For all his expansionist plans, Farley believes Ford needs to be careful about diversifying the brand too far. He said: “Some people think we could mix Mustang with off-road driving – look at what Porsche has done with the 911 Dakar, and what Lamborghini has been doing. But I’m not so sure about that.”
One point of reassurance for Mustang stalwarts is Ford’s intention to continue building V8s “as long as God and the politicians let us”. Farley promises he will fight hard to keep these iconic engines and the manual gearboxes often linked to them in production.
He believes he can keep that promise even longer than specialist performance car makers – such as Aston Martin – because Ford is fast developing a supporting range of pure-EV models that will provide the fleet offsets needed to keep its ICE-powered siblings legal.
However, future Mustangs are likely to offer hybrid power, to reduce carbon emissions and to improve performance. Farley said: “We’ve been testing and we really do believe partial electric powertrains work well for performance drivers.”
“One thing I can promise, however, is that we will never make an all-electric Mustang,” added Farley, discounting the unrelated Mustang Mach-E electric SUV that shares its name.
“I look at other users of pure-electric power such as Formula E, and even companies like Rimac, and I just don’t think that would be right for Mustang. Great for other Fords – look at the worldwide success of Transit – but not for Mustang.”
Farley, who was appointed Ford CEO in late 2020 and has been rebuilding its model range ever since, sees the Mustang’s rise to global prominence as a big win for the firm.
He said: “When we decided, in around 2015, that Mustang should go global – with righthand drive and other expensive changes – it looked like we were taking a big risk. But it has paid off. Nowadays some of our biggest dealers are in countries like Sweden and Australia. I’d say Mustang’s future has never been brighter.”