The electric car will appear in a segment called “Green Car Challenge.” Tuned to perform on a racetrack that was specifically designed for “The Jay Leno Show,” the battery-electric Ford Focus will be the car used throughout the first season. Celebrities who accept the challenge will be at the wheel, driving quickly to establish a fast lap time that future guests will try to beat. Actress Drew Barrymore is the first celebrity to accept Leno’s “Green Car Challenge.”
The electric Focus to be driven by celebrity guests on “The Jay Leno Show” (NBC, Monday - Friday, 10 - 11 p.m. ET) is one-of-a-kind vehicle, based on the European five-door production Focus ST, modified into a battery electric vehicle (BEV) as part of Ford’s BEV test fleet. This specific car started life as a European production Focus ST, built in Germany in July. The car was delivered to Ford’s world headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., where engineers went to work, removing the traditional engine and gas tank and installing an entire electric powertrain - all in six weeks. With Recaro racing seats, a full roll cage, a five-point racing harness and wearing a unique (and fitting) Electric Orange paint scheme, the battery electric Focus ST is ready for racing. Thanks in part to the battery placement, the race-ready Ford Focus BEV has a nearly ideal 50/50 weight distribution for improved race track handling. The front springs and dampers come from the performance-minded Ford Focus RS, a popular, high-performance European production model. The rear dampers and springs are unique to Leno’s Focus BEV. The car is specifically tuned to perform on the track built alongside “The Jay Leno Show” studio at NBC. To help improve performance, Ford created a similar track at their proving ground in Michigan to test the vehicle so it would be ready to handle the tight turns.
Besides an ability to perform on the track, the Ford Focus BEV boasts the impressive statistics of a conventional battery electric vehicle, with a range of nearly 80 miles on a charge and peak power of 141 horsepower (105 kilowatts). The Focus BEV foreshadows many of the same systems that Ford will begin selling to consumers in an all-new electric Ford Focus, scheduled to go on sale in North America in 2011. VEHICLE SPECS: •Powertrain: permanent magnetic electric motor
•Power: 141 hp / 105 kw
•Torque: 236 lb.-ft. / 320 Nm
•Redline: 7500 rpm
•Batteries: 98, air-cooled, 60 A-h Lithium-ion batteries
•Capacity: 23 kilowatt hours
•Transmission: Single speed gearbox
•Steering: Electric power-assisted rack-and-pinion
•Front suspension: Macpherson-type struts
•Rear suspension: Independent short-long arm (SLA), control blade multi-link system
•Brakes: Front: 12.6 in / 320 mm ventilated discs, Rear: 11.0 in / 280 mm solid disc, Anti-lock system
•Wheelbase: 104 in / 2640 mm
•Overall length: 171.7 in / 4362 mm
•Overall height: 58.9 in / 1497 mm
•Overall width: 72.4 in / 1840 mm
•Curb weight: 3,421 lbs There are 13 key technologies that set the battery electric Ford Focus apart from a traditional car.
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