Ford CEO: Fine With Being ‘Only One on the Planet Making a V8 Affordable Sports Car’
CEO Jim Farley says Ford’s perfectly happy to be the last bastion of the affordable V8 sports car.
The Ford Mustang is both different and the same as it's ever been. Sure, there's a four-door electric crossover that Ford calls a Mustang these days, but there's also still a pavement-pounding brute that comes with two doors and eight cylinders. According to Ford CEO Jim Farley, the former exists so the latter can continue for many years. In other words, the automaker's foray into electrification is extending the V8's shelf life beyond all expectations.
Farley gave an inspiring quote to a group of media at the company's 2024 racing season launch party in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this week. Motor1 cites the Blue Oval's head honcho as saying:
"Mustang is going to celebrate its 60th anniversary coming up here. A lot of our competitors have left. They’ve come and gone. We never did that. We’ve always been there with Mustang. Sixty years, and it’s changed over time. We have EcoBoost, we have the Dark Horse now, and we’re going to continue to invest. And if we’re the only one on the planet making a V8 affordable sports car for everyone in the world, so be it."
I mean, what else would a car person rather hear? People definitely have their feelings about the Mustang Mach-E, but as Farley explains, the EV "lets us [Ford] sell ICE vehicles for a long time to come." When you put it that way, even traditionalists can maybe agree that the Mach-E is less of an abomination and more of a necessary evil.
Farley didn't stop his praise of the V8 engine there, either. He mentioned that Mustangs will race on six different continents on any given weekend throughout 2024, from IMSA and NASCAR in the United States to Australian Supercars and the World Endurance Championship. "That’s because we have a V8 engine,” Farley exclaimed.
There's no solid timeline saying when Ford will stop making internal combustion engines, if ever within our lifetimes. More electrification is coming, no doubt, but the automaker is apparently sticking to high-performance cars that run (at least partially) on fuel. And if what we've seen from hybrid V8s so far is any indicator, we're in for a ride if and when the Mustang finally makes that leap.
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