American auto giant Ford has got die-hard Mustang fans in a frenzy, with a new image of their first fully electric SUV unleashed onto the internet by their director of electric car product development.
Going under the name of ‘Mach 1’ – a nod to a rare, extremely desirable version of the iconic 1969-70 model – the rendered rear profile echoes the revhead’s dream car with its triple tail lights.
Director Darren Palmer, in posting the image in an article on Medium, also worked on the recent next-generation ICE Mustang, but says he was surprised when Ford asked to lead the new EV development team for both Ford and Lincoln, Team Edison.
As a self-confessed Mustang enthusiast, he writes that the new role and team will be very different from anything he’s used to – but also exciting, and ‘very good’.
“Different can be good. Very good. And it’s opened our eyes to a whole new Ford. The stakes are high. The challenge higher. We are being tasked to set the future trajectory of the company, and Team Edison is up for that challenge,” he writes.
The Mach 1, which was first announced at the Detroit Motor Show in January of this year and is slated for production in 2020, was first teased to the public on Youtube:
Rumours abounded earlier this year regarding the platform on which the Mach 1 would be built, with Autocar reporting that the all electric SUV would share the powertrain of the last Focus Electric.
However this was then debunked, with a ‘source familiar with the matter’ telling Jalopnik that this was not in fact the case (there had been confusion over the codename CX430 which Autocar connected to the Mach 1 project – you can get all the details here).
Now, it seems that the name ‘Mach 1’ and those triple tail lights will be all Ford’s first EV crossover will actually share with the original Mustang.
The most recent report, straight from Ford, is that the Mach 1 will not share the Mustang’s rear-drive architecture.
As for specs, there is still not a lot to go on, other than the fact that Ford is seeking to develop a powertrain for the Mach 1 with a targeted 480km.
The design team, Palmer says, is taking a ‘human-centric’ approach, and it’s not far fetched to imagine that the new EV, when it is released, will join the wave of vehicles with large, wirelessly connected displays.
In total, Palmer says Ford is committing to 16 new electric vehicles by 2022, as well as 24 hybrids – investing $US11 billion in the process.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.