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Ford’s electric car engineers go crazy with 1,400hp Mustang Mach-E
- raiyu 6y agoYou can make electric cars very fast if don't mind that they can run at full throttle only for a few minutes ;)
- frankbreetz 6y ago>>a requirement was an hour of continuous use followed by an hour of high-speed charging, then another hour of continuous use. Seems good enough for most people daily drivers
- thisisnico 6y agoThis is good enough for a race track!
- beamatronic 6y agoI'm sure that a very fast battery swap mechanism can be implemented, for pit stops. If you can do that, you don't even need that fast of a recharge. Nobody tried to retread their tires, after all - you just get new ones.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- kube-system 6y agoWhich is good, since this is a one-off race car designed for the track :)
- speedgoose 6y agoAs an average driver, I like to drift and burn a set of tires when I commute to the office.
- daseiner1 6y agoThat’s a much better way to bring donuts to the office
- clickbyclick 6y agoEventually, ALL automotive production records will be held by EVs, only question is when.
- kmonsen 6y agoNot long range, unless you allow for gimmicks like changing batteries that will not be available for the general population.
- reducesuffering 6y agoThe 200k Tesla Roadster is expected to have 600 mile range. What ICE car exceeds that? Most ICE are at about ~450 mile range, Model S is at 400 now. There's going to be a lot of battery improvements over the next couple decades pushing EV range far past ICE.
- loeg 6y agoMy mid-2010s Subaru SUV has ~550 mile range, and fill-ups take ~5 minutes. Semis can have 2000+ mile ranges. I am also excited to see battery densities increase, but so far the way we're getting comparable range in EVs is by allocating a greater proportion of weight to fuel. And recharging is still relatively slow.
- Diederich 6y agoRight; see my other comment about recent experiences with a long drive in a Tesla Model S. nothing beats the distance over time you can get with a gas vehicle, given also how quickly you can add range. Many years ago, we used to drive from the midwest to California every year, which was two 800 mile days. We covered that 800 miles in about 13 hours, which is an average of 60 miles per hour. A few weeks ago, we drove 800 miles in our Tesla, and did it in 16.5 hours, which is a little less than 50 miles per hour. Which is quite respectable actually.
- magnetic 6y ago> And recharging is still relatively slow. I know not all EVs are Tesla, but it's interesting to see where charging is going (others will follow suit). Supercharging v3 gives you 1,000 miles of range per hour of charge (approx. if you're in the 20-80% SOC range I think). If you take a 6 min bathroom (or other) break every 100 miles (roughly every couple of hours), you can replenish those 100 miles during that break. Personally, I find superchargers "too quick", as I tend to stop for lunch with my family when I supercharge, and I find myself having to rush to finish lunch so I can get the car out of the charger for someone else to be able to use it. I wish there was an option to say "charge slower and give that juice to the other guy" (many/most current supercharger "pods" have to share the current flow with another car). https://www.tesla.com/blog/introducing-v3-supercharging https://www.tesla.com/blog/introducing-v3-supercharging
- thesh4d0w 6y agoI appreciate the dash shows the actual min/max cell voltages (min 3.96 max 4.01v in one of the pics)
- robotresearcher 6y agoWhat would you do with that information? (not snark: I'm genuinely interested)
- natch 6y agoFord is really good at blowing smoke about EVs lately. Like their truck pull demo where the camera shot they released showed only one angle, leading to speculation that there was a massive power cord tether hidden behind the bulk of the truck. But I appreciate that traditional car makers are finally getting it that people want EVs that are not just golf carts. Too bad this is just another demo but let’s hope they make some of it real.
- anonymousCar 6y agoFirst makes 5.9M cars per year and is planning 50k Mach e. That's 0.8% of their line electric. VW seems to be the only major manufacturer that's really going all in on electric and it's only after wringing their hands from the emissions scandal. The old automakers seem to only want to do this in the face of bankruptcy.
- panpanna 6y agoDidn't Volvo say they would go 100% electric before 2023? They are not as big as VW, but that sure should "all in" to me..
- pixxel 6y agoLooked up to see who owns Volvo, just out of interest. Ford purchased in 1999 and sold to a Chinese firm in 2010.
- panpanna 6y agoNote that both development and production still happens in Europe. I did some digging for my next car and this is what I found: The Chinese owner established newer companies for the Chinese market mostly in China which use their engineering. One of them is a pure EV company.
- losvedir 6y agoI think it was something like 100% of their models will have an electric option? edit: yeah, found this: https://electrek.co/2018/04/25/volvo-electrification-plan-fully-electric/ https://electrek.co/2018/04/25/volvo-electrification-plan-fu... . And their goal is 50% of sales will be electric by 2025.
- beamatronic 6y agoGood things happen when car engineers "go crazy"! Meaning, management lifts their BS restrictions.
- panpanna 6y agoSome of the most successful projects I know started of as unsanctioned "skunkworks".
- kllrnohj 6y ago> Meaning, management lifts their BS restrictions. Like needing to make money? Many of these cars never see production not because of "BS restrictions" but because they can't be feasibly produced for an amount that they think they could sell the car at. This is the equivalent of a hacky prototype. It has a value, and that value is endorsed by management as well.
- xhrpost 6y agoI wonder if the street racers and car mechanic hobbyists of the near future will become electrical engineers to effectively do the same thing. Instead of installing better spark plugs or cylinder heads, enthusiasts start playing with capacitor improvements and voltage tuning?
