Inevitably, the first images and details of Ford’s all-electric Mustang Mach-E SUV have leaked onto the internet. US website Jalopnik reported last night on the first view of Ford’s critical first modern step into the electric age.
Discovered by an online Mach-E forum, the first photos show a compact SUV, with a low-slung roofline and several styling details lifted from the Mustang coupe. Those include the headlights, the blanked-off grille, and the distinctive ‘three-bar’ rear lights.
Many traditional Mustang fans will doubtless be upset by the appellation of the name to an electric SUV, but for Ford it’s a no-brainer. The company is effectively moving away from making saloons, coupes, and smaller cars in favour of an all-SUV lineup, and the appeal and recognition of the Mustang name is seen as crucial to making that transition.
It’ll certainly go like a Mustang. The leak details a 0-60mph time of 3.5 seconds, which suggests that it should hit 100km/h from rest in less than 4.0secs.
It will come with a choice of rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive and the longest range model will be extended range rear-drive version. Under the American EPA test that records a range of 300-miles, which would suggest a range of more than 550km under European WLTP test conditions. The shortest range variant will go for around 230-miles, or probably around 400km under European conditions.
The Mach-E will be capable of ultra-rapid charging, if you can find a high output charger. Ford claims that it will be able to add around 80km of range for every ten minutes on charge a fast charger.
Inside, the cabin layout clearly copies the car's most significant rival, Tesla. It uses an all-digital layout, with an instrument panel in front of the driver and a huge central touchscreen, in the style of the Tesla Model S.
It will be more of a Model 3 rival in terms of price though. Pre-incentive US prices kick off at $43,000 which would suggest an Irish price of less than €50,000 once grants are included. That’s assuming the car comes to this market at all (it is expected to) which will be in 2021 at the earliest.
The Mach-E name is a reference back to distant Mustang history, a call-back to the high-performance Mustang Mach-1 models of the 1970s.
