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BRILLIANCE OR BLASPHEMY?

AEM EV Tesla-Swaps An S197 Mustang

There are some who view the Mustang Mach-E SUV as a controversial machine. There is debate about whether it should carry the Mustang badge.

Wherever you stand, you have to agree that it is a real Ford creation. What if someone electrified a “real” Mustang, with a really different powertrain? That’s just what the clever crew at AEM EV, which supplied the controller for the Ford Performance Cobra Jet 1400, did with a black S197 Mustang.

Achieved with one of Electric GT’s Tesla Swap Packages, this combination could be a preview of the future of hot rodding.

Using a Tesla Swap Package from Electric GT, the crew put a large, base Tesla Drive Unit into the Mustang. The package also includes an AEM Battery Management System, OX Drive Power Modules, EGT's thermal management package, and Electric GT’s Hi-Voltage Junction Box.

“...I was this guy who was never going to own an EV, but EVs are performance vehicles,” Lawson Mollica, Director of Marketing and Public Relations of AEM Performance Electronics, said from behind the wheel. “When you drive one, it’s as fun as any high-performance vehicle I've had the pleasure of driving. This thing is screaming to get flogged.”

AEM recently upgraded its Mustang Dynamometer to support vehicles like this Tesla-swapped S197, which is controlled by AEM EV’s own VCU 200 paired with the company’s Inverter Control Board that allows communicating with the Tesla hardware.

Key to the package is AEM EV’s own VCU 200 controller augmented by an Inverter Control Board that allows interfacing the Tesla inverter to the VCU for full control of the Tesla drive unit, which delivers over 500 horsepower in stock form. With the AEM controller calling the shots, it is said to deliver 26-percent more output.

While it certainly looks like a fun project, how do you feel about an electric Mustang with a non-Ford powertrain?

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