This article appeared in Machine Design and has been published here with permission.
Ford just unveiled its all-electric Mustang Mach-E 1400, an all-out engineering effort to show what electric-powered cars can do when money is no object. Working with engineers and designers from RTR Vehicles, Ford crammed seven electric motors into the new Mustang: three on the front differential and four on the rear, pancake style, with a single driveshaft connecting them to the differential.
Power from the motors can be sent divided evenly between all four wheels, or sent all to the front or back, and any combination in between. This lets the driver set up the car for any kind of driving, from drifting to drag racing to high-speed track racing.
The Mustang Mach-E powers all seven of its motors off a 56.8-kWh battery pack comprised of nickel-manganese-cobalt pouch cells. A liquid cooling subsystem pumps a dielectric coolant, which keeps the battery from overheating while being recharged. The battery can be recharged to 80% capacity in 30 minutes, according to Ford.
The battery is designed to quickly put out lots of power for ultra-high performance. The car is likely limited to less than two hours of driving time, which is enough for demonstrating its on-track performance and capabilities.
An electronic brake booster lets the car carry out regenerative braking and take advantage of ABS and stability control to fine-tune the braking system. It is also equipped with a hydraulic handbrake for drifting. It lets the powertrain shutoff power to the rear motors that integrates with the powertrain controls to enable the ability to shut off power to the rear motors.
The Mach-E 1400 looks a lot like the street-legal version, the Mach-E SUV, but engineers replaced almost all the parts in their go-for-broke electric road rocket. Parts had to be lighter and more durable. For example, the chassis is all new and almost all the mechanical components are unique to this car. The body consists of carbon fiber panels, but the hood is crafted out of organic composite fibers, which are less expensive then carbon fibers.
On the outside, the body is designed with aerodynamics in mind. Aerodynamic engineers added on cooling ducts, a front splitter, dive planes and the rear wing, both to improve stability and control and reduce wind resistance. The rear wing is said to create 2,300 lb of downforce when the car is travelling 160 mph. Watch it in action:
The Mach-E 1400 is based on Mustang’s Mach-E SUV, which Ford will start selling next year. The street legal Mach-E GT SUV will generate 459 hp from a pair of electric motors.