Surprise! A Ford Mustang Hybrid is on the way.
Photo by FordThe hybrid stable is going to grow over at Ford. Joining the Fusion Hybrid and C-Max in the Ford lineup by 2020 will be hybrid variants of the Blue Oval’s best-selling F-150 pickup truck, and legendary Mustang sports car. The announcement is part of the Dearborn, Michigan automaker’s push to offer more electrified vehicles by 2020. The F-150 Hybrid and Mustang Hybrid are just two of the 13 new electrified vehicles that Ford plans to rollout over the next five years.
Ford has previously confirmed that a rear-wheel-drive hybrid system was coming for its pickups and SUVs, but the more surprising bit of today’s news is that it will also be applied to the Mustang. Last month we said there was “a snowball’s chance in hell of the hybrid heading to the automaker’s venerable pony car.” Clearly, we were wrong, and they must be having a heck of a snowball fight way down below.
While the idea of a hybrid pony car is new, a large hybrid pickup truck isn’t. General Motors took a stab at it with the Silverado Hybrid, but the fuel economy benefits didn’t offset the additional costs and vehicle complexity at the time, which led to that model’s demise in 2011. GM has since returned with the Silverado eAssist, which uses a 0.45-kWh, lithium ion battery pack and 13-horsepower, 44-pound-foot electric motor to boost city fuel economy by 13 percent to an EPA-estimated 18 mpg city.
As for the F-150 Hybrid, details are scarce, but Ford has said that it will offer payload and towing capabilities fitting of a half-ton truck, and also operate as a mobile generator. The hybrid F-150 will be available in North America and the Middle East by 2020.
The Mustang Hybrid will land in 2020 promising power equivalent to a V8, but with even more low-end torque. Sales of the electrified Mustang will initially begin only for the North American market.