Disneyland to Electrify Autopia: Are Tomorrowland Speedway's gas cars next?

Apr 02, 2024 in "Tomorrowland Speedway"

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Posted: Tuesday April 2, 2024 9:33am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has confirmed that The Autopia at Disneyland will say farewell to old combustion engine gas-powered cars and introduce new electric vehicles in the next few years.

A Disney spokesperson confirmed to the LA Times that the changes are coming, saying "Since opening with Disneyland park in 1955, Autopia has remained a guest-favorite most popular with young kids experiencing driving for the first time. As the industry moves toward alternative fuel sources, we have developed a roadmap to electrify this attraction and are evaluating technology that will enable us to convert from gas engines in the next few years."

Tomorrowland Speedway Pit Row

Although Disney specifically refers to the driving attraction at Disneyland, it would seem to make sense for Disney to develop new vehicles that can be used at both Autopia in Disneyland and the Tomorrowland Speedway at Walt Disney World.

Tomorrowland Speedway is one of the original Walt Disney World attractions, dating back to the opening of the Magic Kingdom theme park on October 1, 1971. The attraction features 146 authentic Autopia Mark VII race cars that travel around a 4/10 mile track. The cars reach a top speed of 7 ½ miles per hour. The engines are built by Briggs and Stratton, but are very loud, generate a lot of emissions, and significantly impact the Tomorrowland environment.

It was previously hoped that new electric vehicles would join the Tomorrowland Speedway as part of the TRON Lightcycle Run addition to Magic Kingdom, but Disney chose to leave the Speedway in its original form, at least for now.

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SteveAZeeApr 22, 2024

Imagine a world without batteries or motors!

SteveAZeeApr 22, 2024

I'm thinking about electric vs gas cars since that's what is often compared and what I tried to illustrate.

Disstevefan1Apr 22, 2024

You have a good imagination. I can’t imagine the modern world without oil, gas and plastic.

IncomudroApr 22, 2024

All they need to be is re-bodied golf carts.

SteveAZeeApr 22, 2024

I like to imagine the scenario where we've been driving electric cars for the last century and someone starts building ICE cars and tries to convince us it's a better way to go. - Range anxiety! Where you going to put all these gasoline depots? You're going bury tanks of gas underground? - I'm supposed to drive my kids around with a huge gas tank right behind them? - You're putting an engine that makes gas explosions 1000's of times a minute... right in front of us? - I've heard the things explode on impact - OMG the refining process! That's filthy and creates pollution along with the car's exhaust system! - The government is subsidizing the gas and oil companies! Where's my pitchfork?

Disstevefan1Apr 22, 2024

Autopia cars are just big toys (or glorified ECVs) and can use safe gel cells. In my opinion, I am against the government's push for EVs. or I like to call "remote combustion" vehicles. There are scenarios where an EV should work as a daily driver, but EVs should not be pushed on manufactures and customers and the free market should determine if EVs should exist. My favorite example is smart phones. For decades and decades human kind existed without them, the smart phone was not forced on anyone and today folks can't live without these very expensive, "adult toys" we call smart phones.

ToTBellHopApr 22, 2024

I don’t like how quiet EVs are. If I’m out for a jog, jamming out to the Innoventions Area Loop on my beats, I need a loud diesel engine or I won’t hear your EV backing out as you munch on celery. Diesel saves lives. Celery kills. I don’t want to become a statistic.

MisterPenguinApr 22, 2024

You don't need to convince me. You need to convince those ideologically opposed to electrification of transit. ;)

Disstevefan1Apr 22, 2024

Super easy. Use removable/rechargable battery packs just like ECVs. Self contained, drop in, no connections to worry about, they can have many charged battery packs charging on the side. The range of a ECV is fine for this application providing you have enough charged battery packs. They can use the same motors, circuitry, chargers and Gel batteries like ECVs that are will not go into thermal runaway like the batteries in EVs do.