Ford Bets On An Electric Mustang To Charge Its Turnaround

Ford Bets On An Electric Mustang To Charge Its Turnaround

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Mustang Mach E electric sport utility vehicle Ford Motor Co (F.N) unveiled in Los Angeles on Sunday is more than another car for the storied automaker. The Mach E has become within Ford a high-profile test for a restructuring that has been marred by profit warnings, costly quality problems and the troubled launch this year of another important vehicle, the Ford Explorer sport utility. 20 billion out of a five-year, 2018-2023 product plan, Hackett told Reuters. 鈥淭his is the first thing we generated out of this new thinking,鈥?Hackett said in an interview ahead of the Mach E unveiling. 鈥淲e are really pushing our chips in on the table with this vehicle,鈥?Ford said in an interview ahead of the Mach E鈥檚 unveiling. Automakers have struggled to make money on electric vehicles. 鈥淐ongratulations on the Mach E! Sustainable/electric cars are the future! The Mach E started with humble ambitions. Boring electric cars were the norm for Ford and other legacy automakers.

Tesla鈥檚 market value is now higher than Ford鈥檚. Ford鈥檚 own customer research showed dull electric cars were a mistake, Cannis and other executives said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not good enough,鈥?Hackett recalled saying. The team designing the vehicle started over, using a new architecture engineered from the start to be a battery electric vehicle, instead of the original plan to use a modified version of an internal combustion engine vehicle, Ford executives said. The re-do had to be accomplished much faster than normal to stay on target for a fall 2020 launch. 鈥淲e were super behind time,鈥?said exterior designer Chris Walter during a briefing on the vehicle ahead of the Los Angeles debut. The overhaul cost money, but Ford product development chief Hau Thai-tang told Reuters the dedicated electric vehicle architecture should allow for 25% to 30% improvements in manufacturing efficiency to help offset the cost. The final call on using the Mustang name came from the top, and was not given easily. 鈥淚 was dead set against it, initially,鈥?Bill Ford said. Ford said he started to warm to the idea as he saw the styling and the performance data for the vehicle. Ford said he did not grant his approval until earlier this year after driving a prototype. 鈥淚t felt like a Mustang experience to me,鈥?he said. This is not the first time a challenge to reinvent the Mustang has emboldened Ford employees to break with convention during a rough patch in the company鈥檚 history. The original Mustang launched in 1964 was derived from a mainstream Falcon compact car, and quickly became a hit, far out-selling the company鈥檚 projections.

Mustang might have said. 1990: The NHTSA has its way with the Mustang: it adds a driver-side airbag, with more to come. 1991: Underachievers unite behind the new Mustang four-cylinder and its 105 hp. 1992: The Mustang's getting old. Still a strong seller, the Mustang has an unexpected winner in the LX 5.0, a notchback V-8 with a trunk, and without the pricey GT trim. 1993: Ford's SVO transmogrifies into the Special Vehicle Team (SVT), a group of superheroes bent on fighting crime engineers who turn this final-model-year Mustang into the 235-hp Cobra. In the same year, Ford builds the Mustang Mach III concept--an early version of the next new Mustang, and a concept without much luck. On the way to an auto show, one of two copies built catches fire and turns into unidentifiable postmodern art. 1994: The Mustang gets a major revamp, with a stylebook borrowed from the 1960s, a new suspension and drivetrains--though it still carries a live-axle rear end.

1995: The Cobra gets another year, but the 5.0-liter V-8 gets retired this year. It's gone for more than a decade--a pattern in Mustang history. 1996: Ford installs a "modular" 4.6-liter V-8 in the Mustang GT and SVT Mustang Cobra. GTs have 215 hp; the Cobra, 305 hp. 1997: Happy birthday, Mustang! Here's an anti-theft system. 1998: Just in time for impeachment hearings in Washington, the Mustang bumps its output in GT versions to 225 hp. 1999: Same mechanicals, mostly--but the Mustang now wears a new set of panels with crisper lines. Ford, meanwhile, dives deep into the speculative waters of luxury cars, adding Land Rover and soon, Volvo, to its corporate ICU already filled with Jaguar and Aston Martin. 2000: While SVT turns out a new 385-horsepower Cobra R, Nicholas Cage turns out a not-awful remake of "Gone in 60 Seconds" starring himself and the 1967 "Eleanor" Mustang GT500. 2002: It's all alone now--the Chevy Camaro and Pontiac Firebird wave au revoir from their Canadian assembly plant as GM pulls their plugs.