New-gen 2023 Ford Mustang V8 confirmed for Australia, manual in doubt

The all-new 2023 Ford Mustang has been confirmed for Australia, with the carmaker revealing timings for the launch of its seventh-generation pony car.

As well as sharing plans for the new Mustang's launch, Ford has teased some interesting details around its engine and gearbox.

While a 2023 launch has been speculated, Ford’s top brass has now confirmed the all-new Mustang will be revealed next year and that media drives and customer deliveries will follow in quick succession.

And there’s good news for V8 fans – while an electrified Mustang is almost inevitable, the 5.0-litre V8 will continue. It just mightn’t be offered with a manual gearbox.

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Ford’s vehicle director for icons and Ford Performance, Ali Jammoul, is in Australia for the final sign-off of the second-generation Ranger Raptor and he told Wheels the new Mustang is almost complete.

“The next generation that we’re working on now will be launching next year, in 2023, and it’s going to be great,” he said. “So it’s launching next year and there will be events, so you [the media] will get to drive it.”

Jammoul is the man in charge of the ‘total lifecycle’ for Ford’s suite of performance vehicles and icons (F-150, Bronco and Mustang), meaning he oversees the entire project from conception to launch. That makes him ideally placed to answer questions about what engines, or batteries, will power the seventh-generation Mustang.

“Engine selection is really important, right,” he replies when we ask about the move towards electrification and whether the V8 is here to stay. “And what we pride ourselves on is giving the customer a lot of choice and selection to choose from. Clearly the V8 has been really successful in Mustang and it has a certain image that our customers associate with.

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“What we need to do, though, is make the V8 more environmentally friendly and you need to make sure it’s regulatory compliant. And that’s absolutely something we have worked on and will certainly have in the next generation Mustang.

"I don’t think the V8 is going away soon; at some point with electrification and with BEV [battery electric vehicles] you can do a lot more in terms of performance and that might be the time that V8s start to phase out. But I see Mustang continuing to carry the V8 for now.”

Jammoul also confirmed Ford is “looking at’ an electrified version of the new Mustang. He’s incredibly bullish about the performance potential of hybrids and full-electric powertrains.

“We look at Mustang as a family, right,” he said. “From ICE to BEV to future Mustangs we envision… we will deliver the DNA and essence of Mustang whether it’s ICE or BEV. Clearly the market is moving toward electrification and we’re committed to doing more performance vehicles that are EVs. Would that carry the name Mustang? Maybe.

“Clearly the Mustang nameplate is a brand that’s here to stay and we will look at every potential opportunity to add series and that could be electrifying. Right now I can’t share anything but we’re definitely looking at it.”

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One piece of hardware that mightn’t make it into the seventh-get ’Stang is a manual gearbox, which will be a big change for fans who consider a manual ’box essential to a V8 Mustang’s recipe.

“You know, eventually it’s going be phased out, right?” said Jammoul. “But as long as there’s a market for it and customers still want that higher performing feel, it’ll stay, but clearly you can deliver a lot more [from an automatic], especially from EVs. When we go to an EV strategy the immediate instant torque you have you can never match with a manual gearbox.

“So I can’t tell you the manual gearbox is here to stay, but it’s clear there will be more electrification, and manual gearboxes will not be around in the future.”

Jammoul’s comments around customer demand suggests the manual gearbox may still be offered, but when we asked him directly if it will be available when the new Mustang launches, he’s more evasive that we expect.

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“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m not sure I can tell you that…”

Also unclear is exactly when Aussie deliveries of the new Mustang will begin. As a global model, the Mustang is sold in over 170 countries world wide and Ford will likely prioritise North America, China and Europe before Australian production begins.

“We have a launch cadence and we stagger different markets, for sure,” said Jammoul. “And I’m not sure when Australia fits just now.”

That means we could also see a period with no new Mustangs imported to Australia as production of the current car ends and the new model begins.