What is Ford’s Iconic Car?

Some may say it’s the T-model car, the pioneer of automobile automation in the museum; some will say it’s the agile and easy-to-drive Fox hatchback. To me, however, the answer lies in the hundred or so films that feature it – from its logo, to its appearance, and its personality oozing with muscular power and attraction – the Mustang.

In the 57 years since its inception in 1964, the Mustang has undergone six transformations. In these six versions, the Mustang has gone from amazing to world-renowned, with a distinctive design and unique positioning as a pony car that has stood the test of time. Among the icons of Mustang history, the first-generation Mustang Mach 1, which launched in 1967, was once known as “the fastest four-seater production car of its time” and still remains a classic today.

The protagonist of this article, whose name sounds a lot like the Mustang Mach 1, has a special place in Mustang family history, second only to the first-generation Mustang.

This is a pure electric vehicle, and it’s also an SUV. It completely breaks down people’s understanding of the Mustang, but it’s also likely to be the most popular Mustang model in the future.

It is the controversial, contradictory, and transformative Mustang Mach-E.

Waiting for dispersal

A week ago, I was surprised when I received the Mach-E test drive invitation – we were going to test drive this two-tonne, nearly three-metre electric SUV on a racetrack in Chongqing. Rarely do brands hold test drives of electric SUVs on racetracks, so I began to wonder what the organizers had in mind.

Over the next few days, I browsed through some of the YouTube content related to Mach-E test drives, and found that they were almost uniformly positive, and had high praise for the driving experience. However, I have seen many previous YouTube videos that compared driving a Model 3 with other electric vehicles, but final evaluations were not consistent with my actual experience. So when I saw the phrase “Mach-E drives better than Model Y,” I approached it with a mixed sense of doubt and numbness.

Perhaps sensing our expectations, mountainous Chongqing arranged a bit of “foreplay” for us. On the day of the test drive, thick fog with less than 30 meters of visibility pervaded the entire track. Standing in the pit even made it hard to see the starting lights. Meanwhile, it continued to rain. As time passed, the fog persisted. At that moment, I began to take a closer look at the Chinese version of the deep blue Mach-E in front of me.

A Horse in the Fog

As for other aspects of Mach-E, I have many questions, but its appearance has always been the place where I appreciate the most.

In the dim light of the foggy morning, the light shining on the paint of Mach-E highlights the brightness and darkness, revealing a three-dimensional sense of structure that has only been seen under spotlights before. The protruding grille, slightly inward-pointing three-claw daytime running lights, and trapezoidal straight lines of the two-sided brake air intake give Mach-E a good start of power and muscular feel.

Moving backwards, the two sharp ridges on the hood and the design of the low middle between the protruding side arches extending from the front to the back from low to high towards both sides, with a slight downward trend, can’t help but say that this is very Mustang.

However, the side is where the design of this Mach-E is most exquisite. The real black painted roof supports the head space of the whole car as most SUVs do. The more distinctive curve under the two-color roof from the A-pillar begins to “steal beams and pillars” and becomes the main body of the roof visually. Its trend just passed the driver’s head position began to drop, and then naturally extended to the last centimeter of the water-drop-shaped tail. The smooth and complete curve not only looks satisfying but also echoes the downward edge of the car window gradually rising from the second row, giving the rear window a sharp and neat ending.

Below the rear window is the curve of the rear wheel arch, which significantly protrudes outwards, another tribute to the design of the Mustang. As for the tail, the highly recognizable transparent white three-bar taillights are painted with black piano paint on the outer circle to make them more vivid. Mach-E’s rear bumper not only painted with piano paint, which is rare, but also has six diffuser deflectors from the atmosphere group. The mental pressure in the heart is at least 50 kg more now.

Back to the front of the car, the light column emitted by the matrix LED headlights of Mach-E is neat and clear in the Dindal effect in the fog. Originally, a foggy day, which was thought to be a nightmare to shoot, actually gave this already unsociable electric horse a few more restrained and cool styles.

As I kept watching, the desire to drive grew stronger and stronger within me. I don’t know when, but most of the mist had dissipated, and turn #1 had become clear in my field of vision. With the green light from the starting area’s signal, the preamble was over.

