The Ford Mustang is the
world's best selling sports coupe.
It is a brand some Ford employees
consider the soul of the company.
It's one of our crown jewels.
It is. You couldn't imagine
a Ford without Mustang.
It has been in continuous production for
a half a century and has survived
Ford's most difficult times.
Originally conceived as a lean, sporty
and affordable car aimed at younger
people, it has earned a larger than
life reputation and has become a
symbol of American automotive muscle.
But now Ford has put the Mustang name
on a vehicle unlike any other in its
history. An electric
four-door crossover.
Like other pure electric vehicles commonly
referred to as EVs the Mustang
Mach-E runs entirely on
electricity stored in batteries.
One of the things that I think some of
the EVs are missing and one of the
things that I believe that we are able
to bring with this Mustang is a
sense of that that soul that, you know,
a lot of these cars don't have
that soul to them. They don't they
don't have any emotion to them.
And the Mustang is all about emotion.
Meanwhile, some longtime Mustang fans are said
to be up in arms over the
new vehicle. But others say that times
are changing and data suggests the
traditional Mustang and its pony car
competitors are facing a dwindling
fan base.
The Mustang traces its roots back to
the 1960s, when Ford executives such
as then President Lee Iacocca,
product planning executive, Hal Sperlich
and others came up with the idea for
a small four-seat car that was sporty
but functional. The design was heavily
influenced by European sports cars
from makers such as
the British brand, MG.
The Mustang debuted at the World's Fair
in the spring of 1964, months
ahead of the fall season, when
automakers typically debuted new models.
Nearly 30 million people are thought to
have seen the TV commercials on
all three U.S.
networks that ran the night before.
On the day of the unveiling, Ford
placed full page ads in 2,600 U.S.
newspapers and displayed Mustangs in the
lobbies of 200 Holiday Inns and
15 major U.S.
airports. It went on sale at the
more than 8,100 Ford dealerships across
the U.S. the day it was revealed.
At a starting price of $2,368
below the $2,500 limit the team
had wanted. Only thing about Mustang
is making a high performance vehicle
that is accessible to all or to many.
And that's what Mustang
is really all about.
It's not about being exclusive.
It's about inviting people into what we
like to refer to as the "Mustang
cult." Over 400,000 units sold in the
car's first year, four times what
Ford had initially expected to sell.
From the very beginning, flexibility was built
in as a key feature of the
car. The powertrain lineup really spanned
a pretty wide range of budgets
and tastes and needs.
There are plenty people that really just
liked the style of it and didn't
need to go fast. And then there were
those go fast people that, you know,
really wanted the hottest engine.
It's important. Understand that the original Mustang
was a bid by Ford to
develop a vehicle that was aimed at
young people of the time, young adults
of the time. It was really a
youth oriented car in its day.
This was an American car that could
appeal to all sorts of buyers.
But soon the car became
known as a performance machine.
Over the years, Mustang's became extremely
popular choices for racing, and
it has become common for buyers and
drivers to make their own alterations
to the car to improve performance.
Part of the magic of Mustang was
that it was based on very humble
underpinnings. I mean, it was it was
based on the early 60s, Ford Falcon.
You know, you could drop in a whole
variety of engines in there and there
was plenty of room under the very long
hood to add all sorts of power
enhancers. So this was a car that was
very, very easy for people to work
on themselves, for people to
add performance parts to.
It's those aftermarket tuners and the
aftermarket in general that was
supporting a rabid demand by young
enthusiasts to build very, very
personalized personal products that reflected
specifically the owner of
the vehicle. Mustangs are routinely considered
to have some of the best
aftermarket support of any sports or
performance car on the market.
Smaller tuning shops have developed reputations
for their own versions of
the Mustang. Some of these, such as
Saleen and Roush, have become rather
legendary names in their own right.
Part of what makes Mustang such a strong
brand for many of its fans is its
sense of continuity.
Unlike its closest competitors, the
Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger,
the Mustang has remained in
continuous production since 1964.
Of course, Ford has made some changes
to the vehicle over time, and some
of those changes have been controversial,
especially when Ford has toyed
with the Mustang formula to make
a greener, more efficient car.
