From the February/March 2021 issue of Car and Driver.
UPDATE 2/1/21: This review has been updated with test results.
The Mustang Mach-E wasn’t always going to be a Mustang. It started life as an electrified and lifted Focus. Somewhere along the way, Ford execs realized that if the company wanted to sell its new EV in meaningful quantities, it would have to build something people could get excited about. So Jim Farley, then Ford’s president of global markets, ordered the design team to go back to the drawing board two years before the car’s slated unveiling, a schedule not normally conducive to delivering a functioning product. His instruction: Think Mustang. The resulting vehicle certainly looks the part of a pony car inflated into a crossover. But for the year between the Mach-E’s unveiling and our first drive, we’ve been wondering if it could deliver on the promise of that long hood. Now we know.
The answer is yes. And no. Whether you end up thinking the Mach-E is worthy of the Mustang name will depend a lot on why you like Ford’s pony car. If you like Mustangs because they’re attractive and quick, the Mach-E should pass your personal litmus test. If you are looking for a roaring engine and an athletic chassis capable of carving up back roads, you will be disappointed.
The Mach-E is the best-looking vehicle in Ford’s current lineup apart from the actual Stang, and it’s also more attractive than the majority of crossovers. The $56,200 extended-range all-wheel-drive model that we tested made it to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds. That’s quick for something with 30 cubic feet of storage space in the back (plus another five cubic feet in the frunk), but that’s still way off the Tesla Model Y’s pace. Ford says the forthcoming 480-hp GT Performance Edition should do the deed in a blistering 3.5 seconds, matching Tesla’s claim for the Y Performance. Base rear-wheel-drive models with 266 horsepower and the smaller (and lighter) battery should come in around 6.0 seconds—still respectable for the genre.
The big-battery all-wheel-drive model has 346 horsepower and 428 pound-feet of torque, and the instant availability of all that torque gives the Mach-E that characteristic off-the-line swiftness that we’ve come to expect from electric vehicles. This heaviest Mustang ever was perfectly competent at tackling the autocross course that Ford set up for us, although the ute’s prodigious weight was evident, particularly in the slalom section. Still, the Mach-E’s skinny all-season tires aren’t canyon carvers, and they manage just 0.85 g on the skidpad, which is less stick than you’ll see from a Ford Edge ST (0.89 g) or a Tesla Model Y (0.88 g).
So the Mach-E is quick enough to carry the Mustang name. But we’ve driven a lot of Mustangs, and we don’t like them just because they’re quick. The Mustang lineup includes some of our favorite engines, with intoxicating exhaust notes and more character than any electric motor. They are also thrilling to drive. The Shelby models, in particular, deliver direct chassis responses and steering that’s hyper-communicative, and the risk of getting bucked off the pavement due to your own inattention or lack of skill is quite real. Plus: those exhaust notes. Mustangs aren’t for everyone, which is exactly why the idea of aiming the Mach-E at the masses is so controversial.
Unlike Ford’s V-8-powered coupes, the Mustang Mach-E doesn’t traffic in barely sublimated danger. It’s quiet inside, and there’s not so much as a jostle or bump through the steering column no matter how bad the road is. The ride is smooth, too, the isolation almost complete. This is its own kind of triumph in an EV, where the lack of an engine soundtrack can magnify perceptions of wind and road noise. Plenty of drivers—especially crossover drivers—are perfectly happy to be isolated from the road. But when we think Mustang, hushed serenity isn’t what comes to mind.
Then there are all the other features that don’t jibe with our past Mustang experiences simply because they’re new. The button-Âactuated doors feel novel and seem less likely to malfunction than the perpetually frustrating pop-out handles employed by other automakers, but when the doors are locked, there’s a maddening delay between triggering the button and the door opening. At least the massive 15.5-inch vertically oriented infotainment touchscreen is intuitive to operate.
