Following the unveiling of the new Ranger, the heartwarming return of the Bullitt Mustang, and the announcing of a hybrid F-150, Ford did something bad. Like really bad. 

At the end of Ford’s 2018 North American Auto Show presentation, Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. tied together his Irish immigrant history, a Detroit renaissance rallying cry, and electric vehicles before a video began. 

It’s dark, there’s a defining shot of Detroit, an Explorer emerges from the mist while techno music plays, now, along comes a Mustang GT convertible which is wet and emerges from under an overpass. It pulls into Ford’s new EV research facility in Corktown, followed by the Explorer–lightning strikes, anxiety builds.

The garage door begins to rise, smoke pours out from below, whirly electric sounds are heard, more techno music plays, pew, a red laser beam shoots off down Michigan Avenue and the screen fades into an electrocuted Mach 1 logo.

What the fuck? 

Initially, the murmur going around was that maybe Ford was considering reviving the Mach 1 name for some kind of hybrid or full blown battery electric high-performance Mustang. But they’re not, instead, the venerable badge might live on the back of a new electric performance SUV coming 2020.

Ford North America Product Communications Manager, Mike Levine, subsequently clarified that the company was only considering using the Mach 1 name for a battery-electric SUV, claiming the blue oval brand will listen to public reaction before making an actual decision. 

The name captures the spirit of the new vehicle. Ford will gauge reaction from potential customers before making a final decision on naming.

— Mike Levine (@mrlevine) January 15, 2018

Anyone who may even remotely cares needs to help stop this. Express your displeasure to Ford about its virtue signaling simulacrum that’s borrowing the name of a hallowed nameplate–one that birthed who-knows-how-many longtime brand loyalists–for a boxy BEV designed to cash in on vintage brand cache.

It’s almost like a symbolic dissociation between the brand and its bread and butter loyalists. 

Shortly after Ford announced it was going to bastardize the Mach 1 name, Dan Gurney passed away. It was an eerie consequence that ethereally sums up the mercantilist jamais vu the industry is trying to shove down the throats of the very people who genuinely love it.

Please direct all complaints to @mrlevine, he’ll be listening. 

The post Please Tell Ford Not to Make the Mach 1 an Electric SUV appeared first on AllFordMustangs.