In the 1970s, Ford came out with
a smaller Mustang called the Mustang II
aimed customers worried
about fuel economy
during a time when gas prices were
soaring due to a fuel crisis.
The first oil crisis served not
only to make gasoline expensive and
scarce, but also things like the
Clean Air Act resulted in automakers
really having to pull back on performance
in favor of fuel economy and
cleaner emissions. And at the time,
the technology just simply didn't
exist to make an engine
be able to do both.
You know, today, you know, nowadays, you
know, we have cars that are, you
know, extremely clean and
produce 600 horsepower.
Back then, there was much
more of a tradeoff.
You could either have something that didn't
pollute as much or you could
have something that was more powerful,
but you really couldn't do both.
The downsized car came with a
four cylinder engine, though it was
well-received in some corners in the automotive
world as a car for its
time. Other fans reportedly cried foul
and the car still inspires
arguments among enthusiasts.
In 2015, Ford risked the controversy again
when it again swapped out a six
cylinder engine for a four cylinder
EcoBoost engine in its lowest price
versions. Ford's newer four cylinder engines
pack a lot more power than
older versions. But putting the Mustang
badge on an electric SUV is
perhaps its biggest change.
For many fans, an internal combustion engine
is just part of what makes a
Mustang, a Mustang.
In addition, the Mustang has always been
a two-door car, but the Mustang
Mach-E is a four-door crossover,
a very popular configuration that
nonetheless arouses the ire
of sports car traditionalists.
Right? I absolutely think there
is a lot of controversy.
Mustang is one of the most storied
nameplates, not just for Ford, but in
the entire industry. So it's absolutely
understandable that there's a lot
of controversy among Mustang fans and
Mustang purists over adding this
type of a vehicle
to the Mustang family.
But what I like to say is
that if the Mustang nameplate could withstand
the Mustang II, I think
they'll be all right.
Fans of other performance oriented brands
such as Porsche and BMW have
howled in the past when those
companies introduced their own crossovers or
sport utility vehicles.
But some industry observers say the Mach-E
gives Ford a chance to appeal
to a new segment of buyers at
a time when enthusiasm for traditional
passenger cars is dying out.
Mustang may be the best selling car
in its segment, but the segment
overall is shrinking.
Frankly, if you look at sales of
the current Mustang, which debuted in
2015, sales have really dropped off a
cliff ever since that car debuted.
It's not any fault of the car.
The current Mustang is actually
a fantastic sports coupe.
It does a great job of
carrying on the Mustang legacy.
But consumer interest in two door
coupes is just simply not there.
It's dropping steadily.
Fewer and fewer people are interested
in that sort of a car.
And frankly, a lot of the people
that are interested in a two-door coupe
tend to be a lot older.
You know, a lot of baby boomers, a
lot of empty nesters, which means and
suggests that the Mustang name is
becoming less and less relevant to
younger people nowadays.
From the 1980s to the mid 2000s, U.S.
Mustang sales regularly
hit six-figure volumes.
Ford sold almost 174,000 Mustangs to
Americans in the year 2000.
Volume fell below the six-figure
mark from 2008 to 2014.
Around the time the U.S.
economy went into recession.
The next time it broke,
100,000 units in the U.S.
was in 2015.
The last time it redesigned the car.
But sales steadily fell from there
to roughly 76,000 units in 2018.
Sales of the Mustangs close competitor,
the Chevrolet Camaro grew from
nearly 62,000 in 2009 to 86,000
in 2014, but have fallen since
then to about 51,000
in twenty eighteen.
One of the brightest growth stories in
the segment has been the Dodge
Challenger, which has enticed buyers with its
retro looks, a wide range of
trims and options and
lots of horsepower.
Sales of that car grew from 17,000
in 2008 to nearly 67,000 in 2018.
That is despite the fact the car
did not undergo any major redesign during
that entire decade.
But those numbers still pale in
comparison to the volumes Mustang achieved
a few decades ago.
And some industry watchers wonder how
long the Challenger can sustain its
growth. In fact, some data indicate
the Mustang name has far greater
notoriety than Mustang
sales would suggest.
Mustang always is the number number
five most shopped car that's behind
Camry, Corolla, Civic, Accord.
And you know, you know, it's not
the fifth selling best car in America.
