The market for EV conversions is booming and Ford wants a piece of that pie through its Ford Performance division.
The company has announced it will show an electric crate motor at the SEMA show this year. This means the Blue Oval will join GM with its Electric Connect and Cruise eCrate kit in offering the necessary hardware to electrify older cars.
In a Twitter post, Ford Performance released three diagrams of the electric crate motor, which will be called Eluminator. That is a play on the Aluminator name given to some of its aluminum V8 crate engines, with the “E” coming from electric, obviously.
One of the diagrams shows that the crate motor will be 570 mm (22.4 inches) long, which means it should fit in just about any project car or truck. No other specs are offered, so we’re left wondering about power and torque levels, battery options, and price. Another thing people will want to know is if this electric crate motor can be hooked to commonly available transmissions.
Well, Ford will hopefully answer these questions at the SEMA Show, scheduled for November 2–5 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The carmaker says the electric crate motor will be available this fall, so we assume that’s right after the show.
To get an idea of what Ford may be targeting with this pack, Chevrolet Performance’s Electric Connect and Cruise eCrate kit features a 200-horsepower, 266 lb-ft (360 Nm) electric motor and a 60-kWh battery pack from the Bolt EV. It comes with DC-to-AC power inverter to drive the electric motor, DC-to-DC power converter to power low-voltage systems, as well wiring harnesses, controllers and water pumps for battery heating and cooling.
Ford could do a similar thing and borrow the electric powertrain from the Mustang Mach-E. The base RWD model features an electric motor making 198 kW (266 hp) and 317 lb-ft (430 Nm) of torque, which should be good enough for most applications.
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