Electric vehicle blog

Mustang. I love the brand. I loved the association with Steve McQueen and the 1968 American neo-noir action thriller film, Bullitt, directed by Peter Yates. The San Francisco car chase is in the top five car chase sequences of all time.

In my early career in Los Angeles, I used to drive a White '69 Mustang V8 with red leather seats. It was a monster and the first automatic I had driven. Despite being automatic, I still couldn't pull off from the Marathon Rent A Car lot without the wheels squealing. It was a joy to look at and drive. Filling up with fuel, even at American prices, wasn’t such a joy.

My other Mustang experience was hiring a 90s Mustang convertible to drive the Pacific Coast Highway from Hollywood to San Francisco. What could be better cruising past Big Sur with Hotel California cranked up on the stereo. A real Mustang experience. That was the time I also experienced an earthquake in San Jose, but that’s another story.

So, for me it was very exciting to hear about an electric Mustang. But it was quite a big jump to comprehend a Mustang EV. A similar experience to getting to grips with the Porsche Taycan Turbo EV. Yes, I know how can an EV be turbo-charged?

Well, when the ‘rapid red’ Mache-E arrived, it looked good. Great colour. I was thrilled to see the registration ‘EF70 EVK’ as EVK are my initials. When I posted that Ford has great attention to detail on LinkedIn, suggesting that they gave me a personal registration, many believed it. But I must admit it did look good having two ‘EVK’ EVs on my driveway. Neighbours probably thought I had won the lottery.

It was on 90% charge, but I charged up to almost 100%. It was extremely cold and despite the quoted extended range of 379 miles, it showed a range of just over 300 miles. As I was going on a long journey to Nottingham and back, I decided to go in Whisper mode and take it easy. It took me a while to find my destination on the sat-nav which was my fault rather than the system but, in my fussing around, I forgot to check the climate control settings. This led to a warning later.

The first 100 miles of motorway driving was a breeze despite the roadworks and smart motorways. The lane assistance system was a little too sensitive for me in the narrower road works where you want to pull slightly to the right to avoid trucks encroaching on your lane.

The big screen was intuitive but aesthetically I found it a bit awkward as if you should be able to push it down and put it out of the way. But I didn’t find it a distraction. Ironically the screen shows everything, but the actual driver's dashboard is tiny and doesn't contain all that much information. I struggled slightly to even check what time it was.

On the way back from Nottingham, I decided I had enough range to have a play. I plonked it into "Untamed" mode and switched on the engine noise... turning down the radio, slowing down and then accelerating (where safe to do so) certainly brought back some of the Mustang mystique. It felt responsive and the engine noise, especially on acceleration, was almost the lower end of real but not quite. I also noticed it ate up the range in this mode... so much so that the dashboard told me to check climate settings to conserve range.

The drive is great on smooth roads but alas the rural roads of Hertfordshire and parts of the M1 are not as smooth as they could be. The vibrations come right through to the steering wheel. This was the only real downside, and I didn’t really think the change of mode made much difference.

The Mach-E boot size certainly worked for taking my son’s gubbins back to University. The boot takes 402 litres which seems adequate if not massive. There is an extra 81 litres of storage under the bonnet, which is useful for storing smaller items and the charging cables.

The driving seat and driving position are very comfortable and there is also decent head and leg room in the back.

The base list price for this model is £43,380 which, for an EV with this level of range and sophistication is very competitive. The ‘rapid red’ colour and tech pack including 360-degree camera, hands-free tailgate, B&O sound system, advanced park assist, and full panorama roof (which I loved) pushed it up to £47,530.

In conclusion this is a super-efficient, decent value for money, roomy and stylish EV with a very decent range. This will be a great car for many drivers and indeed a fabulous family car. My philosophical question though remains. Great electric "SUV" but is it a Mustang? You decide.

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