Ford Mustang Mach-e under x-ray. What diagnosis? - WysokieNapiecie.pl

Hell is frozen over. The icon of the American automotive industry, a company that sells over a million huge pick-ups and SUVs with several-liter engines each year, has finally started mass sales of battery-powered cars. He can already feel the breath of a small, but growing like on steroids, competitor on his neck, and legislative changes are being prepared in other markets in the world, which are to hasten the end of the oil age.

Of course, Ford, with sales of 1.8 million cars on the American market in 2021, would not have to worry about the small Tesla until today (it sold just over 300 thousand cars in its home country), if it were not for the pace of its development and the incentive to change cars. on electrics introduced on other continents. This is clearly visible on the "green" European market, where Ford with sales of 554 thousand. copies had a much smaller advantage over Tesla (168,000 cars delivered), and yet this is only one of the companies that have started to successfully chew on the American giant thanks to faster electrification of their models, with the Volkswagen group at the forefront.

The electric Ford Mach-e is to be the answer to these challenges. Is it successful? We checked this in winter tests of the version with a 294 HP engine driving the rear axle and powered by a battery with a usable capacity of approx. 88 kWh (98 kWh gross).

Stylistics

The last car we tested, which attracted the eyes of passers-by so much, was probably the Porsche Taycan. Returning to the parked Mustang, we could make bets that someone would be looking at it through the glass or exchange opinions about it. The electric Ford Mustang Mach-e is undeniably eye-catching and evokes overwhelmingly positive reactions.

It was a risk for Ford to make a crossover with the logo of the iconic sports Mustang. This concept convinces me comparable to making a small city Fiat 500 minivan L version. In both cases, they are rather variations on the iconic models, which is to help them in terms of marketing. In addition, taking into account that the classic Mustang will still be produced, it can be assumed that Ford is rather adding to the Mustang sub-brand simply another, least related to the previous models.

However, it must be admitted that the Ford designers came out unscathed from this breakneck task of linking the crossover (which customers are looking for) with the muscle car (which has been the next generations of the Mustang for years). The Mustang Mach-e has a lot of the character of a 60-year-old legend. Apart from the obvious sign of a galloping horse, Mach-e has a muscular silhouette similar to the other Mustangs, which is successfully emphasized by the embossing on the hood and the shape of the "grill". Designers also cleverly masked the crossover's higher roofline with black inserts on the sides, which create the impression that the roof falls back almost like a fastback. The youngest Mustang will also match the performance of the rest of the herd, but more on that in a moment.

Dimensions (4.7 m long, 3 m wheelbase, 1.9 m wide and 1.6 m high), the Mach-e fits in the D-SUV segment and is to compete, among others with Tesla Y, Kia EV6 or the debuting Volkswagen ID.5 and Skoda Enyaq Coupe iV.

To see inside you have to use the buttons that open the door and then open it with a small handle (on the front door) or by simply grabbing the side of the door (on the back). On the one hand, it is to reduce air resistance, and on the other, to emphasize the modernity of the model. It sounds like a pain in the ass, but it's surprisingly easy to use and intuitive. Of course, as long as the electronics work… In the Jaguar I-Pace, the electronic door opening system from the inside has let us down before. Here we have a physical link in the cabin for this, but no alternative outside. Time will show how failure-free the system will be. Contrary to appearances, it may still be a better solution than the hidden classic door handles of the new Tesla or Hyundai Ioniq 5, which can rarely freeze.

Interestingly, Ford still offers its customers lockable doors. Contrary to the buttons used so far (on the American market), in the e-Mustang we have a touch keyboard hidden in the B pillar. While in the analog buttons the varnish on those used to open the door has been peeling off for years, only slightly easier to read the code used (unless the owner has changed it), in the new version you can immediately see fingerprints, so this method of locking the car probably does not finds too many users.

Interior

The platform (GE1), heavily modified for electrics, allowed for a spacious interior and a flat floor in the rear row. There is plenty of room for passengers, but less than the exceptionally wide wheelbase and overall length would suggest (rear row legroom is 3 cm less than the Hyundai Inioniqu 5, although the latter is 10 cm shorter). This is the effect of the elongated bonnet, which gives the Ford a sporty character and refers to its predecessors. In return, however, we will get a front rack (81 liters). It will come in handy, because in the back we have only 322 liters, plus 80 liters under the boot floor.

