Road test: Ford Mustang Mach-E GT

Friday, 16 June 2023

When Ford first announced it was building a performance EV, voltheads rejoiced. Even a fair few Ford owners were interested, despite the company being most well known for a certain insanely popular truck, the first properly mass-produced, affordable car, and the Mustang sports car.

But when the Blue Oval said its new EV would be called ‘Mustang Mach 1’, that interest quickly changed into outrage. Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, said that name was an ‘evaluation’ and it changed to ‘Mach-E’. The Mustang name remained, and people are still peeved about it.

Those indicators light up sequentially, which looks brilliant.

Now, four years after its initial debut in 2019 (which still only feels like two years ago), the controversial EV has finally landed in New Zealand. We’ve had a couple of stints behind the wheel at a local launch event in May, and occasional contributor Dave McLeod drove one in the UK back in 2021. But this marks a chance for us to get a proper feel for how the Mach-E is to live with. Plus, I haven’t driven one yet and I was feeling left out.

This is the ‘door handle’. Push the button and pull the little aerodynamic tab.

This is the GT variant, the top dog of the line-up, boasting twin electric motors with 358kW and 860Nm, a 3.7-second 0-100kph time thanks to AWD grip. It also has a battery just shy of 100kWh in size, big enough for a real-world range of about 480km – surprisingly close to the WLTP rating – and sharp looks.

The headlights are narrow and angry, the ‘grille’ is nothing but a slab of carbon trim surrounding the Mustang pony, and there aren’t any traditional door handles. To get in, you push a little button on the B-pillar and tug on a tiny aerodynamic protrusion. Rear occupants push the button and pull on the door itself. Would have thought Ford could afford another pair of said protrusions for the back doors, but I’m not much of an accountant…

Around back are the classic Mustang taillights that illuminate sequentially, which should be a standard feature on all Mustangs, ‘GT’ text between the lights and a small roof spoiler. There’s no Ford logo on the body at all, highlighting the fact Ford wants the Mach-E and broader Mustang family to stand on its own.

Almost everything is controlled on the screen. Thankfully there’s a second driver’s display for crucial information.

It rides low, measuring slightly longer, a bit narrower, and a smidge lower than an Audi SQ5 Sportback with a larger wheelbase.

There’s serious performance in the twin-motor GT version.

Inside is a minimal cabin, with nothing but a steering wheel, two pedals and a rotary gear selector. Oh, and a humongous 15-inch portrait display in the middle of the dash. Like most vehicles these days, you control pretty much everything from this, from music to drive modes to opening the boot. I’m not a big fan of this sort of all-in-one control hub, if it goes wrong you lose so much functionality.

On the other hand, I love the driver’s display behind the wheel. It’s slim, shows exactly what I need to see – range, speed, cruise control status – and doesn’t distract.

So, this or a Tesla Model Y Performance?

But what about the drive? My week with the GT was punctuated by rain more times than I’d like, so the roads weren’t entirely up to snuff traction-wise, but the Mach-E still proved to be brilliant fun to power around. The GT gets more potent Pirelli rubber than the other two models which meant it hung on a bit more – but only a bit, especially at low speeds.

Take off a bit enthusiastically and you’ll find both ends scrabbling for grip, the traction control allowing a bit more slippage than it really needs to. I like that, it makes the car feel more alive. Very Mustang.

Sports, sorry, Untamed mode adds a slight soundtrack to proceedings, nothing overpowering but a nice rumble in the background. Ford could have very easily piped a Coyote V8 soundtrack through the speakers but thankfully it didn’t.

The steering is quick with great weighting and the adaptive suspension keeps things in check well without being too stiff. The GT’s Brembo brakes are brutally strong, almost too much so with the regen set high. Thankfully you don’t need them much in this setting as the superb one-pedal driving will bring the car to a total stop without the need for the brakes.

Dial things back into Relaxed and the GT is perfectly fine as a daily runabout. The seats are comfortable, the Bowers and Wilkins sound system deafening if you want it to be, and the semi-autonomous driving works a treat in traffic. Near on 500km of range is plenty as well, and the battery supports charge rates up to 150kW so you can juice back up pretty quickly as well. Ten minutes at that speed adds 99km, Ford says.

Considering the package, I have to say the Mach-E GT is well-priced as well. $125k is a reasonable ask for something with this amount of performance. The real competition here is Tesla’s Model Y Performance, which is just as fast to 100kph (with a foot of rollout, of course), has about the same range, an identically sized touchscreen rotated 90 degrees, but costs markedly less at $101,400 at the time of writing.

However, getting ‘Full Self-Driving Capability’ (which isn’t really full, but is pretty close) costs a further $11,400, so the price difference isn’t that big at the end of the day, and any colour other than white adds between $1700 and $2800 to the price.

Given the choice, I’d go with the Ford. I don’t like either brand’s love affair with putting everything on the touchscreen but Ford has that extra driver’s display so I don’t need to look away from the road to see the speed. Plus it looks cooler in my opinion.