The Mustang-inspired crossover arrives in 2020, and Ford projects an all-electric range of 300 miles. As we previously reported, Ford is now reconsidering the originally proposed Mach 1 name due. Ford just announced its new Escape for 2020, but the launch event in Amsterdam contained additional information that most decidedly has our interest. The Blue Oval started touting an all-electric.

For the first time in its six decades on the market, the Mustang nameplate has grown to encompass a new derivative. No longer a single, two-door model with scores of trim levels, it now represents a family. And the first addition to that tribe—the five-door, all-wheel-drive, battery-powered Mustang Mach-E SUV—is nothing like its progenitors. This presented a quandary for those charged with penning this offspring.

“The big challenge became, how do we as a design team make a double-leap with Mustang?” says Jason Castriota, formerly of Pininfarina, Saab, and American supercar maker SSC, and now Ford’s global brand director for battery electric vehicles. “So not only are we going to make an electric Mustang, but an electric SUV Mustang.”

As it turns out, such a dual jump is not so easy, especially when the decision to do so occurs deep into a vehicle’s development process. Ford discovered, through their competitive intelligence spies, that there would be a bevy of BEVs buzzing into the market around the time their project was set to debut. So distinctiveness was paramount. “The idea of how do we stand out in the crowd, how do we cut through all the noise and the clutter of yet another all-electric vehicle, became really the essential question that we had to solve,” Castriota says.

The car needed a profile boost. And as the small skunkworks group analyzed the problem, it determined that the best answer was to draw from Ford’s extant icons. “It became readily apparent to the team that this car needed to be a Mustang,” Castriota says. “This led to massive changes in the vehicle architecture, massive changes in the proportions, in the silhouette, and of course to the drivetrain and the performance of the vehicle as well.”

Gallery: The Biggest Car News of 2020, from COVID-19 to Revived Trucks (Car and Driver)

Mustang cues are certainly pasted all over the vehicle: a blunt fist of a prow, hooded brow headlamps, a longish hood, Coke-bottle sculpture in the flanks, muscular haunches, and of course, tri-bar sequential taillights.

Ford Mustang Crossover Pictures Of Cars

Still, loyalists were skeptical. “I had the dubious honor of presenting the Mustang Mach-E to our Mustang club presidents,” Castriota says. “Let’s say, they came in arms crossed, a stern look on their faces.” However, by the end of the presentation, and after some time experiencing what the vehicle could do, they were somewhat placated. “They understood that we’re not taking away anything they love,” Castriota says. “This is another steed in the stable.”

Ford Mustang Crossover

According to Castriota, Ford plans to continue leveraging their best-known brand names in the service of electrification. And he suggests that further go-fast iterations of the Mach-E, beyond the already-announced GT, may also be in the works. (“You can imagine that we can hopefully develop the Mustang Mach-E into greater performance versions.”) But, while this questionable crossover-ization has already occurred, he admits the Mustang moniker is not universally applicable. “I don’t think the Mustang name can be applied to any form,” Castriota says. “I certainly wouldn’t envision a Mustang pickup, for instance. Or a Mustang commercial van. But I think vehicles that can capture performance, moving people fast and free…” he trails off. “We feel that it’s definitely worthwhile exploring the other potentials for our great brands.”