But but it does generate
a ton of shopping consideration.
It's an aspirational vehicle.
And so they're capitalizing on that.
The name is also widely
known outside the U.S.
We have as many Mustang clubs, nearly
as many Mustang clubs outside of the
United States as we have
inside the United States.
So this product has been loved globally,
even though it wasn't offered as
a product globally until the 2015 Mustang,
when it was truly a global
offering from Ford Motor Companies.
The idea of what a performance car can
or even ought to be is changing.
People have found that, you know, you
don't need a sporty car to
necessarily be limited to two-doors.
There are so many four-door vehicles out
there that give you much more
everyday functionality and ease of
use without sacrificing performance.
So performance is
absolutely not dead.
I mean, you look out in the marketplace
right now and I mean, if anything,
there, you know, there is a major
horsepower war going on right now, but
there are by and large
not involving two-door cars.
We all need our cars to be
multi-functional, to be able to carry people,
to be able to carry cargo.
Frankly, that's one of the core reasons
why SUVs have gained in popularity
so much. You know, over the years.
Rising electric vehicle maker Tesla built
its business in part by creating
electric cars with sleek designs that
can deliver high performance that
match or beat cars
with gasoline engines.
Somewhat like Tesla does with its cars,
Ford is emphasizing the mock ease
performance specs.
There will be two
performance versions a G.T.
that Ford said should go from 0 to
60 miles per hour in under four seconds
and a G.T. performance edition, which will
deliver 0 to 60 acceleration in
the mid three second range.
The whole program started in its very
early stages as sort of a compliance
product. It was something that we felt,
you know, hey, we should we need
to start looking at this. We need to
figure out how we're going to meet
these regulations that are
on top of us.
And very quickly, this thing started
to become something that we realized
it wasn't something that was going to
be an amazing machine or something
that was gonna be desirable.
So we scratched those plans and went
back to the drawing board and said,
"how do we do something that
will inspire and be exciting?"
The Mach-E can be updated to an
unprecedented degree for a Ford vehicle
via over the air software updates,
a technique Tesla is credited with
pioneering. Even the Mach-E cabin,
with its large vertical touchscreen,
bears some resemblance to those found in
Tesla models such as the Model S
and Model X.
But Tesla is by no
means the only target.
Many in the industry point out that
when it comes to high performance,
electric cars simply have certain
fundamental advantages over those that
run on gasoline.
We know it is the future and you kind
of just look at it the same way that
many of other technologies
have died off.
People, you know, they pooh-poohed
electronic fuel injection when
carbonation was around. So I could do
to myself, I could do whatever I
want. Look at it nowadays, right.
Like there's no such thing as
carburetor cars on the road.
And several brands with strong racing
and performance heritages are also
going electric. Jaguar, Porsche, Mercedes,
BMW and others are all
developing performance vehicles with
electric power trains.
Ford also stresses that it is
not abandoning its more traditional
Mustangs, including those
with V8 engines.
While those vehicles are very much a
part of our future and consistent
with Mustang throughout the years now,
right, we've always had special
editions that is not going to stop.
And there's stuff that you need to
just stay tuned on because we've got
we've got some things that we'll be
sharing in the near future here.
But another question that remains for
the Mach-E is how badly customers
actually want electric cars.
Despite improvements in battery technology
and charging speeds, buyers
still seem reluctant to
make the switch.
Virtually all the major OEMs are
working on big dollar E.V.
projects right now.
They're all gonna be launching
in the next few years.
However, according to AutoPacific's own data,
demand for a full electric
car has hovered between 3 to 4
percent over the last 10 years.
What that suggests is that we really
may have a situation where where
supply drastically outstrips demand.
The Mach-E is an example
of a relatively new strategy.
Carmakers are using to lure buyers,
touting their practical advantages as
much as their environmental benefits.
That's why Tesla is succeeding.
The Tesla products are aspirational.
They're cool. Then you compare that
to most of the other E.V.
products out there. You know, the
Mustang name, of course, is very
aspirational in and of itself.
Now it's applied to this very new
concept that despite being a four-door
crossover, it's still
very, very sleek.
And the numbers really
speak for themselves.
Offering high performance and high tech features
might be the best way to
put people in the driver's seat.
