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Ford’s no stranger to the NASCAR life. Ford driver Joey Logano was the 2024 Cup Series Champion in one of the company’s Mustang-bodied machines. He’s currently leading the 2025 series, too. However, the Blue Oval and its Ford Performance division are going into uncharted territory with its new prototype, an all-electric Mach-E built atop elements of NASCAR’s current Next Gen chassis.
The machine uses three motors to make a total of 1,341 hp (1,000 kW). Yes, three motors, one for each rear wheel plus the odd one out up front, giving the thing all-wheel drive. That’s a seeming necessity, given the car has two times the power that any NASCAR racer is allowed to deploy on the non-restrictor plate races.
But that extra driven axle isn’t just for acceleration. “If you’re rear-wheel drive only, you’re only getting rear regen,” Mark Rushbrook said. He’s the global director of Ford Performance. Since braking forces are higher at the front axle, an extra motor there means more regen to recharge the battery.
The motors and the car’s development were done by Austrian motorsport development house STARD, which also provided the engineering behind Ford’s previous electric demonstrators, like the Supervan and the SuperTruck.
The most interesting thing, though, might just be the car’s shape. The NASCAR Mach-E has a decidedly crossover profile, much like NASCAR and ABB’s prototype EV, helping to make room for the batteries—78 kWh to be exact.
Is now the time to go EV racing?
Ford Performance is still working out where and when we’ll see this latest demonstrator actually demonstrating, but Rushbrook said this concept was developed in concert with NASCAR and other manufacturers, so this isn’t just a one-off. With shifting EV perception across the country and many saying that alternate fuels are the way forward, part of the plan is to figure out just what the fans want to see.
