1. I've never been in a situation where a lack of charge has prevented me from going anywhere.
I'm a good planner and we don't go too far out of town. If I know I've got a lot of driving to do, I charge it up. I drove around town to pawn shops / Goodwill all day Monday looking for a bike. (I found it Tuesday) I still only used half a charge on 70 miles. The stop and go traffic isn't better for economy, but with goo regen braking habits it isn't much worse.
2. A car that doesn't shift has a lot of advantages.
I literally never have to shift, and I'm always in the powerband. Around town it's great, and the acceleration is smooth, predicable, and dependable. I don't wait for a downshift to pass, even one I do myself. I don't have to upshift to get back into the powerband. It's just nice. The power is always there.
3. Regen braking feels just like engine braking.
It pretty much is. The engine switches to a generator, and charges the battery. If you don't know a motor can switch to a generator, don't ask. It's magic.
Not really, but the regen braking is really easy to get used to. Also, since it never has to downshift, I can engine brake all the way down from 55 to 0. My real brakes grind from the rust that is forming on them.4. I get about 20% of my miles back on any given trip.
The car tracks Miles Traveled / Regen Miles / Braking Score for each trip, and a lifetime average. I don't watch the meter anymore and I get 95-100% of possible regen. So free fuel! I'd love to see a gas car do that.
5. I lust after Tesla's supercharger network.
20 mins to fill a Tesla. I can't even plug into the thing. Soon™
6. This is a car community, just a kinda weird one.
Everyone in it is very nice to each other. They talk about their cars, the differences, the similarities. There isn't any real cross brand hate. Although, the pure electrics like to lol at the hybrids for obvious reasons. People share the chargers at Pam's office. They have a mailing list, and share their emails and phone numbers. They even hang signs in their windows that say "You can unplug me after XX:XX time. It's kinda nice.
7. Low Rolling resistance means no traction.
I waste more watts spinning these s*** tires than they save me. And they have the added bonus of making the ABS freak out when one hits a wet manhole cover. That's an issue when you live in Portland, OR... These things have to go. They are my biggest gripe about the car.
8. It's so damned quiet.
I can't drive with the windows up. All you hear is tire and road droning. You can have a quiet chat at 50 on good pavement. Kids don't see it at all. I'm constantly looking for pedestrians and bicyclists. Around here they are pretty good about it. There are a lot of electric cars.
9. Other than that it's a Focus, and that's good.
I draw no attention. People are always surprised when I zip past them and there is no noise. A slammed civic with a fart can in the left lane tried to dart in front of me to make a right as we were taking off from a light. He made his turn from behind me, with a very,very confused look on his face.
10. I hope Ford is getting my telemetry.
Cause I'm going to make some engineers laugh. If you attempt to correct for oversteer the thrust vectoring shifts power to the inside wheel as though you are turning, even with small wheel movements. Without correction, the thrust vectoring makes powering through a corner not only possible, but quite easy. It does however require 0 correction because of how sensitive the torque vectoring is. I'm getting it down. It's a bit of a change from my last daily.
All in all I'm very happy with the car. I enjoy driving it. It's a fun little sleeper. Well maybe a napper. It's not that fast, well, you get my point. Thanks for reading.
*I found the bike Tuesday at a used bike store.
