Mustang Mach-E—Is It Worthy of the Mustang Name?

Since its debut in 2019, the Ford all-electric SUV Mustang Mach-E has been the subject of much attention. Firstly, as the first pure electric vehicle of Ford after the company’s 100-year journey, and secondly, the use of the iconic Mustang brand for electric vehicles has caused heated debates.

On April 13th, the Chinese-made Ford Mustang Mach-E officially went on sale, with five versions available:

September 13th saw the long-awaited test drive of the Chinese-made Ford Mustang Mach-E.

Is It Worthy of the Mustang Name?

Although the future belongs to electric vehicles, gasoline vehicles still dominate the market. More than 80% of traditional car manufacturers’ revenue comes from gasoline vehicles, which is the mainstay of their business. As such, many car companies choose to create a new brand as the carrier of electric vehicle transformation to demonstrate their new identity. This approach also avoids affecting existing gasoline vehicle operations. Examples are seen in Volkswagen’s “ID” series and Toyota’s “bZ” series.

However, Ford chooses to use its own iconic Mustang brand as a pioneer in electric vehicle transformation. This is demonstrated by the Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, and E-Transit. These products cover the flagship vehicles in the passenger car, pickup truck, and commercial vehicle fields. The company’s determination and will in electric vehicle transformation are undeniable.

The Mustang Mach-E caused controversy when it was first released. Jimmy Dinsmore, a well-known American automotive journalist and a die-hard fan of Mustang’s gasoline vehicles, claimed that using the Mustang name and logo on a four-door crossover vehicle, or more accurately, an SUV, is a sacrilege and insult to this legendary brand.# Jimmy Dinsmore Calls for the Elimination of the Mustang Name from Mach-E

Jimmy Dinsmore has launched a petition online, calling for the removal of the Mustang name and badges on the Mach-E. As of August this year, the petition has garnered nearly 20,000 signatures.

In response to this controversy, Ford stated officially that “the number of early adopters of electric vehicles who are attracted to the Mustang name far outweigh those who are vehemently opposed to the idea and vow not to buy a Ford vehicle again”.

As Ford mentioned, on the one hand, the renowned Mustang brand can bring enough attention to the Mach-E. On the other hand, by boldly creating Mach-E as an SUV, Ford aims to get out of the niche sports car market that has been shrinking and enter the largest segment in the United States, the Crossover market. This logic also applies to China and Europe, and the best example in the electric vehicle industry is the Tesla Model Y, whose production capacity is catching up with and even surpassing that of the Model 3.

However, the Mach-E, now an SUV, still retains as much of the Mustang’s essence as possible in its design. The elongated front trunk and large-diameter, slanted A-pillar enable the driver’s seat to be shifted backward and closer to the center of the vehicle, a notable characteristic of a sports car. The iconic triple LED taillights and pony badge also reflect the Mach-E’s identity as a member of the Mustang family.

The most refined design of the Mach-E is its styling. The two-tone body with a black glass roof creates the impression of an extremely sleek Coupe, with classic GT muscle lines reminiscent of the Mustang. Meanwhile, the practical form of an SUV, combined with a low-e coating on the roof glass to block UV rays, provides ample headroom for rear passengers, and the short overhang and long wheelbase of the electric platform can ensure legroom in the back seat even with the driver’s seat moved back.Through the collaboration of electric cars’ space advantages and designers’ clever designs, beauty and utility are compatible in Mach-E.

If you are not an absolute diehard fan of the GT muscle car, you should not reject Mach-E’s design, especially since the domestic version comes standard with the appearance of the American version of the Mach-E GT.

Tuning Proficiency

As the Mach-E GT is still in the engineering tuning stage, we drove the long-endurance rear-wheel-drive version this time, which was a little regretful because we could not experience the acceleration of 3.65 seconds per hundred kilometers.

However, when we drove the Mach-E on the track, we still felt the surprises brought by this “electric horse”. This is a rare and mature sports-tuned electric car. You can already tell from the details such as the driver’s seat position and the front wheel’s standard Brembo all-aluminum four-piston brake calipers.

