Get Ready for the Last Gas-Engine Ford Mustang—and an EV

• AutoForecast Solutions report the last ICE Mustang begins production in March 2023 as a 2024 model—a similar timeline for the departing Dodge Challenger and Charger.

• Industry sources say a battery-electric Mustang based on the Mach-E’s platform will debut about mid-2028 to replace what will be the last internal-combustion model.

• The current Mustang’s Flat Rock, Michigan, assembly plant (pictured above) is the expected factory for the last ICE model and first BEV model, according to one source.
  

When CEO Jim Farley told Wall Street analysts in Ford Motor Company’s second-quarter earnings report that an all-new Mustang would be unveiled at the Detroit auto show next month, he left unanswered whether it would include a much-rumored hybrid version.

The answer, according to industry sources is “no,” but a battery-electric Mustang based on the Mach-E’s platform will make its debut about mid-2028 to replace what will be the last internal-combustion model.

AutoForecast Solutions report that last ICE Mustang begins production in March 2023 as a 2024 model—a similar timeline for the departing Dodge Challenger and Charger. The Mustang Mach-E, which is sold out for the 2022 model year, easily offsets the ICE Mustang’s carbon emissions, so there’s no need for a hybrid.

Five model years is just half the lifecycle of the current Ford Mustang (which premiered for 2015) and the 2005-14 model prior to that. But accelerated replacement of gas- and diesel-powered models seems to be the way of the automotive world since electric-vehicle development began to accelerate in response to aggressive net-zero emissions goals by various governments and corporations. EVs make up about 6% of US auto sales, up from less than 2% prior to the coronavirus pandemic.