It’s nice enough inside that prices around $50,000 feel appropriate. None of the materials in our Premium test car feel luxurious, exactly, but everything fits together well, and certain touches—such as the fabric-trimmed sound bar running across the dash—feel modern and considered. Other things seem less thought out, like having an “L” position on the gearshift despite the fact that the Mach-E employs single-Âratio transmissions. Ford says this activates a special deceleration mode for descending steep hills. Just remember: “L” is for “sLower on the hills.”
The Mach-E will be a test bed for Ford’s connected-Âvehicle technologies. Your phone is the car’s key, though there’s a keypad on the B-pillar and a fob just in case. The associated app shows you the Mach-E’s charge status, helps you plan trips by evaluating your battery level and available charging stations on your route, and allows you to initiate certain vehicle functions, such as opening the windows or liftgate. The Mach-E is capable of receiving over-the-air software updates and providing real-time data on the availability of more than 13,500 third-party stations in Ford’s charging network. At stations that support the Plug & Charge protocol, Mach-Es start charging within seconds of plugging in as long as payment information is on file. That simplicity makes the charging experience as seamless as Tesla’s, although not as fast.
Charging at a maximum of 150 kilowatts on a DC fast charger, a Mustang Mach-E equipped like our test car can, according to Ford, add 52 miles of range in 10 minutes or charge its battery from 10 to 80 percent in 45 minutes. EPA range figures for models with the standÂard 68.0-kWh pack are 230 miles for rear-drivers and 211 miles for all-wheel-drive Mach-Es. The extended-range version has an 88.0-kWh battery good for 300 miles in the rear-drive variant and 270 miles in the all-wheel-drive model. That should cover most drivers’ daily needs, but the Model Y manages 326 miles despite packing a smaller battery. That means the Ford is woefully less efficient than the Tesla—28 percent less so, according to the EPA combined figures. To validate real-world efficiency, we measured the Mach-E’s parasitic drag with coastdown tests on the same surface where we ran a Model Y. The results show the Ford requires 31 percent more power to maintain 75 mph. We were unable to run our highway range test during our short loan, but based on the coastdown tests, we expect no more than 190 miles.
The Mach-E is just one of four very important vehicles that Ford is in the midst of launching. The F-150 is the brand’s cash cow, and it’s important to get it right, but it would take a big blunder to dissuade the throngs of truck buyers who would never consider owning anything else. The Bronco’s sales success—at least initially—is almost a foregone conclusion. And the Bronco Sport—another crossover borrowing a hallowed name—is enjoying a favorable response thus far, indicating that buyers might not reflexively hate a crossover offshoot as long as it’s worthy.
Based on that success, the Mustang Mach-E could pique enough interest among the masses to make it worth upsetting a few traditionalists. Americans have yet to embrace any electric vehicle not named Tesla, but calling this one a Mustang at least has them talking about it. It doesn’t feel like a Mustang to us, but the Mach-E is one of the best EVs on sale right now.
Dialogue
Elon Musk’s influence is all over the Mach-E. It has the great Tesla traits: Its instant torque corrupts instantly, it is quiet on the road, the structure has premium-brand solidity, and the steering is sports-car now, now, now. While the Mach-E’s blending of regen and friction brakes isn’t great, the one-pedal function works brilliantly, and the car’s ride is smooth, if a bit underdamped. It’s not a Mustang, of course. A better name for a Ford EV with a 300-mile range would have been the Galaxie 300. —Tony Quiroga
Notice what isn’t being said about the Mach-E’s 11th-hour Mustang-themed redesign. Ford hasn’t claimed that the engineering team made the same pivot as the designers. The Mach-E experience feels mostly like the original plan for an electrified Ford Focus with one major exception: The Mach-E is uncharacteristically neutral at the limit. Around the skidpad, toeing into the accelerator caused the big horsey to rotate. And my giggle following a four-wheel drift through an S-bend was definitely the stuff of pony cars. —Dave VanderWerp
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