Preh GmbH, based in Bad Neustadt, Germany, has developed the climate control unit for the new Ford Mustang and brought it into standard production. Preh is supplying the ECU hardware and the climate control software. The software algorithms are matched to the hardware to ensure that the temperature in the interior remains comfortable. For Preh, this is the third order from Ford—the company already supplies climate control systems for the current Ford F-150 pickup truck, as well as an integrated radio and climate control system for the new Lincoln MKZ.
The Mustang climate control unit developed for Ford includes the electronic hardware but not any components that are visible in the vehicle interior. Therefore, although the same hardware will be used in various other Ford vehicles, the climate control software will be modified according to the specific requirements of each model.
Preh has more than two decades of experience with climate control units and is knowledgeable about the specific requirements of various regions throughout the world. For example, user preferences for a comfortable vehicle climate in North America differ from those in Europe.
Nick Lontscharitsch, senior vice president of sales at Preh, Inc., explains, “Our engineers were fully involved in the test drives of the new Ford Mustang, both in the searing heat of summers in Arizona and the icy cold of winters in Michigan. In this way, they could directly apply the knowledge that they gained personally to calibrating the climate control software.”
The climate control hardware and software were developed at Preh’s headquarters and development center in Bad Neustadt an der Saale, Germany, in close cooperation with Ford and Preh’s North American Customer Service Center in Novi, Michigan. The control units are manufactured in the Preh factory in Monterrey, Mexico.
