Though some motorsports purists remain skeptical, Ford is leaning hard into the future with its EV race cars. These so-called “EV demonstrator” racers highlight the potential of electric performance, but their influence goes well beyond the track. Data and information collected from these demonstrators help to in form the automaker’s broader push into hybrid technology, bridging the gap between racetrack and road car.
Ford Performance head Mark Rushbrook spoke on the matter in a recent interview with The Drive. Rushbrook acknowledged that while growth of electric vehicles has stagnated, at least as far as consumer models go, The Blue Oval is still all-in on creating EV demonstrators. There’s good reason for it, though – lessons learned from Ford EV demonstrators are crucial to the development of hybrid technology for the mass market.
“What we learn in our full-electric demonstrators can help what we do with hybrid vehicles that we sell to customers, because a lot of the technology with the battery cell chemistry, with the software, the calibration, the inverter – it is transferable,” Rushbrook told The Drive. “Not necessarily directly, but what we’re learning, or the methods, or the processes.”
Ford Performance has been actively testing hybrid systems with a long-term goal in mind: to make hybrid options available across the entire lineup by 2030. Rushbrook says that there’s plenty of room in The Blue Oval’s lineup for more than just Ford EV offerings in the meantime, and that the automaker is still committed to providing a diverse powertrain lineup for its buyers.
“We still have [electric] vehicles for sale today. We still have vehicles in the product development pipeline that are coming.” he said. “What we’re learning in motorsport, whether it’s where we compete in ICE, in hybrid, or electric, is still informing all of our future products.”
The latest Ford EV demonstrator is waiting in the wings for its debut. The Super Ford Mustang Mach-E will soon race in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, flexing over 1,400 horsepower on one of Colorado’s toughest mountain highways.
Comments
Where is the parallel hybrid Mustang, which was reported here last year? It has twin electric motors driving the front wheels, and the 5.7 L V8 driving the rear, similar to the Chevy Corvetye E-Rsy.
Ford should be using the hundreds of millions of dollars waisted on racing to fix their ever increasing quality control problems.