QOTD: What Does Electrification Mean for Muscle, American or Not?
Earlier this week, Matt wrote about Dodge's take on how American muscle will evolve as cars become more electrified.
It's a question that I wonder about a lot. There's no doubt that automakers can make performance cars that are hybrids or battery-electric. There are a few on the market now. The experience may be different -- instantly available torque, no engine noise -- but you can't say these cars aren't fast.
That said, I want to know what you think. You're the B and B. Let's hear it.
Sound off below.
[Image: Dodge/Stellantis]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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It means every car will drive exactly the same with the same soulless experience, though that’s not much different than what we have now with auto-only garbage nearly across the board. Pick a color, go to your desk, eat the bugs, live in the pod.
Oh, it's so much fun listening to the dinosaurs bleat!
Now, I'll readily admit that I have a certain amount of bias. Back in 1970, when I was 20 and a lot of my friends were lusting after Road Runners and GTOs, I want either a Triumph TR-6 or a Lotus Europa. I have never liked muscle cars, all horsepower, God help you when the first turn comes up, and based around the All-American sport of drag racing. Definitely All-American, as it shows little more need of talent than get off the line fast at the green and holding the car straight for a quarter mile.
I look forward to EV's replacing them.
The problem with EV's is that instead of just building golf carts that performed within the norm of ICE vehicles for acceleration - the automakers have foolishly sold everyone a bill of goods that EV's have to all have outrageous 0-60 performance. This need for false speed compromises the range of the vehicles and results in heavier and bigger motors than needed. Now that automakers are going to have to build pony car performers, they have little room other than to add more motors and to add more weight to get an extra 1 second less of 0-60 time. Golf carts are a fraud - they sound good but are not efficient, not cost effective, and their refilling time is outrageous even on a good day unless you have your own charger at home.
I imagine that Stellantis' idea is to have cars, trucks and SUVs with retro 1960s and 1970s performance cars styling cues to accompany the comparatively high performance offered by electric cars. It doesn't appeal to me, but it will probably work to stimulate sales overall.