That seems to be a much better solution. 

I could see VAG unloading what they still hold of Traton soon too.  I think VAG will muddle through, but will emerge much smaller and more efficient.  I don't think there is any hope for Stellantis, I just hope they sell off CDJR before it crashes.

A while back I came across a discussion suggesting Ford should move Mustang to a mid-engine layout, largely because Corvette had gone that direction. There were some renderings accompanying the idea. I agreed with half of it. A mid-engine, high-performance Ford? Absolutely. A mid-engine Mustang? That's where they lost me. Mustang has spent decades developing an identity and proportions that are distinctly its own. I don't think Ford needs to fundamentally change Mustang just because Corvette changed. But the underlying question stuck with me: if Ford did build a mid-engine performance car, what should it be? Thunderbird was the first name that came to mind. The more I thought about it, the more interesting that became. Rather than trying to make a “Ford Corvette,” I started thinking about Thunderbird's history as an American personal grand tourer and whether that could translate into something different today—a premium mid-engine American GT with its own identity. I ended up taking the thought experiment way farther than intended and built a complete independent concept study around it. Another Chance to Fly This is purely an independent enthusiast/hobby project—not affiliated with Ford and definitely not based on any inside information. I'm less interested in whether everyone likes my renderings than I am in the original question: If Ford built a mid-engine performance car, would you change Mustang, revive Thunderbird, use another Ford name—or start with a completely new one? And if Thunderbird is the right name, does a modern American GT make sense for it, or should Thunderbird mean something completely different?  

Right now there is a lot of unrealistic and misleading marketing hype about EREVs, but I think Akirby has it right. They will see some buyers for urban use including contractors. But not much beyond that after reality sets in.   I do understand why Ford and other OEMs are trying hard to make electrified full size trucks work. They fear traditional full sized trucks are going to be regulated out of business and these trucks are their profit centers. They are desperate to figure something out.   A while back JP (@jpd80) made a comment about maybe Ford should just put a modestly larger battery in the F-150 Powerboost and call it a day. That is probably a better approach - invest in making the Powerboost even better, less costly and more efficient than it already is. It is an amazing truck. Amaze amaze amaze as Rocky would say.

So there is a discussion going on in the MKZ Facebook group and someone commented that Ford gave up on Ford sedans a very long time ago that the MKZ is nothing more than a re-badged Mazda and that all MKZs share a ton of parts with Mazdas.     I informed him he was wrong that CD3 was Mazda based but CD4 was an in house Ford design and a merger of EUCD.  He then told me that I was wrong that CD4 and CD6 are just warmed over and stretched CD3.  I told him his information is very wrong and not sure where he's getting it to which he told me he works for a T1 Ford supplier and gets his info from Ford engineers.   Thought you guys here would find that hilarious. 

Pure EV buyers won't  buy it.  Not enough EV range and it still has an engine to maintain.   Heavy/Long distance towers won't buy it - too much compromise.   The only use case is someone who wants an EV truck, drives local most of the time and occasionally makes a long and/or heavy tow.  Not a lot of those buyers.

Interesting!  I wasn't aware of that!

Oh sure....Ford Authority is the king of articles for the sake of articles.

This article shows why the EREV push, imo, will fail worse than the EV push did. It’s expensive, heavy, and more complex for minimal consumer benefit.    The Ram is close to 2,000 pounds heavier than an XLT F-150 super crew. Crazy. 

That's an interesting point. Seems like with F-100 joining F-Series, Ford will be making adjustments to prevent duplication and overlap. This is going to be fun to watch. The changes in the next gen F-150 may hold interesting clues.