ROAD TEST No 5529
Ford Mustang Mach-E
One of the most iconic names in the business goes ‘rogue’ with an electric crossover
PHOTOGRAPHY OLGUN KORDAL
We like
• It’s among the best attempts yet to give an electric car genuine dynamic appeal
• Huge range provides the car with impressive GT legs and greater usability than rivals
We don’t like
• Mustang name and design cues aren’t fully justified by the car’s performance
• Chassis doesn’t possess the laid-back loping gait you’d expect and often fidgets
MODEL TESTED EXTENDED RANGE RWD
Price £49,980 Power 290bhp Torque 317lb ft 0-60mph 6.8sec 30-70mph in fourth na Fuel economy 2.9mpkWh CO 2 emissions 0g/km 70-0mph 57.0 m
Just because the dust has settled, and our perceptions allowed time to adjust, we shouldn’t forget the fireball of controversy that engulfed the 2020 launch of this week’s road test subject.
The idea itself was not the issue. Crossovers are now without question the profit-making bedrock of almost every major car maker. And as for the all-electric bit, those same car makers are at dire risk of drowning in fines if they cannot rapidly bring down their average fleet emissions. So an electric crossover is a sensible product to make. And as the world’s fourth-largest car maker, Ford simply had to have one.
The controversy stemmed from the fact that this first bespoke EV for the brand uses the Mustang name. It hasn’t, as many initially feared, replaced the eight-cylinder Mustang – at least, not yet – but it’s certainly going to trade on that car’s legend. It’s difficult to think of any comparable strategy from another car maker, realised or not. Perhaps if Porsche decided to call the upcoming electric Macan the ‘911 E’? We doubt that would go down too well, either.
Except that, with this Ford, the plan is working. The Mustang Mach-E has generated enormous interest, not only via its impressive on-paper statistics but also through its styling and positioning. It’s not for no reason that so far this year, Ford has built more Mustang Mach-Es at the car’s plant in Mexico than it has ‘proper’ Mustangs in Michigan. In the grand scheme of things, it is a small scalp, but if Ford can reach its EV prediction of four in every 10 cars sold by 2030, it may also prove a meaningful one.
What we want to find out today is what sort of car the Mach-E really is, away from the controversy of its name. Indeed, is Ford’s first proper EV effort one it can be proud of?
DESIGN AND ENGINEERING
Jason Castriota, who is now Ford’s head of design but in another life styled the Ferrari 599 GTB, talks about deploying the company’s ‘family jewels’ for the Mach-E. The jewels in question are the Mustang’s hallmark aesthetic cues, which go back decades and aren’t trifled with lightly: tri-bar tail-lights, the long, high bonnet, muscular rear haunches, a cab-rear stance and the angry headlight ‘brow’. All can be found on this electric crossover, which also uses gloss black surfacing for the roof and lower body to trick the eye into seeing coupé lines on what is actually quite a large, tall car. All in, it’s an impressively faithful interpretation of the Mustang design DNA, whether or not you feel it should have been attempted in the first place.