Ford Mustang hybrid all but confirmed

Ford CEO Jim Farley has hinted that an electrified Ford Mustang is indeed on the way, telling Bloomberg that hybrid power will be the happy medium between internal combustion and battery-electric technology for Ford performance vehicles for the next decade.

Speaking at the debut of the motorsport-derived Ford Mustang GTD (pictured) during Monterey Car Week, Farley indicated that a battery-electric Mustang was unlikely – contrary to earlier reports – and said hybrid tech would hit the performance vehicle market sweet sport in the medium term.

“I don’t know about 10 years from now, but for the 10 years we’re in now, a partial electrification is the perfect solution for high-performance [vehicle] customers,” he said.

“You can cherry-pick the electric drivetrain to get everything you need from it, but you don’t have to walk away from the emotional part of the experience.

“There’s going to be lots of grey degrees of partial electrification that’s still good for the planet.

“You can still have that emotional experience. I think that’s where we’re going to be for a while.”

The vague but promising affirmation of a hybrid Mustang being in the works could vindicate of speculative reports claiming the hero Ford coupe would score some sort of electrification in its latest S650 generation, even if it only starts out as a single stand-alone variant like Chevrolet has done with the Corvette E-Ray.

Early reports speculated the electrified Mustang would be a self-charging hybrid comprising the familiar 5.0-litre Coyote V8 and a pair of electric motors, the latter of which would power the front wheels while the combustion engine continued to drive the rear axle, creating what would also be the first all-wheel drive Mustang in the process.

In collaboration with carbon-fiber wheel experts Carbon Revolution, the Mustang Dark Horse features several firsts, including Ford’s first five-spoke single-piece carbon fiber wheel design for Ford, Carbon Revolution’s first production wheel with lug nuts located between spokes – just like classic Mustang five-spoke wheels – plus the first production wheel to use blue carbon fiber material featured in the Mustang Dark Horse signature flat-face wheel design.

More recent reports have echoed this theory and even suggested the first hybrid Mustang could launch in 2025, both in V8 and four-cylinder turbo forms.

Farley didn’t give any indication about what’s in the pipeline regarding the engine configuration, but other senior Ford executives have previously confirmed the Mustang will continue to be offered with V8 powerplants for the foreseeable future.

“We have not identified an ending [for the V8],” Ford Performance Motorsports global director Mark Rushbrook told carsales in January.

S650 Mustang chief engineer Tim Smith went one step further and confirmed engineering teams are “always testing everything” in terms of powertrain technology as emission regulations continue to evolve and constrict the combustion vehicle market.