Ford Motor Company dropped its first Bryan Cranston-filled “Built Ford Proud” commercial today, offering the Breaking Bad alumnus an opportunity to cast aspersions at the company’s rivals, including industry startups. It’s filled with Ted Talk-bashing, futurespeak-trashing bravado linked together with a thread of get ‘er done, implying that talk is cheap, and real progress takes hard work.
You can count on Ford to build the future — that’s the message here.
Halfway through the ad, a 1960s Mustang blasting through a desert landscape morphs into a contemporary model, then morphs again into something else. But what is it?
Our worst fear was that this vehicle was the upcoming Mustang-inspired electric crossover. It’s a darkened shot at a distorted angle, but we can see that this vehicle’s face looks EV-only, swathed in plastic. A Mustang logo glows a color now synonymous with “green”: blue.
Surely Ford wouldn’t tempt civil unrest with a non-Mustang vehicle that actually bears a Mustang logo? Our minds raced. Will the Mustang become its own line? Is a Mustang X around the corner, or a Mustang EV X-Cross? Ford already ran into heated opposition when it announced the upcoming vehicle as the Mach 1 back in January.
It doesn’t seem likely. Looking closer after a bit of brightening, the vehicle’s face isn’t tall enough to be a crossover, and the tumblehome is pure Mustang. But the Mustang isn’t slated to offer a fully electric veriant — only a hybrid, beginning in 2020. While the mystery vehicle has certainly undergone a facelift, it certainly doesn’t look much like a hybrid. A hidden-from-view lower air opening and the two gills seen on either side of the front “grille” could conceivably emit enough airflow to keep a hybrid powertrain’s four-cylinder engine cool, but it seems too great of a styling departure for an aging generation of car. It’s worth noting that a next-generation Mustang is expected for 2021. Is this a hybrid next-gen model we see here, or just an idea of where the model could go somewhere down the line?
As you might expect, Ford’s not talking. When asked on Twitter about the strange pony car, Ford’s North American product communications manager Mike Levine said, “It’s a glimpse of the future. We are excited to show you more in the future. Stay tuned.”
Levine also said Ford had no plans to use the “EcoStang” name, which is just a waggish moniker that sprung into your author’s mind after viewing the video. Sounds fitting, though.
[Images: Ford/YouTube]
Good idea, do like GM and tease a new product for years until people are sick of it and do not care about it anymore.
They’re all doing that already, readall. Ford has already teased a true “compact” pickup for the ’22 – ’25 period, over and above the new Ranger, which still isn’t on showroom floors yet.
The guy driving the pickup across the desert is, according to the small print on the screen, a “professional driver on a closed course”.
Did Ford really put up fences around miles of desert before they filmed this?
They didn’t have to. Trump is doing that as part of his quest to make America great again!
Could do like the Cadillac ads and show a prototype that will never be made.
It is an quick video designed show the “future”. It shows lots of concepts. In the future there will be a Mustang and it will likely have some EV-tech in it. Done. Don’t overthink this.
@JMII: By then the Mustang may be a true BEV and not just a hybrid.
An EV/hybrid teaser…finally something to get a little excited about…..
At 48 seconds, on mute, it looks like Cranston is doing his best McConaughey/Lincoln impression.
Ford is HOPELESSLY out of touch if they think a GreenieStang is going to fly with the demographic that buys sporty cars. You want to do hybrids and BEVs…great. Make them as dorky looking as possible and loads of eggheads will shuffle in to buy them. But mixing ‘sport’ or ‘muscle’ with ‘eco friendly’…that dog wont hunt. See Honda CRZ, see Acura NSX and see whatever Cadillac calls that hybrid coupe which sold all of like 3.
Or better yet, go ahead and make the Mustang a tree-hugger mobile. As a Mopar man, Id love to see more people dropping Ford like a hot rock and buying Hemi Challengers/Chargers, ensuring FCA will keep building them for years to come.
What will you do when FCA puts their hybrid system they have in their Ram, inside their Challenger and Charger, as they have planned?
Hold on to my ’18 Scat Pack.
Meanwhile in real life there’s a lot of people who love driving and like the planet they live on, they just don’t brag about it on the internet.
The problem with the cars you mentioned is that they were overcompromised, overpriced, or just plain terrible.
Hurrr, Durrr, Heartland Pandering™ at its finest. All that was missing was some Joe Lunchbucket mowing down a double cheeseburger and a Bud after a hard day of ‘building the future.’ Take that, you wimpy vegans!
“Hurrr, Durrr, Heartland Pandering™ at its finest. ”
well, it worked in Nov. 2016.
OK, I get it. It all comes together about 0:30. “They see a red Ford, and they want to paint it black.” Simple!
It’s only a mystery how long it will take for boring, old-fashioned Ford Motor Company to rename itself fresh, exciting Mustang Mobility Adventures.
stupid
My guess is its an AWD all electric mustang called Mach 1
Just put Probe badges on it
C&D’s article on this takes a far more realistic approach. It’s just the hybrid Mustang. And we should be rejoicing that it’ll still have a V8.
All sorts of mustang specific tech to make a hybrid of a car that nobody is asking for a hybrid version.
And it looks like a Hyundai.
I was thinking Kia, but yeah
“Building cars”… technically you gave up on that idea.
The next phase of the marketing has an advert with the next scene…
The grille with the light up Mustang Pony falls off, revealing that it is actually the grille from an Audi A5.
The man off of Breaking Bad then announces “Ford. Part of the Volkswagen group. Tread carefully” or something like that.
The picture with the square headlights looks a lot like a Camaro. Or what the Camaro could have been.