This Mustang is hiding a secret: there’s no engine underneath the hood. Although it’s not doing a great job of keeping that secret considering the hood has a pair of see-through polycarbonate windows.
So what’s going on here? Well, Ford has paired up with Webasto to create this fully-electric Mustang. They call it the Mustang Lithium, and it’s got 900 hp and 1,000 lb-ft of on-demand electric torque. GT500, eat your heart out.
Unveiled at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, the Lithium is a testbed to showcase what Webasto’s new electric conversion technology can do with limited space. In this case, the Mustang’s big V8 is completely removed and replaced by an 800-volt EVDrive battery-driven electric motor. For those paying attention, that’s the same voltage as the brand new Porsche Taycan, which is said to improve charging time and peak power output.
Ford says the Lithium Mustang can discharge a full megawatt at maximum output. They didn’t tell us just how fast that will make the Lithium go (or for how long), but it seems like it would make anything move very fast indeed.
The interesting part is that the rest of the car is almost as expected. It still has a 6-speed manual transmission that has been strengthened to handle all that extra power, so the electric drivetrain feeds directly to a driveshaft and gearbox as you’d expect in a regular car. A Super 8.8 Torsen rear differential puts power to 20-inch forged wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, and Brembo brakes help it stop as quickly as it can go.
A custom carbon fiber body kit and a 1-inch lowering kit round out the Lithium's bag of tricks.
“Ford has made no secret of the fact that we are electrifying our most popular nameplates,” said Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s Chief Product Development and Purchasing Officer. “This one-off Mustang prototype is a great opportunity for us, together with Webasto, to showcase to our customers what a new electrified powertrains can do for performance in a car they already know and love.”
We know that Ford has a fully-electric Mustang in development somewhere, so maybe this is how it will eventually turn out.