Ford patents a windscreen that forms part of the roof

Ford has filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office revealing a windscreen and roof design that appears to have been inspired by the Tesla Model X from Elon Musk’s company.

The patent, reported by the Mach E Club forum, shows a windscreen on a Ford Mustang that extends above the heads of the front-row passengers and forms part of the roof.

Some sources have pointed out that much of the patent is devoted to how this design could retain the necessary rigidity. The solution from the oval brand involves a pair of strong roof rails and two curved horizontal rails meeting at the centre of the roof, between the windscreen and the rear window. In theory, this would make the car very strong in a crash, but we don’t know whether Ford has already carried out tests or has simply registered this solution.

Nevertheless, the windscreen design shown in the patent is quite intriguing, although it looks a little out of place on the Ford Mustang. We believe this design could suit one of the many SUV or crossover models from Ford better, but if it were used on a five-door vehicle such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E, rather than a coupé like the regular Ford Mustang, the central section between the windscreen and the rear window would need to be larger, or the windscreen could be made even bigger.

The Ford Mustang could feature a new extended windscreen

The new Ford extended windscreen patent was first filed on 14 May 2018 and was only published about a month ago. Clearly, Ford has been working on it for quite some time, but it is unclear whether this roof will become reality or not.

Even if Ford plans to bring a design like this to a production car, the additional cost associated with such a large windscreen (not to mention development and manufacturing costs) practically rules it out as an option for the relatively affordable Mustang we know today. We could imagine Ford offering a panoramic windscreen like this on more expensive models, such as the Mach-E or a Lincoln product (specifically the Lincoln derivative of the Mach-E), but that is pure idle speculation. As far as we know, this could be just for a concept car, one that will tour the motor shows in the early 2020s before disappearing into a warehouse… or a crusher.

Whatever use the oval brand intends for this new patent, we will have to wait until well into next year to find out more about this new technology inspired by the current Tesla Model X.