Pwny

I am all for an electric Mustang.

Some people who claim they want nothing but a V-8 or saying they can't live without one might want to find out of they are over-compensating for something.

Rob O

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?

Pwny

Check out the 2010 forum. There is a lot of speculation about an SVO revival. Its popped up on numerous sites.

Its too much to say here, but just head on over to the 2010 forum and you'll definitely see.

Arrow

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.

keeper

[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]

Torched05stang

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.

bpmurr

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.