Probably most customers will quickly forgive the Mustang little space to transport sideboards as soon as they plunge into comfortable seats, see the elegant, well-finished and well-fitted interior, embrace a massive steering wheel, look at the modern dashboard with a huge 15.5-inch screen (by 0, 5 inches larger than in the Tesla Model 3 - this is no coincidence), with an interestingly integrated knob to overclock the music and will move into the unknown. Well, maybe not completely unknown, because he's an electrician, so it's worth setting up a charging station in the navigation within a radius of 200-300 km.

Software

The on-board computer coupled with on-board navigation (no extra charge) will help in finding the latter, which together will show us a fairly precise area on the map that can be achieved with the current battery charge and current energy consumption. Of course, the navigation will also show us non-existent charging stations, will not show existing parts, skip charging connectors available on some, and mistake energy units (kWh) with power units (kW), but it will still be one of the most advanced solutions of this type available on the market today. It will show operators, inform whether they work with the Ford charging card, inform about the rates (basic, because driving a lot of electricians you buy subscriptions and get discounts).

This is just one of the many modern features that Ford has fitted as standard to every Mach-e. They include: operation, also wireless, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wi-fi hot-spot, the function of limiting the speed of the car assigned to the key, remote monitoring and management of some functions of the car and checking its charge status, the key in the phone mobile phone or remote software update.

And a small, but very useful thing on the road - showing the user both the predicted range and the percentage of battery charge. Unfortunately, the on-board clocks will not show another, equally obvious thing - after turning off the car and connecting the charger, we will not immediately receive information on the display about the charging power and the estimated time of its completion. To find out, we need to turn on the on-board systems. The use of the "Start / Stop" button is required for one more - the start of the journey. It is not enough to get in the car and choose the driving direction as in Tesla, Volvo or Volkswagen. This has both good and bad sides. It is not that simple and intuitive, but you can leave the car turned on with the heating or cooling, doing something nearby, without having to fiddle with setting the parking air conditioning, as with the aforementioned competitors.

Ford Mustang Mach-e pod rentgenem. Jaka diagnoza? - WysokieNapiecie.pl

Ride

The rear-wheel drive version of the electric Mustang, even with a throttled engine up to 294hp (216kW) peak power, is a lot of fun to drive. Something that would be considered dangerous oversteer in the competition that requires electronic correction, in the Mustang is just another piece of its DNA - you can easily enter the corner with this car sideways, so its stronger versions should give a lot of fun on the track.

This engine version will not crush us into the seat (0-100 km / h in 7 seconds), but the more powerful ones, with a 500 hp GT at the forefront (4.4 seconds to a hundred), certainly can. Nevertheless, the model we tested offers enough power to dynamically connect to motorway traffic and makes it easier to overtake well over a hundred on the dial. This is facilitated by the above-average weight of 2085 kg - of course for an electrician of this size with a 98 kWh battery. The weight of the battery can of course be felt on unevenness, but for a representative of this market segment, the suspension works very well. In contrast to competing models from Volkswagen stations, the Mach-e is already equipped as standard with disc brakes on both axles (in this version ventilated at the front), which increases safety on a longer, dynamically driven route.

The silencing of the car is decent, although at speeds exceeding 120 km / h, the acoustic comfort deteriorates significantly.

As befits the character of this car, the driver will not find the "eco" driving mode. Mustang Mach-e is to be associated with fun and driving pleasure. So for everyday driving we have the mode ... "Active". If we want to raise the pressure, we can switch to "Untamed", which gives an impression in line with its name - thanks to the greater responsiveness of the accelerator pedal, the car behaves like a kicking Mustang - eagerly responding to even the slightest touch of the accelerator pedal. Whisper mode, on the other hand, makes the gas pedal lazy and increases the power steering, giving a feeling of relaxation.

Quite brilliantly Ford engineers managed to fine-tune the recuperation mode. The car allows you to drive only with the accelerator pedal, perfectly regulating the braking force depending on the speed, up to a complete stop with the autohold function. Both in the city and on the highway, the car really allows you to forget about the brake pedal. Among the cars available on the Polish market, this function works equally well today only in Tesla and Volvo.

