My boss drove me to lunch the other day in his Tesla (I say this to introduce my boss, not to brag about being in a fancy car). On the way, he saw a car (I say this to note, he began the conversation, instead of me).
“Is that electric?”
“Yes.” I replied. “It’s a Mustang.”
I could have left well enough alone. I could have dropped the conversation there. I answered his question, which was all that was asked of me. Instead, I continued, “I don’t understand the decision-making. Ford took their sports car; the pony-car defining model, and made it a crossover. There were better choices.”
The Ford Lightning is the electric version of the Ford F-150. In my youth, it was a lowered sport truck built for drag racing and the Fast and Furious crowd. It was beautiful. It made sense. If you want to purchase a high-performance Ford F-150 today you buy the Raptor; an aggressive, take-no-prisoners off-road/on-road beast of a truck. Which cleared up the Lightning brand to be the F-150, without gasoline.
If only there was a brand name in the Ford history books that could play with Lightning. What comes with Lighting? Rain. Clouds. Wind. Thunder! The Thunderbird name is sitting right there as a performance/luxury car, perfect for what the current Mach-E Mustang is, a performance / high-end crossover.
The only car in the Ford lineup, last I looked, was the gasoline-powered Mustang. If Ford wants completely out of the “car” business, leave the Mustang brand alone. Let it live by itself, and not muddy the waters with an electric / gasoline, sports car/crossover hullabaloo.
Instead, leave the Ford Raptor for the muddy water, it’s the off-road truck.
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