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 document for an EV. The run smashed Ford’s personal earlier EV document of seven.62 seconds, set by the Cobra Jet 1800 final September, by a powerful 0.75 seconds.
Because the identify suggests, Ford’s Cobra Jet 2200 places a large 2,200 horsepower to the wheels due to a newly designed electrical motor and inverter combo. Ford elected to make use of two motors and inverters as a substitute 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 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 automobile has some uncommon options for an EV like a clutch that lets the motive force dump all the ability to the highway immediately for max acceleration. It additionally makes use of a multi-speed transmission that enables the automobile to run in its splendid energy band via the period of the run — decreasing the quarter-mile time by as much as a second, in response to Ford. The battery design additionally allowed the staff 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 shopper automobiles. Sadly, Ford and different US automakers have considerably lowered their funding in BEV expertise of late. Ford just lately introduced that it might reboot the F-150 Lightning as an EREV with a fuel generator, whereas final week GM delayed its next-gen full-size EV pickups and SUVs — all within the face of quickly rising gasoline costs.
