Next Mustang to share platform with Ford Explorer
Blue Oval's drive to cut costs will see next Mustang switch to new modular platform and delayed until 2021Ford's all-new seventh-generation Mustang will share its platform with both the next-generation Ford Explorer and Lincoln Navigator, it has been revealed.
In its bid to slash $A35 billion in development costs, Ford has already announced it will transition from the car-maker's current nine modular global platforms to just five vehicle architectures.
According
, the cost-saving exercise will see the US car-maker switch the Mustang from its current bespoke S550 architecture to a new modular platform that will also underpin Ford's future large unibody SUVs.The new monocoque platform, developed for the Explorer and Navigator, is thought to have been engineered for both rear-wheel and all-wheel drive applications, which could see high-performance versions of both models offered in rear-drive form for the first time.
Speaking to the newswire, Ford design boss Darrell Behmer said despite the platform switch fans have nothing to be worried about.
"Mustang is still going to be a strong, well-proportioned vehicle", he said. "The modular architecture will give us flexibility. It's not going to bastardise Mustang."
To help reassure those concerned that the modular platform might make the Mustang less enjoyable to drive, its chief engineer Carl Widmann told Automotive News that both the Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger were based on modular platforms and hadn't suffered as a result.
"In the architecture world of a RWD -- which you're going to end up with a RWD architecture -- I think these pieces of it are pieces that will always work. As you tune it and put a top hat on it, you can get different combinations and can define a lot of the emotion."
The move to a modular chassis will also help Ford launch a hybrid version of the Mustang as the platform, it's thought, will have already been engineered for both mild- and plug-in hybrid applications.
From launch, the fast coupe and convertible could also come with advanced semi-autonomous driving aids, again, that will have been designed and developed for the modular platform.
The big disadvantage of the move to the new platform is the next-generation Mustang will now arrive a year later than planned, in 2021.
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