Ford News: Ford is Hoping To Use Mustang DNA To Influence Future Models

[William Maley]

The Ford Mustang will being playing a vital role in the company's future. Compared to its other products, the Mustang has "bold, emotional designs that elicit passion among its customers." According to Automotive News, Ford is hoping to expand this idea to their upcoming lineup that will be mostly comprised of trucks and utility vehicles.

"Mustang has a soul. It's a balance of performance and design. If you can capitalize on the cachet and let that rub off on the rest of the portfolio, it's a good thing," said Darrell Behmer, chief designer for the Mustang.

A prime example is the upcoming Mach 1 EV crossover announced back in January. The model is expected to borrow a number of cues from the Mustang in the exterior design, and will possibly use the C2 platform - what underpins the next-generation Focus. What will not be appearing is the Mach 1 name for this new model.

"We put that out there to evaluate it. There are pros and cons. I don't want to handicap it at this point, but we got a very strong reaction from people," Jim Farley, Ford's president of global markets.

'Strong' is a nice way to describe the overall reaction as most people hated the possible name.

Next-Generation Mustang Plans

Automotive News also reports that the next-generation Mustang has been pushed back by a year - reportedly done by CEO Jim Hackett. The new model is expected to arrive in 2021 and move to one of the five new modular platforms announced by Ford. Automotive News expects it to be the RWD/AWD unibody that is expected to underpin the next-generation Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator. Members of the Mustang team were mum on details for the next-generation model (not surprising), but did reveal that moving to a modular architecture wouldn't "hurt their design creativity."

"Mustang is still going to be a strong, well proportioned vehicle. The modular architectures will still give us flexibility; it's not going to bastardize Mustang," said Behmer.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

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