Green Muscle?
 

So here's a question (not sure if it's been asked before):

If Ford eventually made a "green" Mustang, would you buy it?

If Ford made an electric Mustang, and it performed the same (or better) would you buy it?

Electric cars are starting to show some astounding potential and performance. With the exception of a loss of the sound, it's possible to make a fully electric Mustang. Something like the Wrightspeed X1.

Just what are we in love with? How much are we willing to change? (How much would we change to stay competitive?)

For me (and probably most others) losing that V8 sound would be a huge bummer, but the performance and environmental-ness (not to mention the decreased hit to my wallet) would be a plus.

Thoughts?

No, electric cars are nifty but lack something, sorta like diesel locomotives lack something compared to the steam engines they replaced, like the propeller driven ships lack something comapred to the tall ships they replaced.

Sure, a green Mustang would make a body feel all warm and fuzzy inside for granting a polar bear one extra day on the earth, but it would only be an appliance at best, not a Mustang.

My daily drivers for the past 20+ years have been 4 cyl. vehicles.
I have usually also had a powerful V8 car for the weekends and sunny days.
I bought the current Mustang for reasons that had nothing to do with gas mileage or the environment.
If the Mustang were strictly a green car, I would not have bought it.
For a price, there with always be big engine cars. I will always own one.:metal:

Some guy from Ohio has a E-85 Fox body Stang getting over 100MPG.I'll find more info on this ride I just heard about this yesterday.

PROVE IT !!!!!
http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showthread.php?t=469965

What if electric cars continue on their trend of growing performance? When the performance community begins looking at the V8 as a lawnmower, it'll be harder to tout it. That's a distant extreme, I know, but it's very much like a V8 owner looking at someone rolling up in a early kerosene powered carriage.

If we ignore the environmental side of the subject and focus just on the performance, how long do we cling to a technology that may go to the wayside? Is the Mustang ideal future-proof?

I know I wouldn't want one. I know they can make 3 second 0-60 electric cars but half of the driving experience is the vibrations and sound of that rumbling v8. Not to mention that the batteries needed to give it any kind of decent range and power would make the thing 4000+ pounds. Ugh.

If they manufactured a Mustang with a stable, reliable NON-Internal Combustion Engine, decent performance, AND a reasonable price I'd certainly be willing to consider it... :nice:

Will Ford offer this as a factory option in my lifetime? I'm not holding my breath! :(

Let me think about this for a minute so I can provide a sensible, polite, and precise response...

:hmm:

NO...

NO...

and

NONE FREAKING WHATSOEVER!!!


:jester:

+1...

After seeing the power some electric cars are producing, **** right I would get one.

No....

No....

I already have a V6....no change needed.:rofl2:

I hate BUZZ words like Green. Everything has to be Green now, well you know what you can do with Green.

If the car had that kind of a performance, why would you care if it weighed as much as a...charger or Lamborghini Murcielago?

Plus, if battery performance history is anything, what is relevant today in terms of size and weight will mean nothing in 2-3 years.

The problem with Electric Cars
 

I work in the power generation industry and have 30 years experience in electrical distribution and controls. There are many negatives to the electric car:

Batteries are more fussy than engines when it comes to maintenance and damage from improper usage. Even today, most batteries require constant maintenance!

Electrical power components are very heavy. A 300 horse motor can weigh as much as a whole car!

Finally, where does everyone think those electrons come from on the other side of the wall socket? A majority of our electrical power comes form dirty coal-fired and natural gas power plants, many which are old and have not been upgraded because a company can get "green credits" by building a small wind farm or owning a single nuclear plant. All we do with an electric car is to transfer the pollution source. In most cases, the modern auto generates less carbon emissions than a coal or gas plant.

SO why not use gas engines to generate electricity onboard. Every time you transfer the energy, it becomes less efficient. That's why turbolelctric drive was pahsed out on ships years ago in favor of reduction gears.

These wheel motors are like 75 hp/200ftlbs and weigh about 50 pounds or less:doh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPSoNfmuBXc

The Keio University prototype sedan Eliica is an 800hp in-wheel-electric-motor fully-fledge vehicle with a current range of 200+ miles. It's a very large luxury sedan sized car, and weighs 5,000 lbs. It accelerates faster than a Porsche 911, has a top speed of 230mph, and is said to corner better than a Ferrari.

Albeit it is a prototype, but it was built using technology available NOW as a concept car for what is possible in a production-class (non-race-stripped) car.

Yeah, you're not going to see any Eliicas going down the road anytime soon...but to ignore something like that is nuts.

The Wrightspeed X1 weighs 1500 lbs, yet its electric motor will accelerate two passengers from 0-60 in 3 seconds and has a range of over 100 miles urban on the lowest battery configuration.

Electric cars matching or besting the performance of conventional cars in the distant future? I don't think so.

