An Electric Muscle Car?

Talk about a contradiction in terms.

Imagine hammering down on the pedal of your Ford Mustang and roaring from 0-60 in 3.9 seconds like you're Steve McQueen on steroids … all with a silent, environmentally-friendly electric engine emitting zero rude, unruly carbon emissions.

That's the idea behind the Tjaarda EVX Mustang and the HST Shelby Cobra EVX, both zero-emissions vehicles based on their gasoline-powered muscle car counterparts. It's important to note that both of these are custom cars (the Mustang runs at $80,000 and the Cobra will cost you $120,000), so don't get too excited. Still, an 8-hour charge to a lithium-ion battery pack that will cost you roughly three cents per mile seems like a decent price.

I have only one concern: Isn't a car that can accelerate from 0-60 in under four seconds without making a peep—I don't know—fairly freaking dangerous?

HST International All-Electric Mustang and Shelby Cobra (Motor Authority via Jalopnik)

Comments

Fairly freaking dangerous? Probably.
Fairly freaking awesome? Definitely!

AWESOME!
GO FORD!!

It's like a fart. Silent yet deadly.

If this car functions like it says, it is what I have always wanted.

As concerns this quote,"Isn't a car that can accelerate from 0-60 in under four seconds without making a peep—I don't know—fairly freaking dangerous?" the answer is NO and NO. The National Highway and Safety Administration data shows no evidence that hybrid electric vehicles in electric mode have any higher rates of accidents. Although some blind folks are trying to make the case, there appears to have been 6 blind people killed in 2006 out of over 5,000 pedestrian and bicyclist accidents and none of the vehicles were 'silent' hybrids. Worse, their best advocate, Professor Rosenblum found sufficient tire and wind noise above 25 mph that the blind would need no help. BTW, it looks like hearing aids would help the blind find a hybrid traveling at 5 mph.

No the only danger from electric acceleration is shutting down the "loud" cars and Harley's and the risk to fragile egos as they discover that noise is not the same as performance.

Bob Wilson

Well it's not completely silent. There's always road noise, and the motor does make some noise. I'm told that driving one under full power kind of sounds like a blender gone ballistic.
Listen for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3QpB4E4FdY&feature=related

Just to appease the macho and the posers,why not have an external speaker system and synch it with a soundtrack that senses road speed? Go slow,it goes "putt putt putt",go fast and it goes "Roar!".If you cant burn gas with a conventional engine,at least you can make it sound like one.Virtual combustion? Dont laugh,its the future.

It makes sense electric motors would have that kind of performance, given that the power is now (or at least builds much faster), rather then having to work its way into powerbands like an internal-combusion engine. But that would cause alot of strain on those batteries i would think, takes alot of power to move somthing that fast.

If it sounds a blender I want one with a horn of course to bloow because I some tomies drive like fast enough to kill somone but also carefull.I need for some pedestrians talk on their cell-phones and like some drivers they dont know where they are going.At least if I blow the horn they will spark out of the way because the blender is on nearly 60 m p h .Imagine that a blender going at sixty miles an hour.It could be fun and emmission free at the same time.

Awe, I would miss the nice growling noise a car like this makes... That is part of their beauty.

"Awe, I would miss the nice growling noise a car like this makes... That is part of their beauty."

Are you a drummer? (rim shot)

What good is a quality auto sound system if it has to reside in an engine noise box?

Bob Wilson

Who wants to listen to music when you can hear the sweat sound of a loud engine!? I want it to sound like a darn drag car - that is music to me!

This was the Ronaele Electric Mustang that HST put the Tjarda body parts on it. Nice to see someone getting credit for what Ed did.