Car Challenge.
This particular Ford Focus BEV is powered by an electric motor that produces 141 horsepower and 236 lb-ft of torque - almost as much torque as a base 2010 Mustang. The motor gets its power from a 23 kWh lithium ion battery pack that is mounted in the cargo area to give the car almost 50/50 weight distribution. Ford claims that each two-lap race will require just a penny's worth of electricity, and the battery can hold enough charge to power the car for 200 races (the actual distance traveled on the track is unknown). Ford also showed a 'stock'? version of the Euro Focus BEV at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show which indicated some of the car's potential in everyday driving such as its range of 75 miles, top speed of 85 miles per hour a charge time of six to eight hours from a household 230-volt outlet (usually reserved for clothes dryers and air conditioners).
Like the positioning of the battery pack, other changes were made to the car to increase its performance and will not carry over to any production vehicle. For driver safety, a five-point harness and full roll cage were built into the car, while performance was enhanced by upping the spring rate as well as the size of the sway bars. Exact performance figures weren't released about the car, but it did seem to circle the track in impressive fashion.
The first episode of the Green Car Challenge aired last Friday when Drew Barrymore drove the bright orange Euro Focus around the 46,000 square foot, seven-turn racetrack in 54.36 seconds. Piloting the electric hatchback wearing a dress, Barrymore's performance around the Chuck E. Cheese-enhanced track was much more entertaining than watching the 10 @ 10 bit with Mel Gibson. In an age where product placement drives most television shows, it was good to see that every commercial break wasn't filled with Ford advertisements as we expected. The only Ford commercial during the entire hour-long show was a plug for the Ford Fusion that immediately followed the Green Car Challenge.