Ford Racing’s Mustang Cobra Jet 2200 simply ran 1 / 4 mile in 6.87 seconds at 221 mph at an NHRA occasion in Charlotte, setting a brand new world file for an EV. The run smashed Ford’s personal earlier EV file of seven.62 seconds, set by the Cobra Jet 1800 final September, by a powerful 0.75 seconds.
Because the title suggests, Ford’s Cobra Jet 2200 places an enormous 2,200 horsepower to the wheels because of a newly designed electrical motor and inverter combo. Ford elected to make use of two motors and inverters as an alternative of 4 of every as earlier than to scale back complexity and increase effectivity to 98 %. Total energy is up by 600 horsepower, however the motors and inverters weigh half as a lot as earlier than. Every little thing runs on a 900-volt structure and 32 kWh battery that costs in 20 minutes, simply sufficient for the NHRA’s 45-minute turnaround rule.
The automotive has some uncommon options for an EV like a clutch that lets the driving force dump all the facility to the highway immediately for optimum acceleration. It additionally makes use of a multi-speed transmission that enables the automotive to run in its supreme energy band by means of the length of the run — decreasing the quarter-mile time by as much as a second, based on Ford. The battery design additionally allowed the crew to tune weight distribution for optimum traction. One other racing contact is a pyrotechnic circuit breaker that may immediately break the high-voltage connection by way of a small explosive cost to align with NHRA security guidelines.
A few of this tech, just like the high-efficiency motors and 900 volt system, may conceivably trickle right down to client automobiles. Sadly, Ford and different US automakers have considerably lowered their funding in BEV know-how of late. Ford not too long ago introduced that it could reboot the F-150 Lightning as an EREV with a gasoline generator, whereas final week GM delayed its next-gen full-size EV pickups and SUVs — all within the face of quickly rising gasoline costs.