Energy consumption

The copy from the press park, which we had at our disposal, used an average of 21 kWh / 100 km over a distance of almost exactly 9,000 km of test drives in the autumn and winter season. A very decent result for a car of this size. Of this, 83% of electricity went to the drive, 11% to air conditioning, 3% to battery heating and the same amount for accessories (lights, music, wipers, computer). This means that it must be recharged at least every 420 km.

However, in the cold, without a garage and on short city distances, consumption has unfortunately increased significantly. This is due to the lack of a heat pump. Ford doesn't even offer it as an option. After nearly 250 km in the city at temperatures ranging from minus 5 to plus 5 degrees C, the electric consumption of the Mustang increased to 24 kWh / 100 km, which means its range is reduced to 370 km. It is at least 50 km less than it would be expected if we parked it in a garage and connect it to charging at night, while setting the morning heating of the interior directly from the electricity network.

However, on the road, i.e. when we really need a range counted in hundreds of kilometers, the lack of a heat pump is of little importance (the car heats up at the beginning and during the next hours of fast covering the next kilometers it only maintains the temperature). Then, aerodynamics is the most important thing, because it is air resistance that absorbs the most electrons - especially in winter, when the air is thicker. Of course, winter tires, wet surfaces, shorter days and much more frequent winds are not favorable. All these factors are also clearly visible in the fuel consumption of internal combustion cars, so there is nothing to write about them. In such conditions, on the 700 km from Warsaw to the Tri-City and back after the express seven, the Mustang Mach-e consumed an average of 26 kWh / 100 km. This means that on a fully charged battery it could cover this route without stopping along the way, and it is probably possible in summer. However, we did not have a fully charged battery at the start of any of the stages, and of course we preferred not to arrive at our destination with 0% of the available energy. The more so because at a constant speed of 120 km / h, Mustang's winter consumption fluctuates around 30 kWh / 100 km.

Landing

The Ford Mustang Mach-e, as befits a mid-range car, has an 11 kW charger on board, which allows you to replenish the battery at home (with power) or from the AC connector in the city within 2 hours for the next 100 km of driving. Fortunately, the car does not disconnect charging when closing and opening the locks, which happens to competitors - e.g. some Renault and BMW models. You can use the disconnect button (of course, when the car is unlocked), which makes it easier to end the charging session and quicker departure. A nice touch is also the charging level indicator at the connector, showing the battery charge level every 20%. The connector on the left side of the car at the front is a reasonable solution, although in some situations it may make charging difficult or even impossible, but unfortunately there is no ideal in this case (although the connectors on the hood are probably the most universal).

As befits a vicious steed, the Mustang can also lap electrons quite quickly in a waterhole. It is able to charge with a maximum power of 150 kW. This is the speed with which we will also charge many other cars from this and higher shelf, but it is not enough when we combine the Macha-e with the Tesla Model Y (210 kW) or the Korean siblings using 800-volt architecture (Hyundai Ioniq 5 - 220 kW, and the Kia EV6 - 230 kW). The more so that Ford was extremely careful with the use of batteries. The Americans left a high buffer (10 kWh) that drivers would not use (this is the difference between the 98 kWh gross capacity that Ford is advertising and the 88 kWh net capacity that the driver can actually use).

Theoretically, this should allow the car to be charged with high power almost to a full charge (this is how it works in Mercedes, which maintain a similar buffer, but in return charge quickly well above 90%). Meanwhile, Mach-e after 80% battery charge drastically cuts the power consumed, not only on fast chargers, but even at AC stations. This is actually an understatement - no other manufacturer on the market today offers a car that limits charging to the embarrassing 4-6 kW with the battery charged only to 83%. For comparison, the Mercedes EQC still consumes over 50 kW at 90% state of charge - ten times more than the Ford.

Fortunately, as we have already mentioned, Ford has implemented the Mach-e's ability to remotely update the software of almost all parts of the car, including the battery management system (BMS). Already in the fall, Darren Palmer, CEO responsible for electric cars at Ford, announced in an interview with the InsideEVs portal that the "charging cliff" we experienced during the tests is only an initial solution resulting from the manufacturer's maximum caution in terms of battery life (Ford guarantees, that at 150,000 km its capacity will not drop below 70%). Now Ford listens to customer expectations and makes changes. According to the first experiences of American users, changes have already taken place, and the load curve has come closer to that offered by Mercedes and many other manufacturers. It is also possible that in one of the updates Ford will also decide to reduce the buffer, offering drivers more range using the same battery.