- ChuckNorris89 6y agoMaybe just with the software but with the hardware no way. On modern EVs it's too complex, miniaturized and tightly integrated to be able to play around. Anyway, just like with Tesla, I expect that if you mess with the factory software to extract more features or performance you'd normally have to pay for, the manufacturer will void your warranty or lock you out of their charging networks. The EV future doesn't look good for custom tuning.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y agoYou replace that with aftermarket upgrades. Nobody is going to care that a Leaf "R-type" isn't stock.
- roflchoppa 6y agoPeople already retrofitting tesla motors inside of vintage Porsches, I’m sure as more EVs end up in junkyards more will make their way into speed junkies hands. Personally if I could retrofit my 240z with an electric drivetrain I would, I just wanna smoke some Tesla’s off the line :)
- ChuckNorris89 6y agoYes, but OP was talking about the future of tuning EVs, not old ICEs with EV parts.
- bestouff 6y agoICE look way more complex than EV to me. More moving parts, more feedback loops. I wouldn't be surprised if enthusiasts were able to swap the controller for something else. But then I perfectly know you are right about the general tendency of integrated and locked-in parts in engineering nowadays.
- holri 6y agoProbably the wrong optimization in times of climate crises.
- edm0nd 6y agoIn between the new Bronco and the new F-150 launching soon, Ford looks to have some interesting new vehicles in the near future.
- AWildC182 6y agoYea, it seems like the whole off-road community has been drooling over the bronco as a possible jeep alternative. They seem to have finally figured out that there are some wide open markets out there.
- mywittyname 6y agoThe Wrangler is hard, hard, hard to compete with. It's had several competitors, and none of them survived. They don't survive because Wranglers are terrible daily drivers. But Wranglers aren't terrible because they're a Jeep, they are terrible because of the compromises Jeep needs to make for the Wrangler to maintain offroad credibility. Thus, most people tolerate Wranglers because A) they enjoy it, B) they like the image driving one projects. It's really not any different from a Dodge Viper, it's a terrible car that people drive mainly for image, or because melted shoe soles and burned legs are worth it for the fun. So what happens is, Toyota/Ford/Chevy/Suzuki make a "better" competitor. But hardly anyone buys it because it's a terrible daily driver, and it doesn't have the image of a Wrangler for people to overlook it. Even Jeep sells mostly comfy SUVs.
- spaetzleesser 6y agoAll these super high powered electric cars are neat but I think this is going totally the wrong directions. This could be used as an opportunity to rethink cars in general and hopefully switching to smaller and more efficient cars. Instead cars are becoming even bigger and heavier. In terms of environment this is also a bad trend. EVs don’t pollute while driving but the energy still has to come from somewhere.
- t0mbstone 6y agoFor true mass adoption and real progress to happen, you have to overcome the notion that electric power is for "sissies". It's a real problem that is very prevalent, especially in more rural areas. I agree with you that building a bunch of electric supercars isn't the ideal long-term plan, but you have to admit that Tesla's roadster and their very fast cars have had an enormous impact when it comes to driving adoption and combatting the negative perceptions around electric cars. Psychology is a huge factor when you are talking about progress and convincing an entire population to switch their way of thinking.
- brohee 6y agoCitroën Ami is about Smart sized and doesn't even require a license... But for most people it's at best a third car https://uk-media.citroen.com/en-gb/default-title-164 https://uk-media.citroen.com/en-gb/default-title-164
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- m463 6y agoThey ARE much more efficient. Smaller is possible (think the electric fiat 500), but it would also not be as safe.
- in3d 6y ago“But if you want to chase lap records or quarter-mile times instead, it'll do that, too—it just requires a few suspension tweaks like changing to shorter control arms that allow for less extreme steering angles.” Not happening. The most important thing is not mentioned: weight. The production version can be 1000 lbs heavier than a regular Mustang. This model can cut some of it but more will be added in batteries to get more power. And then there is nothing you can do on the track - can’t fight physics. Not the first time I see such misleading claims about cars made by tech sites. Linking to articles written by car magazines would be better - they wouldn’t believe the PR so easily. Edit: I should mention I’m talking about the lap times more than the 1/4 mile times.
- bitexploder 6y agoMy Tesla Model 3 weighs over 4000 lbs and still cranks out 3.2 second 0-60 and turns out competitive laps on the track in its class (BMW M3, etc) For reference my giant ford raptor only weighs like 1000 more lbs. it’s not as nimble in turns, but it makes up for it with on demand torque coming out of corners. Also, Mustangs have never been true sports/track cars in their mass consumer versions. They do make more trackable mustang variants, but I can still see a market for a stupidly powerful pony car.
- rootusrootus 6y agoIt's been a number of years now since a garden variety Mustang GT became faster than an M3 around a road course. Now we have things like the PP2 and the Camaro SS 1LE that are nipping at the heals of really high end performance cars. Gone are the days when pony cars couldn't turn.
- bitexploder 6y agoIt’s true, but they were a literal decade behind in their suspensions. IRS was a big deal for pony cars. And GT is probably not the most commonly owned trim level. I say this as a person who has bought a new Mustang every ~5 years since I have been able to drive (~24 years). Guess tech catches up eventually, but it was a sore point until around 05 to 08 when they really started taking the suspension and handling seriously.
- AtlasBarfed 6y agoI've been saying for a year now that EV will be death for hypercar price tags. 1500 HP for an ICE is a multimillion price tag 1500 HP for an EV in 5-10 years will be 1/10th that. The design of this underlines that. the 1500HP is from just serially adding motors to the axles. It didn't involve a 10 year development cycle for a W-12 quad-turbo'd megaengine. They pulled 7 motors off the shelf and attached them.
- gedy 6y agoThat does not look much like a Mustang, more like they are going for a Tesla Model X