Ford’s Hidden Mustang Pickup Is a One-Off Apprentice Project
Apprentices in Ford’s EVB Metal Shop turned an S550 Mustang into a Ute-style truck with Ranger bed parts, but it was never meant for production.
By
Graham Pettigrew
Matt Korczyk, Ford’s Heritage Fleet Manager, has posted photos on his Instagram account of a pickup truck that the company built from a Mustang and then kept out of sight.
In brief
- The Mustang pickup is a one-off built by Ford apprentices, with parts of its bed taken from a production Ranger.
- Ford never planned to produce it, and no sale or ordering option exists.
- The Mustang Mach-E is the Mustang-badged model buyers can order, from $37,795 before destination and options.
- CEO Jim Farley has repeatedly said every Ford will offer a hybrid option by 2030, Mustang included.
A pickup built to train apprentices
The truck started life as an S550-generation Mustang. According to CarBuzz, turning a stock car into this Ute-style pickup demanded hundreds of hours of work. Korczyk’s photos mark the first time the concept has appeared outside Ford’s Experimental Vehicles Building.
Korczyk gave the reason for the project in his post. Of the truck, he wrote: “This concept was built by the team in the Ford EVB Metal Shop,” adding that it was done “As a way to train apprentices by allowing them to get real world, hands-on experience by way of building a concept car.”
Where the Mustang normally has a rear seat and trunk, the truck carries a pickup bed. Ford says parts of that bed were taken from a production Ranger, as The Drive reports. The apprentices also reshaped the rear panel of the trunk into a makeshift tailgate, which the photos show open.
CarBuzz describes the work as a rare look at how concept cars and prototypes come about, and at how an automaker keeps those fabrication skills alive. Korczyk, for his part, calls the project a reminder of how important skilled trades are to Ford, since it both trains the apprentices and lets them show off what they can do.
No deposit line, and perhaps no engine
The joke in The Drive’s headline aside, nothing is for sale. The Mustang pickup is a one-off, and Ford never planned to make it a production model.
Whether the truck can be driven is a separate matter. Korczyk did not say. The CarBuzz writer believes it cannot, pointing to the gap around the front wheel, which suggests there is no engine under the hood, and hopes the Heritage Fleet team gets it running. That is the writer’s reading of the photos, not a Ford statement.
The Drive’s writer adds a design opinion. In that writer’s view, the short bed brings the Hyundai Santa Cruz to mind more than the Ford Maverick. The same writer says the extra ground clearance could be corrected with shorter springs or taller sidewalls.
What Mustang buyers can actually get
The Mustang-badged vehicle that can be ordered today is the electric Mustang Mach-E. CarBuzz lists its US sales at 27,140 units in 2021 and 39,458 in 2023, followed by 40,771, 56,337 and 51,620 in each subsequent year. The outlet adds that the 2024 and 2025 calendar years outsold the gas Mustang by thousands of units.
| Mach-E detail | Low end | High end |
|---|---|---|
| Price (before destination and options) | $37,795 (Select) | $57,690 (Rally) |
| Range | 240 miles | 300 miles |
| Power | 264 hp | 480 hp |
| Torque | 378 lb-ft | 700 lb-ft |
Four trims make up the Mach-E range, and the figures shift with trim and options.
Where the Mustang name goes next
CarBuzz reports that Ford CEO Jim Farley has repeatedly said every Ford will offer a hybrid option by 2030, and that this includes the Mustang. The outlet also notes that off-again, on-again rumors of a Mustang sedan are still circulating, though they remain rumors.
Featured image. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Credit: Alexander Migl. License: CC BY-SA 4.0.
