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EU model news: Why it's different, ordering reduction coming, Gen 7 in the works

Ace

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I had the chance to talk with Jan Herzog, the head of Mustang for Ford Europe at the Mustang Event in Hasselfelde, Germany. We talked a lot about why things are different on the european Mustang and what Ford Europe wants for the Generation 7.

If you are capable of speaking german, I also made a video, but for you guys here I write the most important things down:

[ame]

EU model
  • Ford Europe joined 1 year late to the development of the S550, so the US team was bascially done with the basics. Most of what changed were a consequence of Ford USA having already designed the base car.
  • Before EU model there were 500 import Mustang in Europe per year. Ford Europe went crazy and calculated with 8k Mustangs for Europe per year and endup up with 18k cars in 2015.
  • They had to use clear rear lights so the turn signal will match the color and brightness reglementions for Europe.
  • Sequential turn signals were not able homologate in Europe since the distance between the turn signal housings were too wide. It has to be under 5cm and the S550 rear lights are just over 5cm apart
  • Tribars were not used as DRL in Europe on 2015 models because the angle how the DRL is shining was not matching EU regulations. For 2018 they designed the headlights to match the EU DRL laws.
  • Memory seats and BLIS are not available in Europe because they only have one pair of wires in the door/mirror and they prefered to use that for electric folding mirrors
  • Performance gauges would have increase the baseprice of EU mustangs for about 500€ and they decided it's not worth it.

Also one important notice about the future of EU Mustangs:
  • The EU models will stop being ordered as much as customers want at 2020. EU fleet pollusion laws are bringing Ford in a bad spot with the Mustang. So starting 2020 only a reduced number of Mustangs will be sold in Europe. Seems like they want to drop the number down to 2,000 Mustangs per year for whole Europe, but still subject to change.

A detail about the EU Bullitt:
  • It was homologated with 459,6 PS. But it actually will have more power if you use EU98 or better gas, since Ford USA ran the homologation with some strange gas that is not even available in Europe.

7th Gen EU model
  • Likely to come out in 2022
  • Europe was already done with what they want for 7th Gen, but US took a step back to change something and delayed it.
  • Final decision if the 7th Gen will be based on S550 or a completely new base is not done yet since Ford USA took a step back.
  • Ford Europe wants to have red rearlights, but no promises if that will be a thing.
  • Ford Europe also wants sequential turn signals but they have to discuss with the US designers to make the rear lights capable for EU regulations - And the designers usally do not like people
  • Overall they want the car to be closer to the US model, no manufacturer likes to build seperate parts for different markets.
  • They want to go with real leather seats. Right now only the middle of the seats are actual leather, the rest is artifical leather.
  • They clearly heard that people want the V8 engine. No promises of course, but it sounded like the US team is not really convinced to drop the V8 too.
  • First test of hybrid engine were crazy, they had no chance to get the amount of power on the road.
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MrWolf

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Thanks for the info.

Not good news about a reduction in the number of cars being available to order from 2020.
 

kwpony

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I'm not suprised about the possible reduction in numbers beginning in 2020. German auto manufactures arn't happy with the Mustangs success in Europe. Friends in high places ?
 
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Ace

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I'm not suprised about the possible reduction in numbers beginning in 2020. German auto manufactures arn't happy with the Mustangs success. They have friends in hig places. :ford:
Even german manufacturers are cutting sportscars thanks to fleet pollution regulations (Audi R8, BMW M3, etc). If I remember correctly all manufacturers must have an average CO² pollution under 95g by 2022 in Europe. You can buy a brand new 95PS Polo and be above that number. So they have to get rid of cut the numbers of sportscars that produce 250+g of CO² since they ruin their average numbers and exchange them for hybrid or electric sportscars.


No manufacturer is happy with the new EU regulations. They totally went insane after Dieselgate
 

Twin Turbo

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Good info......although I'm very surprised he shared as much as he did!

As for reduced numbers? I'll just take a LHD personal import, just like we did before the S550 was officially sold over here :)
 

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7th Gen EU model
  • Likely to come out in 2022
    [*]Final decision if the 7th Gen will be based on S550 or a completely new base is not done yet since Ford USA took a step back.
  • They want to go with real leather seats. Right now only the middle of the seats are actual leather, the rest is artifical leather.
  • First test of hybrid engine were crazy, they had no chance to get the amount of power on the road.
I like these points, other than the red one. Realistically for me, I'd be happy with it coming out then and ironing out any potential issues for a year or two before I got a nicely loaded up one. Wouldn't want something that looks tooooo close to what I've already got though.