On the Mach-E, you can feel the feeling of the classic “European sports car model” of the Ford family, the Focus ST, but as the first mass-produced car model exclusively simulated and tuned by Ford’s global performance car team, Mach-E’s performance is actually beyond expectations.

On the track, we can clearly feel the tightness of the Mach-E’s chassis, which can effectively suppress rolling even during high-speed cornering. At the same time, the Mache-E has “whisper”, “thrilling”, and “uninhibited” driving modes. In the corresponding intense driving “uninhibited” mode, the steering wheel damping will be relatively large to ensure directional stability.

Moreover, it is even more commendable that Mach-E does not sacrifice comfort excessively to achieve the sports-tuned suspension. It will convey road information to you clearly but will not bring a kind of unyielding “stiff” feeling.

To elaborate, “mature tuning” is still a relatively scarce quality in the current field of electric vehicles. Although theoretically, the total score of sports and comfort is 100 points, and one more point of sports will reduce one point of comfort, mature car companies often try to balance sports and comfort to the maximum extent, rather than simply specializing in one aspect. This is also the tuning proficiency that we expected from a car company of Ford’s level before the test drive.One point that is worth mentioning about driving pleasure is that the Mach-E will provide Mustang V8 engine simulation sound, and the Mach-E’s sound is delicate and intelligent. On the one hand, it will not abruptly disturb the quietness inside the car, and on the other hand, it will change with the state of the vehicle, rather than being a soulless roar.

The advent of electric vehicles has opened the curtain of power accessibility. A 300,000-yuan electric vehicle can have acceleration capabilities comparable to million-dollar luxury cars. However, “fast acceleration” does not represent all the driving pleasure. When users gradually get used to the acceleration ability of electric vehicles, they may start to seriously consider a more controllable and fun electric vehicle. At present, the Mach-E is a good reference option.

As a pure electric vehicle, the Mach-E provides a single-pedal mode, and the intensity of its kinetic energy recovery intervention will be adjusted according to the driving mode. At the same time, the Mach-E’s kinetic energy recovery intervention is not abrupt. Its logic is similar to releasing the fuel pedal of a gasoline car. The braking process has a gradually increasing process, and there is a sliding feeling similar to that of a gasoline car in the initial stage.

Mach-E’s kinetic energy recovery system may be liked by some users because it can truly reduce the adaptation cost from gasoline cars to electric cars. However, the test drive we experienced was still an engineering vehicle that cannot be driven on public roads. We need to wait for the mass-produced version to see how Mach-E performs on urban roads.

Smart Features Worth Looking Forward To

In terms of intelligent assisted driving, equipped with one monocular, one in-car monitoring camera, four panoramic cameras, five millimeter-wave radars, and 12 ultrasonic radars, the domestic Ford Mach-E can achieve L2 level intelligent assisted driving, and can be equipped with Co-Pilot360 intelligent driving assistance upgrade package with BlueCruise function.

Smart cockpit is my focus of attention. One of the biggest differences between the domestic Mach-E and the American version is the operating system of the smart cockpit. Although they have the same hardware configuration of Qualcomm Snapdragon 820A chip and a 15.5-inch center console screen with a resolution of 1920*1200, the system used by the American version Mach-E is SYNC 4A, while the domestic Mach-E is equipped with SYNC+ 2.0 system developed by Ford in collaboration with Baidu.Ford’s SYNC system was developed in 2007 and has now been iterated to version 4.0. SYNC 1.0 and 2.0 were built on Windows CE. Starting in 2015, SYNC 3.0 and 4.0 switched to the BlackBerry QNX system. SYNC 3.0 was also launched in China in 2016 on Taurus, but Ford soon realized the two major problems with SYNC.

For an operating system, ecosystem development is actually the most important, whether it’s mobile or in-car. Both the Windows CE and BlackBerry QNX-based systems are closed, which doesn’t attract developers to co-build the ecosystem. In addition, the user experience for in-car systems in the Chinese and American markets is different, with differences in functionality and entertainment, and localization is crucial.

So Ford turned to the Android ecosystem, and the next generation of the operating system will be built on Android Automotive OS. As for localization, Ford looked to Baidu, a company that focuses on intelligent automotive technology, and one that needs the ability to develop systems and ecosystems, and the ability to sell products to the automotive industry. The two companies signed a strategic cooperation agreement in 2018 to jointly develop SYNC+ system.

