Electric Vehicles

Maybe they should have named it the Pinto.

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Or “pEnto”

Branding is everything in the U.S. car market. I have a Silverado “Texas Edition” (not for the name, but because it had the most bells and whistles, and was the least spartan truck Chevy makes). They could have called it the “Broadway Foo Foo Edition”, and it been the same exact truck, and no one would have bought one. Slap a good ol’ star on it, and you feel like John Wayne in Rio Bravo. People will buy an electric Mustang, they won’t buy an electric Ford Escape or “Nature” or anything else that makes it sound less than an 8-mpg V8. It makes their pee pee shrivel just thinking about it.

Galaxy, Boss, Fairlane, Falcon, and Torino are all Ford trademarks. “Torino Lightning” would have worked nicely.

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What about Ford “Machismo”?

The Sliverado and F-150 are legit uses of those brand names as the EV versions of those vehicles fit the market segment they’re in and look exactly like their ICE cousins. The Mach E is a crossover SUV branded the same as a GT sports car, which makes no sense to anyone.

Chevy called their first full EV the “Bolt”, presumably after the action you had to perform when it caught fire. BMW prefix their EVs with “i”. VW call their lineup ID-X while Audi use the suffix “e-tron”. Hyundai and Kia came up with new names/designations for their EVs, and Mercedes uses a different set of incomprehensible code letters for their electric models. Cadillac uses a brand new name instead of adapting their own existing code lettering. All of these cars - including the Bolt now that they have fixed the battery management system - have strong sales (albeit against weak production numbers in many cases).

People will buy EVs because they want EVs. Ford slapping their electric SUV with the “Mustang” name and full badging array was lazy, stupid marketing that invited unflattering comparisons about it’s looks and performance. Just call it the Ford e-Trek or something, and people will still have bought it. I would hazard that no one bought Ford’s electric SUV solely because it was called “Mustang”.

Not solely, but more people will buy an electric Ford Mustang than will buy an electric Ford Boutonniere, all else being equal.

That’s the second most popular trim package for the Boss Grand Torino Lightning, the most popular being the “Kick Ass” edition.

Of course. But no one would buy a Ford Boutonniere even if they built a time machine out of it.

There will also be a Clint Eastwood-inspired “Get Off My Lawn” Edition. Speed will be restricted to 10mph below posted limits, the A/C only ever blows hot - even in summer - and there will be no way to turn off the left blinker.

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I think it looks a lot like the Mustangs of my youth. Man were they ugly.

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I’m guessing that was from the 70s. That whole decade was a crime against eyeballs.

For example:

1968 “TR”

1974 “TR”

That is a 1992 Datsun, and I will not hear any arguments otherwise.

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Yeah. I owned the top one. Sweet. When they launched the “7” it was the end of an era.

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Some kind of sportster electric modeled after the MGs or Triumphs would be the perfect car of local driving.

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MG has, in fact, been reborn as a brand offering a range of totally generic-looking petrol, electric and hybrid SUVs. It’s enough to make one weep.

That is the kind of thing that makes me wish I did not drink.

So I could start!

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If you took the badges off those things, you could put a gun to my head and I would die swearing they were Mazdas.

I also think they are a bit more available here in Texas.

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I did actually look, and there about a half-dozen Mach Es around Houston according to the Ford website. What you can’t know until you walk in the door is how much the dealers are going to try to gouge you to buy one.