DETROIT — After 10 million vehicles over 54 years, the Mustang remains one of the most vital nameplates in Ford Motor Co.'s stable.
It's Exhibit A for what the Ford brand wants to stand for: bold, emotional designs that elicit passion among its customers.
The rest of its cars lack that cachet, which is why, after the Fusion sedan disappears from showrooms early next decade, the Mustang effectively will be Ford's last car standing as the brand shifts to a lineup dominated by pickups and utility vehicles.
Now, Ford is trying to re-create that Mustang magic in its crossover and SUV lineup. One vehicle in particular, a yet-to-be-named battery-electric crossover, was heavily inspired by the Mustang; Ford floated the name Mach 1 for it this year, though the production version is likely to get a different moniker.
"It's core to what people see Ford as," Carl Widmann, the Mustang's chief engineer, told Automotive News. "We wanted a vehicle that would draw people to the showroom floor. There's clear evidence that's the case."
The Mustang has been the best-selling sports coupe in the U.S. since its redesign in 2014. Ford began selling the Mustang globally in 2015 and now sells it in more than 140 markets, including China, Germany and Australia.
Despite the Mustang's importance to the company, CEO Jim Hackett reportedly pushed back the seventh-generation program by about a year.
A redesigned Mustang now is expected in 2021. The car rides on an exclusive rear-wheel-drive platform but could move to one of the company's five new modular architectures, presumably the rwd/all-wheel-drive unibody underpinnings it would share with utilities such as the Explorer and Lincoln Aviator. That would give Ford the option of building an awd pony car for better handling in winter and to compete with the awd version of the Dodge Challenger that launched in 2017.
Future Product: Ford and Lincoln timeline Future Product Pipeline
The company also plans the first Mustang hybrid, set to arrive in 2020.
Members of the Mustang team were mum on details about the next-generation car but said the move to a modular architecture won't hurt their design creativity.
"Mustang is still going to be a strong, well proportioned vehicle," the Mustang's chief designer, Darrell Behmer, said. "The modular architectures will still give us flexibility; it's not going to bastardize Mustang."
'A tremendous trick'