From questioning the car to questioning myself

In life, there will be many firsts, some of which will gradually disappear over time, while others will strike the heart and leave an unforgettable memory, such as the first time I ate Chongqing’s pickled root.

Or, for example, driving this pure electric SUV on the racetrack. As someone who enjoys driving fast on a regular basis, this is actually the first time in my life that I’ve been on a proper racetrack, and I’m quite excited about it.

When I finally sat behind the wheel of Mach-E and grabbed the steering wheel, I started to think back to those reviews in the previous videos that I was uncertain about. Now that the opportunity to verify them was in my hands, I decided to set aside all my preconceptions about Mach-E before the test drive and experience it firsthand.

On the road not far from the repair shop, there was a big patch of road with potholes. When I drove over it, Mach-E’s performance was very civilized, and with a comfortable buffer and two steady “thumps,” I had a preliminary conclusion: this is a very typical comfort-oriented SUV.

“The foreign media claim to challenge Model Y’s performance, is this it?”

Because I had anticipated this “unexpected” outcome, I didn’t feel too surprised at the time, just lamenting that the Mach-E with its Mustang logo boldly displayed on the nose had betrayed itself and become indistinguishable from the masses.

I was a little lost in thought for a while, but when the vehicle entered turn #1, the lateral acceleration that was instantly created made my conclusion from the first ten seconds of driving seem even more awkward and self-righteous.

This kind of cornering action is really unreal for an SUV, so in order to confirm what was happening, I set the driving mode to the most powerful “Unbridled” mode, hoping to find answers in the next corner.

After the straightaway of a few hundred meters, this Mustang Mach-E with 285 horsepower and 430 N·m of torque, which isn’t among the top electric cars in terms of power, feels no different from a gasoline car with 285 horsepower in terms of perceived acceleration. There’s no sense of impact, but the consistency of the back-end is still decent.After going through two more turns, I realized that the performance in turn 1 was not accidental. The Mach-E has strong cornering capability, even though there is little damping in the center of the steering wheel and the initial steering response is not particularly sensitive. But when you really start to attack the turns, you will find that its directional stability is surprisingly good. The commands given by the steering wheel when entering the turn are accurately executed by the front of the car. Unless you bring the car to a stop before entering the turn, the Mach-E will not experience understeer in most cases.

After completing seven turns in one breath, I shouted out how amazing it was! This Mach-E is not an ordinary car. In a continuous combination of turns with a high altitude drop, the Mach-E’s lean is so small that it is hard to believe. You can feel that as the direction changes, the center of gravity of the car begins to shift towards the outside of the turn. At the same time, the outer body of the car does not sag. The front wheels push the car confidently towards the center of the turn.

In order to see the Mach-E’s posture outside the car, we looked back at the third angle shots. Wow, the posture of this pure electric SUV in the turns is comparable to that of the Mustang GT. The chassis in the turns is almost parallel to the ground. If you only look at the space between the wheel arch and the tire under the GoPro’s angle, you may not be able to tell when the car enters the turn. Only when the tires make a sound can you see the suspension travel lengthen or compress differently than usual.

After a few laps, I was so immersed in the excitement that I gradually forgot about the comfort of the chassis under my buttocks. It was not until I returned to the parking lot and walked across the bumpy road surface of the tire wall that I remembered with surprise that this tight chassis could still pay attention to comfort. On uneven road surfaces, the suspension did not have any extra bouncing, and the feeling of all vibrations transmitted to the interior of the car was like passing through a pair of high-end running shoes, low to the ground but not stiff.

Although they are both sports models, you cannot experience this kind of luxury and courtesy on the Model Y.A simple break before hitting the track again. This time, my focus was more on exploring the magic of this car, particularly its steering feel – the Mustang Mach-E’s steering feel, to be exact.

In regular mode, the Mach-E’s steering is friendly and doesn’t engage in some heavy artificial damping like certain cars in order to deliberately create a sporty feel. But in unbridled mode, the steering feel becomes just the right amount of weighty. It’s not the traditional American heavy feel, but gradually increases linearly with the number of turns and the increasing force of suspension compression feedback.

