People are still belly-aching about Ford's latest performance luxury crossover EV being labeled with the iconic Mustang badge. If you're one of these people, answer us this.
Would you feel more satisfied if the EV Mustang looked something a bit more like this Tesla swapped 2007 Mustang? Let's give you the rundown. This very special fifth-generation Mustang build is the brainchild of Nate Stewart, an engineer with the AEM EV company. His day job is to design products to simplify the conversion process from gasoline or diesel combustion to full battery EV.
His nighttime and weekend hobby is testing his own inventions in projects of his own design. The 'Testang," as it's called, features the Tesla LDU electric motor unit (Large Drive Unit) as its drivetrain in its non-sport base configuration with an AEM EV Inverter Control Board (ICB).
This configuration allows for the same regenerative braking that's become so commonplace on Tesla and other EV manufacturers' vehicles. AEM EV hopes to have a control board capable of handling the more powerful and more thermally demanding sports configuration sometime in the near future. For the time being, the new powerplant is, at the bare minimum, a decent power upgrade from the anemic stock V8.
The interior features lots of aftermarket additions to give things inside this Mustang have a more custom feel. The standard gauge cluster has been replaced with a single multifunctional display with all the software preconfigured by Nate himself.
Photo: AEM EV Electronics
The transmission shifter has been replaced with a push-button system, as the direct drive of the EV drivetrain left it redundant. The live rear axle and the rear suspension, which were once fitted to this car, look far more like a Tesla than it does a Mustang, thanks to that beefy drive unit.
Nate does well to note that just four bolts are all it takes removing to take the entire rear drivetrain subframe assembly from the car. And we bet you thought the stock fifth-gen Mustangs were basic to work on.
The lower links of the rear suspension are at least one holdover from the stock Mustang. As we've said, all of the vehicle control and power units on this car are developed by Nathan and the rest of the AEM EV team, so getting things dialed in couldn't have been done by more qualified people.
The car is passively cooled in all aspects other than the primary drive unit, making for a package that actually saves weight in some areas and transfers other weight directly over the rear-drive tires. AEM EV's own proprietary power control unit ensures that power is only delivered to the drive unit.
Photo: AEM EV Electronics
Only while upon the driver's pedal response and in proportions are accurate to the amount of acceleration expected. These are aspects of engine mechanics that were once relegated to carburetors and mechanical throttle linkages. In a modern EV, all of this must be controlled by a series of computers.
The car can be charged via a standard 240 volt EV charging power connector found on Tesla models. With a vast and complex series of EV charging stations due to pop up across the world, perhaps this EV Mustang conversion will lead the way in showing the world how to turn their beloved gas cars into electric machines that can continue to travel the roads without being shamed by tree huggers and politicians.
Based on some of the photos and video Nathan uploaded to the AEM Electronics YouTube account, this car should be able to rip the quarter-mile at least as well as it did as an old-fashioned gas car. You might wonder how much it costs to build a machine of this kind. Well, we can only say that the best way to find out is to replicate what Nate did and find out for ourselves.
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