Plug-In Motors Building $75,900 Electric Ford Mustangs
This is what the electric version of a Ford Mustang looks like.
The Big Three have fallen behind in the alternative-fuels race, and with two of the three bankrupt and barely clinging to life, we shouldn’t expect too much from them anytime soon. But that hasn’t stopped independant innovators from stepping away from the herd and offering their own versions of alternatively-powered production cars.
Take for example Kurt Neutgens and Travis Winkelman; while Kurt is a former Managing Engineer for the F-150 (America’s top-selling vehicle for many, many years), Travis worked for the ROUSH NASCAR team. Together, these two men took America’s iconic pony car, the Mustang, and gave it an all-new, electric heart.
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Called the Plug-In Panther, the conversion itself is pretty straight forward. They remove the engine and transmission from either a V6 or V8 2005-2009 Mustang, and drop in a high-torque 3 phase AC motor. This humdinger makes about 177 ft-lbs of torque at 0 rpm. Not exactly back-breaking power, but it is delivered in a smooth and constant stream all the way up to 5500 rpm, and power is available all the way up to 13,500 rpm.
This is enough power to get the car from 0-60 mph in just 5.6 or 6.6 seconds (depending on the model you choose), which puts it ahead of most petrol-powered cars on the road right now. There is also no transmission and thus no shifting, making for one long, smooth ride. Going in reverse merely means spinning the engine in the opposite direction.
Now all this wouldn’t be good for much if the Panther didn’t get decent range. But thanks Li-Ion Iron battery pack, the Panther has a range of either 85 miles or 200 miles, depending on which model you spring for. These battery packs have an expected shelf life of between 200,000 and 350,000 miles, and make up most of the admittedly heavy conversion cost. An electrically-converted Mustang will run you between $75,900 (for the 85 mile version) and $99,900 (for the 200 mile version). Charging times for the former run as little as 1.1 hours out of a 240v outlet (11 hours out of a 120v). The 200 mile version can be charged in as few as 2.8 hours from a 240v, though a 120v will take upwards of 28 hours to fully charge.
Is this an electric car for the masses? Not yet. But with a max speed of either 85 mph or 105 mph, it will feel more like a regular car than most any other electric car on the market currently, and it all comes wrapped in an iconic muscle car’s sheet metal. Plus, it is a genuine electric car at a time when the major auto manufacturers seem at a loss to produce one. Check out the Plug-In Motors website, where they are currently working on an F-150, Lincoln LS, and Jaguar versions of their electric conversions as well.
Very good START ! This prove one more time that the BIG THREE are nothing more than the OIL LOBY PARTNERS ! So with the technology from 1990 it was and it is posible NOT TO USE ONE SINGLE DROP OF OIL !!! EV RULES !
At $75,900, who cares?! It’s not like anyone can afford one of these at those kind of prices! No wonder you see so many Hyundais and Kias on the road. They’re the only reasonalby priced cars out there. Can’t anyone make an EV under $30K?
@Dave: A lot of these conversions are expensive because they are one-off deals. If they could be ramped up the priced would come down dramatically.
Just take hevt.com’s F-150 conversions, which are also extremely expensive (http://gas2.org/2008/07/28/startup-converting-ford-f-150s-into-41-mpg-plug-in-hybrid-electric-vehicles/). In volume production the estimated cost would drop to $15,000. If the Feds would give us a solid conversion tax credit that would put these kinds of conversions in reach.
It’s a good start but more needs to be done to get consumers buying these cars.
@clayton
I’m not so sure that ramping up production would reduce the cost very much, possibly the opposite. The major cost here is the battery pack, not the installation of the battery pack. Lithium does not grow on trees. Ramping up production of this and other electric vehicles would increase demand for this scarce resource, driving up costs for everyone, including electronics manufacturers. The reduction in assembly costs due to economies of scale is likely to be small potatoes in this case.
I’m very skeptical that battery powered cars will ever make sense. An electric car that uses biofuels as the primary means of energy storage seems much more realistic. The only way I can imagine pure battery cars is if somebody figures out how to make sodium-sulfur batteries work in a car, which is obviously challenging given heat issues (but perhaps not impossible — engines are pretty hot, after all, and we seem to manage that ok). The nice things about sodium-sulfur are (1) cheap materials and (2) higher energy density than lithium ion.
“Can’t anyone make an EV under $30K?”
Th!nk city (previously owned by Ford) makes a two seater similar to a Smart car for under $30K.
It has a top speed of 75mph and a range of 100 miles.
Sodium-Sulfer batteries are what powered the Ford electric car in England back in the ?? ’70s ?? . The battery materials were a major concern then when a crash was contemplated during a driving rainstorm.