Ford Walked Back Its EVs, Now Its Wildest Cars Are Getting Gas Engines Again
The company says series like Formula E aren't for it, so it's committed to keep building wild one-offs, free from regulations
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by Brad Anderson
Ford will keep building wild demonstrators but drop the all-electric rule.
Future one-offs may run hybrid or combustion power instead of batteries.
Lessons from Red Bull’s F1 team are feeding into Ford’s next builds.
has walked back a chunk of its EV plans and written down billions of dollars doing it, but the appetite for wild technical demonstrators like the SuperVan 4.2 hasn’t gone anywhere. The ones coming next might even run internal combustion engines.
The program started before the Covid-19 pandemic, when Ford wanted to prove electric vehicles could be exciting. The first all-electric hero was the Mustang Cobra Jet 1400, and the company kept going from there: the NASCAR and Pikes Peak racers, the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck, the Mustang Cobra Jet 2200, several SuperVans, and the F-150 Lightning Switchgear.
Read: Ford F-150 Lightning Switchgear Concept Will Make You Say CyberWho?
While recently speaking with Autocar, Ford Racing boss Mark Rushbrook said that Ford remains committed to these dramatic one-off creations but will no longer restrict itself to all-electric powertrains. This is exciting news, although we don’t yet know when the first of them will be ready for primetime.
Ford F-150 Lightning Supertruck
“We’ll continue to do Demonstrators, but we’re not going to restrict ourselves to full electric,” Rushbrook said. “We still have a lot of electric cars in our future, but we also have a lot of hybrids coming, and we also have a lot of combustion vehicles coming. So we’ll do more demonstrators, but you will see more powertrain technology in them, not just full-electric.”
Ford Racing’s boss added that thanks to the company’s tie-up with Red Bull’s Formula 1 team, it’s learning a lot about the most advanced hybrid powertrains. A demonstrator that combines all the experience Ford has gleaned from its one-off EVs with its decades of knowledge about high-performance engines sounds like the recipe for something great.
Why Not Compete In Formula E?
Ford SuperVan 4.2
Rushbrook added that Ford decided to go down the route of creating its own one-off prototypes, rather than competing in a series like Formula E, because of the added flexibility and freedom it provides.
“We did not feel existing electric series were right for us,” he said. “That’s not a knock on those series, but we wanted the ability to truly learn with a free canvas, and a series like Formula E does restrict you. With the Demonstrators we can do whatever we want, whether it’s a Transit or an , a Mustang Mach-E or even a Mustang coupé.”
Ford Mustang Mach-E NASCAR
