bagwell

In other news, up is down, black is white, and hell has frozen over

http://www.topgear.com/car-news/elec...hybrid-mustang

Fan of old-school muscle cars? Well, it might be time to pick up a new hobby – perhaps crying into your pillow and pining for the good ol’ days – because the Mustang is going hybrid.

Ford’s announced that by 2020, the Mustang will be available with the dual-power setup, able to deliver “V8 power and even more low-end torque”. We suspect this won’t be entirely popular news. It’ll be more along the lines of ‘WTF why r u ruining the Mustang’ et cetera.

It’s hardly the first time that the iconic pony car has had its legacy tainted – let’s not forget the Series II Mustang, the third-gen ‘Fox-body’ Mustang (which nearly went front-wheel-drive, save for the vehement protests from a downtrodden fanbase) and a fourth-generation that could have been a return to form. Instead it was offered with a 3.8-litre V6 with 145bhp, or a massive 4.6-litre V8 with just 215bhp.

Now, with the sixth-generation version, there’s finally a Mustang with modern suspension, V8 power and right-hand-drive. It’s rather good, too. And hybrid power isn’t necessarily a bad thing for performance cars these days anyway…

In other news, Ford’s electric programme is extending beyond the poster cars of your youth. Sooty diesel-powered Transits from 1998 will probably still be at the local markets until they expire, but a plug-in hybrid version, available in 2019, will be a much more lung-friendly alternative. Even the gargantuan F-150 hasn’t escaped the electric revolution. That said, the hybrid system has a fantastic bit of kit involved – using the F-series truck as a V8-powered mobile generator. Probably overkill for a spot of camping, but just the thing if you’re at Glastonbury and the power goes out in the middle of Radiohead’s set.

The company also announced an all-new fully electric small SUV (arriving 2020) with an estimated range of at least 300 miles, and a hybrid, autonomous cab (or ‘ride hailing/ride sharing’ thing in modern parlance), set to debut in 2021.

Oh, and a pair of “pursuit-rated” hybrid police vehicles.

mmarshall

We'll see. You may or may not remember it, but, back around 1990, Ford introduced the FWD Probe coupe, based on the Mazda MX-6 platform, which was intended to be the predecessor of a new FWD Mustang. Mustang fans objected so strenuously, and flooded Ford's CEO wit protest-letters, that the planned Mustang conversion was cancelled (and the Probe itself was later discontinued). We'll see if history repeated itself or not with this planned Mustang hybrid.

It will be interesting to see if that vehicle uses the new EcoSport body or platform that will be introduced next year. I've been wrong before, but my strong guess is that it will.

Aron9000

As long as you can still get the V8 in the Mustang at a reasonable price, I don't care. Hybrid mustang might be blasphemous, but so was the Mustang II, 4 cylinder engines, V8's with 150hp, so there's a long line of precedence of questionable engineering choices before this lol.

RNM GS3

Every single new body Mustang I have seen in NYC while driving in traffic is a turbo 4 cyl.
All the V8s have the GT on the decklid.

I think hybrid is natural progression, i dont think the V8 is going anywhere though as long as the Camaro and Challenger still have them.

mmarshall

I remember it well.....the Mustang II went beyond blasphemous LOL. But, of course, it suffered pretty much the same wimping-out that virtually all of the American muscle cars did in the early-mid 70s.

jadu

iTrader: (42)

tainted legacy aside, I'm thinking this will be a hit. They might as well add an awd, TT, and el camino version while they're at it

mmarshall

You may or may not be old enough to remember it, but Ford, at one time, DID have a competitor to the El Camino...the Ford Ranchero (in fact, the first Ranchero actually preceded the Chevy El Caminos). It was done (back and forth) on both the compact Falcon and mid-size Fairlane/Torino platforms until the American version was discontinued in the late 1970s.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Wonder if these Mustang and F-150 hybrids will forget the CVT and utilize the new 10-Speed Auto developed jointly with GM.

Toys4RJill

Totally makes sense to offer a hybrid.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

still going to drive my prius triggering NA 5.0

Sulu

I doubt it. Ford has much invested in their Power Split Device hybrid transmission. Even GM is going that route with their version of the PSD in the Volt and Malibu Hybrid. Merely sandwiching an electric motor between the gasoline engine and the normal transmission -- like most other automakers are doing -- is a very simple yet not the most effective and efficient hybrid system.

Sulu

And yet it does not make sense for Lexus to offer an ES Hybrid?

mmarshall

A number of these new transmissions, with many gears in them, don't seem to have the same durability as traditional, less-complex 4, 5, and 6-speeds. They were hurriedly developed to meet upcoming CAFE rules, have a lot of moving parts in them to fail, and have not stood the long-term test. CVTs, of course, are relatively simple mechanically, but drive-belts take a lot of stress, and are prone to failure.

Toys4RJill

I never said that the ESh did not make sense. I just strongly feel that the ES350 is a far superior product.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

True, I was thinking in the sense that Porsche or Infiniti mate their sporty hybrids to 8-Speed Tiptronic or 7-Speed Auto respectively. Same reason why Lexus put effort into this Multi Stage Hybrid transmission in the LC500h, to give it more interaction. That's where the idea of the 10-Speed on a hybrid Mustang comes to play.

Sulu is correct. Ford and Toyota/Lexus use PSD not CVT despite the eCVT nomenclature. So there is no drive-belt stress.