And, of course, I'm still hyped for whatever comes out of the hybrid engine. They seem to make for great power down low that comes on immediately which means more fun for stop light racers and maybe lower center of gravity too.
 

michail71

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[*]First test of hybrid engine were crazy, they had no chance to get the amount of power on the road.
[/LIST]
Are we talking Tesla like power? Friends that have driven a model S say its like getting launched off an aircraft carrier (not that any of them have actually done that).

So I guess Germany isn't tired of it? :)

What are the EU brightness requirements on the rear lights?

Those things in red are astonishingly bright as is. I wouldn't be surprised to find a mustang owner passed out behind his/her car from having a seizure after closing the trunk at night.
 

kwpony

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f***ing stupid logic about the performance gauges. € 500,00 is piss money when you're spending €48K - € 50K or more like the Bullitt . Not sure I'm buying that reason. Regardless, let the customer decide if they want the performance gauges. :crazy:
 

marks

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Thanks for the information, very interesting. Can only be good for residuals if they reduce the numbers of Mustangs sold in 2020? I also understand that the regulations are different in Australia and also UK (if leave the EU), so the largest RHD markets could be more closely aligned to the US versions in the future? Although in practice they'll probably just group the Oz and UK models in with the rest of EU.
 

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marks

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Alright for some...


Although it is part of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ferrari is treated as a stand-alone company when it comes to meeting tougher global CO2 emissions targets. This is because of Ferrari’s small size and the fact that the Italian brand has a different headquarters than parent Fiat and has its own technical centers.
One benefit of its low-volume production -- roughly 7,000 units a year -- is that Dini said Ferrari has been able to negotiate its own targets with both European Union regulators and officials at the U.S. Environment Protection Agency. "What is important is that Ferrari achieves the same percentage reduction trend as volume automakers,"
Yes I heard something like that. I think McLaren and Aston have exemptions as well? Are you thinking they may also give Mustang an exemption?
 

Kevin08

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Bloke 1: "Hmmm, let's see...we don't have enough wire in the door. We can have blind spot monitoring and memory seats or we can have our mirrors fold for us."

Bloke 2: "Easy choice Jared, nobody wants to walk around to the passenger side of the car, that's bollocks!"

Bloke 1: "Fair point, I'd be right chuffed with some automatic mirrors!"
 
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Ace

Ace

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f***ing stupid logic about the performance gauges. € 500,00 is piss money when you're spending €48K - € 50K or more like the Bullitt . Not sure I'm buying that reason. Regardless, let the customer decide if they want the performance gauges. :crazy:
If I remember correctly the 500€ was about putting it into every single Mustang, adding it as an option would like be much more expensive. And who would buy some gauges for let's say 1,000€?
Remember that when they made the decision they had no clue if this car sells well in Europe. Another guy from Ford Europe basically confirmed a few months ago that they just thought a handful of V8 fans will buy it and that's it. So I guess they wanted to keep the base price low (39k€ for a GT in Germany when banks opened in late 2014) to not being not more expensive than the EU Camaro.

The big point you should read out of the stuff is that Ford Europe is finally involved into the early stages of development so we hopefully won't that big difference between EU and US models in the future. Of course you always have to do some changes like adding bigger mirrors
 

v8hgt

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If I remember correctly the 500€ was about putting it into every single Mustang, adding it as an option would like be much more expensive. And who would buy some gauges for let's say 1,000€?
Remember that when they made the decision they had no clue if this car sells well in Europe. Another guy from Ford Europe basically confirmed a few months ago that they just thought a handful of V8 fans will buy it and that's it. So I guess they wanted to keep the base price low (39k€ for a GT in Germany when banks opened in late 2014) to not being not more expensive than the EU Camaro.

The big point you should read out of the stuff is that Ford Europe is finally involved into the early stages of development so we hopefully won't that big difference between EU and US models in the future. Of course you always have to do some changes like adding bigger mirrors
Also if ford Europe is involved in the next gen spec and design from day one, then there is no reason why the halo variant won’t be available for export too! They may even build export market cars outside of the USA too to take advantage of reduction in import duties.
 

Twin Turbo

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They may even build export market cars outside of the USA too to take advantage of reduction in import duties.

That would be a massive investment in tooling up another factory. Not impossible, but unlikely, I'd say.
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