Deep underground at Ford’s Product Development Center, a large studio has been converted into an “immersion room,” its temporary walls papered with endless PowerPoint slides. Normally, vision boards like this are a clear indication that both imagination and inspiration were snuffed out of the project three months in.
But then something caught my eye—a slide titled “Winning Will Not Be Driven by Compliance.”
Below the headline were four cars: a BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, Chevy Bolt EV, and an electric Ford Focus. Although I strongly dislike the poor-driving i3, have forgotten about driving the Leaf as many times as I’ve driven it, and imagine that a small battery shoved into a Focus would be ho-hum, I genuinely like the Bolt. We voted it our 2017 Car of the Year. So why was it on this slide? Then it hit me: As good as the Bolt might be, Chevy’s electric hatchback looks just as dorky as the other three compliance vehicles.
Back in 2014, Ford saw the writing on the wall; the decision was made to go electric. We were shown a quarter-scale clay model of an equally dorked-out, front wheel-drive CUV that was set to go into production right around now. Luckily for car enthusiasts, smarter and cooler heads intervened.
Instead of delivering an electric car that Ford didn’t want to build to dealers who didn’t want to sell it to customers who didn't want to buy it, in a decision that went all the way up to Bill Ford, the Blue Oval decided to put a pony on its first proper, mass-market electric vehicle.
Meet the newest member of the Mustang family, the Ford Mustang Mach-E.
A Mustang-badged electric vehicle? And an SUV, at that? Really? Yeah, for real. Ford leveraged the brand’s great strengths—namely, the fact that almost every person on earth likes the Mustang. Not only that (and I found this next part particularly gratifying to learn), but performance car customers are also much better educated about battery electric vehicles (BEVs) than the average car buyer.
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THREE - PEAT
THE RAM BRAND DOES IT AGAIN WITH ITS STELLAR PICKUP PLATFORM RUN RIOT
Opposite Lockdown: Rediscovering the romance of the road
We hit the road the hour before dawn, the Aston Martin DB11 V8 limbering up nicely as we cruised toward the coast and EuroTunnel train that would take us under the English Channel.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
AN S-CLASS SHOULD BE A STATEMENT OF EXCELLENCE AND TECHNICAL EXPERTISE. IT DELIVERS ON ALL COUNTS.
Mike Koval Jr
Head of Ram Brand, FCA North America
KEEP ON TRUCKING
NOT EVEN A PANDEMIC CAN STOP AMERICA'S LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE PICKUP TRUCK
COME- BACK
RANDY POBST RECOUNTS HIS EPIC PIKES PEAK CRASH AND HOW THE UNPLUGGED PERFORMANCE TEAM GAVE HIM A SECOND CRACK AT GLORY
FASHIONABLE GLAMPING
AN IDIOSYNCRATIC ICON DELIVERS THE AURA OF CLASSIC RV LIFE, BUT AT A COST
2022 Hyundai Tucson
Bold Design Goes Mainstream
2022 GMC Hummer EV Pickup
An Off-Road Icon Reborn
2020 Land Rover Defender 110 D240
Is the Diesel More Desirable?
The station
A venue with a vintage vibe
PROJECT OBSESSED
COOL DOWN AND STOP IT
HORSEPOWER WARS
FORD UNDERRATING THEIR 2020 SUPER DUTY?
Solid & Striped
The Lokar/Street Rodder ’34 Ford 3-Window Coupe 25th in a Long Line of Road Tour Hot Rods
COYOTE COUPE
This 1967 Mustang Is the Perfect Blueprint for an Engine Swap
Is It All About Money?
Big shareholders are pushing companies to think about society and the environment. But there’s a new legal backlash
8 POINT GREAT
Jeep XJ, YJ, or TJ/LJ model is a Ford 8.8.
STEALTH DRIVER
'56 FORD CROWN VICTORIA
What Is Cylinder Head Swirl and Tumble, and Why Is It Important?
We think of electronic engine management systems and multiport electronic fuel injection (EFI) as primarily responsible for the improved air/fuel distribution and performance as Detroit clawed its way back in the mid 1980s, but—good as they were for that day—initially the new electronics were just Band-Aids grafted onto carryover engine designs. The big change started in the 1990s, when the OEs started tinkering with cylinder head design to induce swirl and tumble in internal combustion engines.
LONE RANGER
Two Years in the Making, This ’69 Ranger Stands Alone