It’s feedback that can give the driver a sense of trust. In a turn, all steering movements don’t require any guidance. I just need to follow my driving instincts, and the steering will be smooth as can be.

But there’s more to the Mach-E that makes it so delightful. With its flexible chassis tuning, excellent steering feel, and 285 horsepower rear-wheel drive, what more could you ask for?

On turn 14 of the track, a nearly 180-degree turn, you can see how the steering and chassis work together in the turn. The car can constantly tell the driver a very clear status. Through lateral acceleration, suspension compression, steering feedback, rear tire noise, and many other dimensions, I can feel how much grip the vehicle has left, the direction of the tail, and when I should turn. These sensations are enough to inspire even more driving desire.

As I leave turn 14, I am naturally inclined to try and make the Mustang do even greater things. As expected, when I press on the accelerator and the weight shifts to the rear, the tail starts to progressively slide beyond the limit of its grip, with tire noise and a smile spreading across my face.

Additionally, at a time where physical buttons are quickly being replaced by touch controls, Mach-E has a reachable physical ESP OFF button specifically in the area where we control the headlights. Pressing the button and hitting the accelerator, the instant torque from the motor easily makes the rear tires slide. After a series of “routine operations” on the track, something unexpected happened – our sports camera mounted outside the car, along with its suction cup and strong adhesive, flew off the car due to centrifugal force and scattered on the track. This was the first time that had happened while we were filming.

For someone like me who has never been on a racetrack before, regenerative braking is quite useful on the track. When you are not used to braking with your left foot like a race car driver, releasing the accelerator pedal and engaging regenerative braking immediately takes effect, with very timely responsiveness and very linear braking force. At this point, move your right foot to the brake pedal and press down with full force. The calipers with 4 pistons in the opposite direction will quickly stop the vehicle. Thanks to the excellent support and rebound settings of the front suspension, there was no clumsy nodding during the process, everything was still progressive and predictable as when cornering.

After a few laps, when I got out of the Mustang Mach-E in the maintenance area, I didn’t have the feeling of weak legs like when getting out of a go-kart. The joy that this car gave me did not require me to give it my all, which is what’s expected from a large space four-door sport SUV.

Half an hour later, I still couldn’t get over the experience on the track. Looking back at the Mustang Mach-E, I couldn’t believe that this pure electric SUV could have such charm. I have never felt this kind of pleasure before in any electric vehicle.

Beyond driving, it’s not just driving

As a pure electric vehicle, without a high-displacement engine and gearbox, Mustang Mach-E has lost the roar of an internal combustion engine and the pleasure of shifting gears. However, electrification has also brought many things that Mustang has never achieved.

The shorter front and rear suspensions give the Mach-E a wheelbase of 2,984 mm. Its rear seats are no longer a “storage room”, and I, a person with a height of 176 cm, found the rear space to be comfortable and spacious. With a long wheelbase of 2,984 mm, a large 80.3 kWh battery is fitted, and the RWD version tested this time can achieve a maximum CLTC range of 619 km.

Moreover, the electric-powered Mach-E is quieter than any other Mustang, and its electric characteristics allow the car to achieve a better balance between driving pleasure and practicality than a gasoline car.

Thanks to its pure electric platform, this SUV not only has a huge rear trunk, but also a front trunk, among the largest in its class, that drains water. Therefore, the Mach-E easily becomes the Mustang with the largest loading capacity ever.

In this smart age, Mustang Mach-E defines a new meaning for the word “user-friendly”. Equipped with L2 level intelligent driving assist hardware as standard and combined with BlueCruise, which utilizes precise maps and driver monitoring technology, the vehicle can maintain control without frequent steering wheel input, avoiding distracted driving.

The SYNC+ 2.0 system, developed jointly with Baidu for the intelligent cabin of this car, features many localized applications. When using “Dianma Tongxue”, the wake-up success rate and processing speed are decent.

The smoothness of the car’s computer system is another pleasant surprise of the Mach-E. The built-in Snapdragon 820A chip has extremely fast response under its 15.5-inch screen, and is among the top in the cars we’ve tested, even competing with the gold standard, the Model Y.

