Photo: Kleber Silva on Behance
Remember the Mustang II from the post-1973 Malaise Era? That sorry excuse of a pony car introduced the three-door fastback body style to the Ford Mustang, which carried over to the Fox-body third generation.
Ford hasn’t revisited the liftback design ever since, but there’s an elephant in the room we haven’t noticed yet. I am referring to the Mach-E, which is a Mustang only in name because the electric SUV is based on the C2 vehicle architecture that underpins the Euro-spec Focus and Escape crossover.
A smaller brother of the Mach-E is rumored to launch in the near future with Volkswagen bits and pieces, including the MEB platform for electric automobiles. That said, take a look at Kleber Silva’s rendering of a compact car with the Mustang GT's front fascia and Mach-E's rear end.
It’s a retina-burning design study, one that is probably meant to bring awareness to how the Mustang can be diluted in search of new customers. Ford is looking to improve its market share in the Old Continent, but a Mustang-styled hatchback doesn’t make sense, in my opinion.
The only good piece of news here is rear-wheel drive because the Volkswagen MEB was developed for rear- and all-wheel-drive applications. In the ID.3 and ID.4, the most a single e-motor can offer is 150 kW or 201 horsepower.
It’s not bad for a compact-sized car, but not great either if you remember that Mustang stands for performance as well. Even the 2.3-liter EcoBoost is more powerful, and filling up the tank with gasoline takes far less time than waiting for the 77-kWh battery to juice up from a fast-charging station.
Speaking of the relevance of internal combustion in these EV-crazy times, have you heard that Ford discontinued the four-cylinder turbo in Europe over dwindling sales? Only the 5.0-liter V8 is available in this part of the world, and the Coyote DOHC engine in the no-nonsense Mach 1 also happens to be artificially detuned due to carbon-dioxide emissions regulation.
A smaller brother of the Mach-E is rumored to launch in the near future with Volkswagen bits and pieces, including the MEB platform for electric automobiles. That said, take a look at Kleber Silva’s rendering of a compact car with the Mustang GT's front fascia and Mach-E's rear end.
It’s a retina-burning design study, one that is probably meant to bring awareness to how the Mustang can be diluted in search of new customers. Ford is looking to improve its market share in the Old Continent, but a Mustang-styled hatchback doesn’t make sense, in my opinion.
The only good piece of news here is rear-wheel drive because the Volkswagen MEB was developed for rear- and all-wheel-drive applications. In the ID.3 and ID.4, the most a single e-motor can offer is 150 kW or 201 horsepower.
It’s not bad for a compact-sized car, but not great either if you remember that Mustang stands for performance as well. Even the 2.3-liter EcoBoost is more powerful, and filling up the tank with gasoline takes far less time than waiting for the 77-kWh battery to juice up from a fast-charging station.
Speaking of the relevance of internal combustion in these EV-crazy times, have you heard that Ford discontinued the four-cylinder turbo in Europe over dwindling sales? Only the 5.0-liter V8 is available in this part of the world, and the Coyote DOHC engine in the no-nonsense Mach 1 also happens to be artificially detuned due to carbon-dioxide emissions regulation.
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