At the 2011 NAIAS in Detroit, Ford gave fans the opportunity to test-drive the all-new Focus Electric. Obviously, this exercise helped regular folks find out what driving an electric vehicle feels like, but did you know that Ford engineers learned as much if not more from the experience?
They used these test drives to collect tons of data through a data acquisition system connected to the on-board computer, where critical information of what was happening while the vehicle was running or charging could be transmitted and accessed with just a few clicks.
Engineers were able to capture and gain insight on how the batteries were performing from charging to depletion, the range the Focus Electric was getting per charge as well as data on how the car was performing overall.
More than 10,000 NAIAS visitors took a ride in a Focus Electric, allowing the Ford team to collect a myriad of valuable data. So, in the end, everybody came out of Detroit a winner!
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| Photo: Ford |
They used these test drives to collect tons of data through a data acquisition system connected to the on-board computer, where critical information of what was happening while the vehicle was running or charging could be transmitted and accessed with just a few clicks.
Engineers were able to capture and gain insight on how the batteries were performing from charging to depletion, the range the Focus Electric was getting per charge as well as data on how the car was performing overall.
More than 10,000 NAIAS visitors took a ride in a Focus Electric, allowing the Ford team to collect a myriad of valuable data. So, in the end, everybody came out of Detroit a winner!