In the cooperation between Baidu and Ford, Baidu will be based on the Apollo Xiaodu in-car system to assist in the construction of the SYNC underlying system, provide Baidu Maps, AI voice interaction and other technical capabilities, and import iQiyi and other Baidu ecological products.

The accumulation of Ford’s own experience and the empowering technology ecosystem of Baidu are reflected in the product, and the SYNC+ 2.0 system on the Mach-E may be the most user-friendly in-car system among current joint venture brands.

First of all, the fluency of SYNC+ 2.0 is excellent, with no lag when calling up control functions and sliding the main interface function card, but of course this is only a basic requirement. Secondly, the layout of the SYNC+ 2.0 main interface page, including the display of vehicle settings, driving mode selection and other functions, as well as the arrangement of home page function cards, is also set by Ford based on the usage habits of SYNC+ users.

Mach-E can adjust the air conditioning, seat heating, and open QQ music functions through voice, which is also a decent performance among joint venture brands. However, Mach-E does not support visible communication or continuous conversation, but these can be achieved through OTA upgrades later on.The OTA feature that is also worth looking forward to on the Mach-E should include the “floating button” function. This floating button on the main control screen should be unique to the Mach-E. After playing with it, you will easily fall in love with the mechanical sound and damping sensation of this knob’s “click-click”.

Besides the pleasure it brings in terms of touch and sound, the greater significance of the floating button should be “multi-modal control”. In the era of software-defined cars, physical buttons have been replaced by touch screens. However, an indisputable fact is that the convenience of adjusting functions such as air conditioning temperature and audio volume through a touch screen is far less than that of physical buttons, such as adjusting the volume through the Mach-E’s floating button.

Furthermore, although voice interaction is gradually maturing, there are still scenarios in which other passengers rest in the car and voice interaction is not suitable. Therefore, a multi-modal interaction with stronger convenience is significant.

Imagine that while in default mode, Mach-E’s floating button can adjust the volume. Switching to the air conditioning interface, you can rotate the knob to adjust the temperature. And, the floating button can be pressed. Can you switch to adjusting the air volume by pressing it once, and then rotate the knob again to select the air outlet mode by pressing it once more?

On the menu page, “rotate” to select the function, and “press down” the knob to confirm?

However, Mach-E’s floating button currently only supports rotating to adjust the volume, without corresponding functions for pressing, and improving the experience of controlling the floating button to call up and control the multiple software functions also requires deeper system capabilities.

Fortunately, Ford can cooperate with Baidu, so there is no need to worry about system capabilities. Moreover, thanks to Ford’s FNV (Fully-Networked Vehicle) electronic and electrical architecture, Mach-E can achieve FOTA firmware online upgrades, providing more possibilities for upgrading intelligent cabins and intelligent driving.

Conclusion

The Mustang Mach-E is the pioneer of Ford’s century-old electrification transformation, and we can also see Ford’s determination and will in choosing the Mustang brand.

Even Jimmy Dinsmore, an original Mustang enthusiast, had to admit Ford’s courage and changed his wording to say “calling this important car a Mustang is actually an honor for the Mustang brand”. Finally, he withdrew his petition.From the design of the whole vehicle to the creation of driving pleasure, Ford’s devotion to Mach-E is evident. However, a major problem facing the domestic Mach-E is that it entered the market late, with mass production and delivery in China being delayed for a year compared to the United States. This not only caused it to miss an important starting point of the Chinese electric vehicle market in 2020-2021, but also puts its consumer reputation, which is crucial for electric vehicles, at a disadvantage due to its late arrival. Additionally, with new and powerful products constantly emerging in the rapidly evolving field of new energy, the domestic Mach-E is facing increasing competition.

However, we can also see Ford’s determination and action from its localization research and development capabilities, embracing the change to a direct-sales business model, timely responding to market changes by launching a long-endurance SE version, and creating open local cooperative charging stations.

According to official sources, by the end of this year, more than 20 Ford city experience stores will be launched. Would you like to experience this electric vehicle that offers unique driving pleasure?

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.