Reports of the Demise Of The ICE Mustang Are Exaggerated, For Now, At Least

A long, long time ago, on a planet far away, a famous writer who had been reported deceased responded to the report with the famous line: “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” The writer was the famed American author and raconteur Mark Twain. He was responding to a report in a New York City newspaper that he had passed on.

A Gentle Reponse From Author

Well, he hadn’t, and instead of ranting and raving as many of today’s thought leaders might do, he responded with gentle humor that was even more cutting because he never called anyone out.

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Today, it looks like reports of the demise of the Ford Mustang may be greatly exaggerated.  There were reports over the weekend that the Mustang was headed to the end of its line at the end of model year 2028. That report was in MuscleCarsandTrucks (MC&T).

According to Jalopnik, which picked up on how things looked to MC&T, the Blue Oval was probably pulling the plug on the Mustang at the end of the 2028 model year. This was based on something reportedly part of the recent United Auto Workers contract. Indeed, it wasn’t even about the entire Mustang lineup. It was reportedly about the brand-new pony car, the S650.

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MC&T reported that the contract with the UAW concerned the future of the high-powered Mustang. They said the contract calls for the end of the S650 in 2028, and to them, that means it is similar to the Mustang.

Ford Disagrees With Speculation

But is it? MC&T reported that the S650 badge will “move to an electrified vehicle” in four model years. Ford, though, disagrees, and with good reason. The Mustang name has already been moved to an electric vehicle. Suppose you have followed Torque News for the last several years. Ford created a sub-brand called Mustang in 2019. Over the next couple of years, there were reports that the automaker would field an electric with Mustang name attached. In late 2021, the model appeared to be called the Mustang Mach-E.

Mustang fans were outraged by the blasphemy at the time. The Mustang community believed it was almost sinful to put the name of the storied pony car on an electric. Guess what? That community calmed down when they saw that Ford was going to continue to produce the internal combustion engine (ICE) version of the Mustang under the same name. The Mustang brand name was the only thing that united the EV and ICE versions of the Mustang.

If you look closely at the UAW-Ford agreement, it seems as if 2028 is the end of the line for the Mustang S650 and the ICE version of the pony car. However, “Ford disagrees,” says Jalopnik.

Ford Responds to Publication

The automaker sent a statement to Jalopnik saying that the MC&T report was “inaccurate.” The automaker returned to its usual line: it “doesn’t comment on speculation about future products.” The publication called the Ford statement “vague” and said it didn’t specify “whether the reporting on electrification” was right or wrong. “We just don’t know,” the publication said. Meanwhile, they told Mustang enthusiasts to enjoy the “one primary option available: Enjoy the sound of that V-8 as long as you can.”

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Jalopnik said that the report on the S650 “ties nicely with previous intel covered by MC&T.” That information said that the S650 Ford Mustang production would end at the beginning of 2029, paving the way for the 8th generation Mustang to start production.” Jalopnik said the new Mustang would probably be called the S750 Mustang.

Marc Stern has been an automotive writer since 1971. His automotive articles have appeared in venues including Popular Mechanics, Mechanix Illustrated, AutoWeek, SuperStock, Trailer Life, Old Cars Weekly, Special Interest Autos, and others. You can follow Marc on Twitter or Facebook.