In terms of charging, Ford has already incorporated over 340,000 high-quality public charging stations and over 220,000 DC fast charging stations onto its platform, which can be conveniently used with the special adapters for plug-and-charge experience like Tesla’s Supercharger.

Overall, even without the Mustang label, the Mach-E is still a well-equipped electric SUV.

From Ford

For car enthusiasts, Mustang is undoubtedly one of the representative names of American muscle cars. Nowadays, after integrating pure electric energy, the Mach-E has not lost its Mustang genes. When you observe the details of this car, you will find that every detail tells you this is a Mustang.

Therefore, the car has angular and muscular lines, with all the millimeter-wave radars hidden under the body, steering clear of the cliché of LED light bars, unsightly closed low-drag wheels, and a grille-less design.As an electric vehicle, the Mach-E needs to optimize low air resistance. Therefore, Ford has adopted a door handle-free design instead of a pop-up door handle and a closed grille instead of no grille.

Ford did not want the Mach-E to have too many deliberate “electric car” elements. For the Mach-E, a higher priority is being a good-looking Mustang.

This soul is still manifested in the fact that Ford has really brought driving pleasure to the Mach-E. The engineers responsible for the Mach-E chassis are chief engineers for the Mustang and also the head of Ford’s performance department. They have previously developed the performance of legendary models such as the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 and GT500. The development of the vehicle’s dynamic components is also tuned by engineers using track simulators.

In this electric era, Ford has also continued its traditional craftsmanship as an old-fashioned traditional car manufacturer in the design of the Mach-E, with various meticulous considerations.

In terms of safety, the Mustang Mach-E was selected as a TOP SAFETY PICKs by IIHS in 2021, with almost all aspects performing exceptionally well to ensure passenger safety. It also dispels concerns that electric vehicles are not safe.

The NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) performance is also impressive. Sitting in the car and closing the door feels like you have turned on the active noise-cancelling headphones. Rolling down the window, the double-layer laminated glass is indeed as I expected. When the vehicle is operating, the wind and motor noise are well handled. It is worth noting that we can open the simulated sound waves in the car to add a bit of driving passion.Translate the following Chinese text in Markdown format to English Markdown format, preserving the HTML tags inside the Markdown. Only output corrections and improvements in professional language, without explanations.

Ford’s demand for electrification is a top-level architectural feature of their product which aims to provide customers with Ford’s essence in the form of electrification, rather than blindly following others. By combining the performance of electric cars and Mustangs, we can see that Ford has created a unique, emotional and non-instrumental product.

Final Thoughts

55 years ago, Ford spent 360 million pounds to defeat Ferrari at Le Mans. This becomes a great tale in the history of automobiles. Today, Ford plans to invest more than 30 billion US dollars in the field of electrification by the end of 2025, as a transition.

Mach-E, as the starting point of Ford’s electrification, had made me skeptical before test-driving it. Before testing, I thought that Mustang Mach-E was a curious car full of unknowns and mixed emotions.

When I drove Mach-E with the question “Why did Ford put a Mustang label on Mach-E?” in my mind, my doubts were gradually dispelled by those enjoyable turns and those touching details–Ford was trying to redefine itself.

Mustang Mach-E brings driving pleasure that is rare in its class. Compared to Tesla, it has a more balanced and inclusive driving experience. It is more fun in the turns and more “graceful” under bumps. Moreover, its appearance is highly recognizable and leaves a deep impression in people’s minds.

This is a rare car on the current market that truly has character and balances practicality with more enjoyable driving performance than Tesla in its class, while still being priced reasonably.

Ford’s decision to label Mach-E with Mustang was multi-dimensional: it was a bet, a proclamation, and a confidence that Ford can create an electric car that is enjoyable to drive.

The Mustang label also means rebellion and resistance. This rebellion and resistance is against the prejudice of the world. Who says traditional car companies cannot make good electric cars? Who says Ford does not dare to revolutionize itself?

For consumers, the Mustang label on Mach-E also signifies a display of individuality: embracing the era, not afraid to become the center of attention, more willing to showcase their abilities and charm in the spotlight.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.