Mustang Mach-E: Electric Pony Boogaloo for the Futurist
Real-world Battery Range Testing
If you’re like me back in 2009, the prospect of serious EV development for the consumer space was exciting. But scarce range and even more scarce charging stations made me hit pause and stick with gas.
Flash forward to 2020, and those fears are essentially nullified. As I mentioned earlier, we used the Extended Range Premium Mach E4 X for the road test. We started off with approximately 230 miles of range, and with two hours of driving (including destination transit and capturing drone footage), came back to The Forum with just under 190 miles of range.
That is impressive, no matter how you slice it. Especially with charging stations quickly becoming as common as gas pumps these days.
Ride Comfort & Handling
Let me clear the air right now–no, it does not handle or drive 100 percent the way a conventional Mustang does. But that’s not at all a bad thing.
In fact, the suspension on the Mach E is so finely tuned that you don’t even need MagneRide. And that’s coming from driving around in pothole valley (aka Los Angeles County).
The Mach E has three driving modes: “Whisper,” “Engage,” and “Unbridled.” As you can imagine, Whisper mode turns the vehicle into a easy going cruiser, while Engage and Unbridled make the Mach E incredibly aggressive (yet smooth) throttle mapping and braking.
Sure, the 225/55 Continentals are a bit narrow for a vehicle with this amount of power, but acceleration feels very linear, and with AWD, the pulls are downright phenomenal. The instant torque is absolutely monstrous but pleasant no less.
Remarkably, both Mach Es felt nimble around corners, and don’t feel heavy at all. A lot of this has to do with the lower center of gravity on the platform, and the other has to do with how buttoned up everything is.
One-pedal Driving
You can also choose “One-pedal Driving,” which allows you to drive with only the gas pedal while the Mach E uses it’s engine/regenerative braking to scrub the speed automatically.
While a very nice feature, especially in urban areas, the braking still feels sudden, jerky and highly reactive at lower speeds. The trade-off, obviously, is that your pads will wear out faster. Personally speaking, one-pedal operation is still not really my cup of tea. I prefer to have full control of my vehicle’s start and stop.
Final Thoughts
We get it. It is #NotaMustang. But here’s the thing—Ford labels it a “Mustang,” and they also happen to be the sole creator of the car since production first began in March 1964. So while it’s no S550 (or even the badass Boss 302 owned by Palmer, pictured above) the Mustang Mach-E is a thing for Ford going forward. Kind of hard to argue that.
Nonetheless, the Mach-E is an exceptionally impressive SUV crossover with many charming features. It has incredible drivability and handling, has gloriously instantaneous torque, and is absolutely a grip monster in AWD form. This honestly is a great foray for true die-hard Mustang fans curious about dabbling in the EV world.
We have to iterate, though, that the summer-bound 2021 GT will have 459 HP and 612 lb.-ft. of torque. The E4 X costs an additional $7.7K on top of the $47K the Premium demands. Thus, we expect interested enthusiasts will opt for the GT. Only one less horse than a Mustang GT, but nearly 200 more lbs.-ft. of torque? You can’t really argue that, either.
Photos: Derin Richardson; Video by Michael Palmer
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