I wish I could say that the price of gas doesn't matter to me -- that I love my car so much I'll pay whatever it takes -- but it does matter. When I took delivery of my car in Feb. 2007, gas was about $2.20 a gallon. Not even a year-and-a-half later I'm paying $4.20 a gallon. That's a difference of about $30 per fill-up. My car's a daily driver, so I'm filling up about once a week, maybe a tad less, so my annual gas expense has gone from $1500 per year to more than $3000.

I love my car. It's the only V8 I have ever had and I love the sounds it makes.

I would miss that V8 sound a lot -- but if it performed as well as a V8, **** right I would buy one.:nice:

Come on, what will we do with all those BIGa** batteries and the dangerous stuff inside them when they won't charge anymore or go bad?????? Where is the GREENNESS in that?? :dunno:


Drill Drill Drill and then Drill some more!!!

Good point.

The funny thing with many solutions to problems is they make things worst down the line and create bigger problems. Steam engines might be the answer but I am sure faults could be found with them as well.

I'd buy an electric Mustang if it could perform like a Mustang and not some little econobox but I agree that you're just trading one type of pollution for another. Too bad they didn't go ahead and bring the Super Stallion to production....maybe bring back the SVO?

I think we're seeing two diverging paths in the development of alternatively-powered cars. The "smart cars" and the new breed of performance cars. Smart cars (like the Honda Atom, the Prius, etc) fit a particular need. No one in their right mind, not even the manufacturer, is going to suggest that a smart car is going to be a replacement for a high performance sports car. It's an entirely different line of vehicle for an entirely different demand.

On the performance side, we're seeing electric motors become vastly more powerful while consuming less energy and taking up less weight. Prototype vehicles like the Eliica show what can be done, not in the future, or with some as-yet-undeveloped technology, but what can be done right now. It has 800hp using eight 100hp motors. Think of all the cars out there that weigh 4,000 lbs, that have less than 800hp. Out stock Mustangs weigh almost 4k lbs and have 300hp. You could take the parts from an Eliica and put them in a Mustang, right now, and make an electric Mustang that would have 300hp (and likely get better range and performance than the Eliica, too).

The comment about trading one problem for another. That's true. The bulk of our electricity is produced in ways that are grossly wasteful and quite nearly as harmful as the harm of car engines. But we make advances in electricity production, too. Holland is about to become the first nation to have 100% of its electricity made from wind and water. They're a small nation, true, but we have the resources to do so much better. Our massive damns become more efficient each year, we put up more and more alternative power plants, and brand new solar energy technology is coming out which is literally turning the high-expense of solar energy on its head. Konarka, a company that develops solar energy technologies, has developed a solar energy material for making solar panels that takes the relative cost of producing a panel down to cents.

Speaking of trading one problem for another, America seems hell-bent on turning to bio-fuels. This trades the cost and environmental problems of gasoline, for the hell of food shortages and high agriculture prices. It is estimated that with the same amount of crops as you need to make 30-gallons of bio fuel, you could feed a person for a year. We're already starting to experience some of these problems, as farms in our own country and abroad are turning away from food production to fuel production. This is good news. We'll have running cars but no one alive to drive them. :P

Get out of my lane, I'm ranting!

I think the biggest problem facing the electric muscle car is not going to be performance...but sensation. The Wrightspeed X1 is a knock-your-socks-off performer...but it sounds like a slot-car toy. When you lift the hood, you don't see this oil-stenched explosion-containment-monstrosity. You see a battery and a computer box.

How do we fix those problems? I don't know. It's likely that we may end up identifying the power of a car not by the sound of its engine, but by the sound of its cooling system and the aesthetic arrangement of its stylized battery units. The exhaust pipe will end in a little door covering the plug socket...which will be chromed...and for ricers will be the size of an industrial power-grid connector attached to twisted-pair phone cable. :P

If we come back to the central crux of the issue, though...What is a Mustang?

Really, what IS a Mustang?

Is it a Mustang ONLY if it consumes gasoline? ONLY if it has a V8? ONLY if its exhaust makes rumbling noises?

I hope not. If so, then we may be kidding ourselves that the Mustang is anything more than a temporary performance fancy.

I'm going to bed. I have to get up tomorrow and burn 200 miles worth of gas, lol.

+1 Ricers...bwahhahahahahhahaha!
 

[quote=Arrow;5595365]The exhaust pipe will end in a little door covering the plug socket...which will be chromed...and for ricers will be the size of an industrial power-grid connector attached to twisted-pair phone cable. :P

quote]

:rofl2::rofl2:

Just to let everyone know how much a hybrid battery cost for a 2008 Escape. Retail is $7,244.00 and it fills the whole rear compartment floor. We use a engine crain to remove it.

If it comes down to a "green Mustang" and no V8 option then I'll be looking somewhere else for my next car. For me part of owning a Mustang is the sound of a V8 engine that goes along with it. I wouldn't even want a twin turbo V6 with 400HP. It's just not the same to me. At that point I'll look at a 350z or G37 coupe.