Ford unveils 1044kW electric-powered Mustang

Ford USA has taken the wraps off a car that it says showcases the art of the possible with an electric vehicle.

The track-oriented Mustang Mach-E 1400 was developed jointly by Ford Performance and race car specialist RTR, and uses seven electric motors to produce 1400 horsepower (1044kW ).

“Now is the perfect time to leverage electric technology, learn from it, and apply it to our line-up,” says Ron Heiser, the chief programme engineer for the all-electric Mustang Mach-E road car which goes on sale in America towards the end of the year.

“Mustang Mach-E is going to be fun to drive, just like every other Mustang before it, but Mustang Mach-E 1400 is completely insane…”

Part of the design brief was to produce a car that bridges the gap between what an electric vehicle can do and what customers tend to believe it can do.

Three of the Mach-E 1400’s seven motors are attached to the front differential and four are attached to the rear in pancake style, with a single driveshaft connecting them to the differentials,.

The differentials have a wide range of adjustability to set the car up for everything from drifting to track and drag racing.

The chassis and powertrain set-ups allow the team to investigate different layouts and their effects on energy consumption and performance, including rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive and front-wheel drive.

Drift and track set-ups have completely different front end configurations like control arms and steering changes to allow for extreme steering angles in drifting.

Power delivery can be split evenly between front and rear, or completely to one or the other. Downforce is targeted at more than 2300lb. at 258km/h.

The car’s 56.8-kilowatt-hour battery is made of nickel manganese cobalt pouch cells for ultra-high performance and high discharge rate. The battery system is designed to be cooled during charging using a di-electric coolant

Ford says the Mustang Mach-E 1400, which will debut publicly at a NASCAR race soon, is a test bed for new materials. The bonnet is made of organic composite fibres, a lightweight alternative to the carbon fibre that comprises the rest of the vehicle.