Price

The model year 2022 Mach-e in the weakest version with a smaller battery (269 hp, 68 kWh net) starts from 223 thousand. zloty. For the version tested by us (294 hp, 88 kWh) you have to pay nearly PLN 255 thousand. zloty. For a more powerful version of the Mach-e AWD with a larger battery (351 hp, 88 kWh), you need to spend 293 thousand. PLN, and for the most powerful version, the Mach-e GT (487 HP, 88 kWh), we will pay PLN 342 thousand. zloty. Only the latter version, in terms of acceleration and real range, will compete with the basic Tesla Model Y in the Long Range Dual Motor version (441 hp, 70 kWh), valued on the Polish market at 300,000. zloty.

Weaker types of Mach-e, especially on the European market, will compete with the Volkswagen ID.5, which in the GTX version (299 hp, 77 kWh) costs PLN 244 thousand. PLN, so by slightly more than 10 thousand. PLN less than the version we tested with comparable performance, but a slightly larger real range. This is a competitive rate for a car that may turn out to be a legend like the previous Mustang one day.

To sum up

Fortunately, Ford, designing the Mustnag Mach-e, did not continue the direction of building the so-called compliance car, i.e. an electric model created almost entirely on the basis of an internal combustion model only to meet the emission requirements of the entire fleet. In the USA, the largest such market was California, for which Ford released an all-electric Focus a decade ago. Fortunately, only an average car was offered in a small amount. Therefore, he did not duplicate Mercedes' mistakes with the EQC and EQA offered by him on a larger scale, at the same time skipping the stage at which Volkswagen had already entered the medium-scale production of such cars as VW e-golf.

Thanks to the design from scratch, the Ford Mach-e is already a really well-thought-out modern crossover, offering a whole lot of modern solutions as standard. It also catches the eye like hardly any modern car. In several respects, Mach-e broke into the lead and there is a good chance that where Ford is still clearly behind the competition (see loading cliff), it will quickly pull up.

In the richest markets, where Tesla Model Y has already managed to supply buyers like a Ford Model T in the 1920s, Mach-e has a chance to fight equally with the offer of Elon Musk. In other markets, it can win the hearts of younger customers with much cheaper basic versions. Just like the Mustang did half a century ago.

This model bodes well for the electric pickup F-150 Lightning, already entering the market, which is still being built on the diesel version platform, but the Americans have already announced work on its successor, the white paper grille. The result of these works is to be available for sale in three years. At the same time, work has already started on something that will interest Europeans more - an all-electric compact. Probably another crossover, but even more affordable. The high potential for success in electrification may be one of the reasons Ford's stock has been traded on the New York Stock Exchange at most in 20 years.


How do we rate cars?

Our rating system differs from the most commonly used scores on a scale of 0-5 or 0-10. The universal rating scales do not keep up with the rapidly developing technology of electric and hydrogen cars. Therefore, we use a comparative system based on the normal distribution of certain advantages and disadvantages of new electrified car models.

The vast majority of new cars keep pace with technological or stylistic changes and are simply "well" designed. Much less often we come across "weak" or "outstanding" solutions that do not keep up with the competition or ahead of them, and quite occasionally "fatal" or "capital" solutions, which significantly differ from the current market offer in plus or minus.

We reflect the frequency of occurrence of given solutions in the form of the size of the "N" symbols (or lightning bolts) in the graphic representation of the rating. That is why the largest symbol is the "well-designed" solution in the car under evaluation, and the smallest are the "fatal" and "outstanding" solutions, which are the rarest among the current models.

Our ratings reflect what is a kind of norm at the time of writing the review. In the world of electromobility, this standard updates extremely quickly, especially in matters such as charging speed or car range. Therefore, it is worth bearing in mind that the same solution last year could still be assessed "good", but a new car with the same solution introduced to the market this year may already be rated "poorly" for the same solution, because the competition is already ahead of him with better parameters.