The mighty Mustang has been a rampaging success for Ford since the 1960s.
Right now, it is the car to beat in the Supercars championship and reigns as Australia’s favourite sports car – ahead of the Mazda MX-5 – in showrooms.
The enduring appeal of the ’stang is as obvious as its two-door coupe bodywork and the howling thunder from its V8 engine. It’s old school, loud and proud, a car as a reward and not just a family-sized bus-mobile.
It’s battery-electric, has four doors and five seats, and even touts a ‘frunk’ for carrying stuff in the space that would normally host a muscular combustion motor.
Inside, it’s happiness and light with quality materials and lots of space. But there is no shift lever, not even a tachometer, and the historic ‘humped dash’ with analogue dials has been completely overwhelmed by an inevitable big-screen infotainment package.
It’s also priced from $65,990 with Select badges, or a whisker under $100,000 if you choose the fully-loaded GT with a 91 kiloWatt hour battery and all-wheel drive.
Those numbers mean it has to be compared with Tesla, Kia and Hyundai, in the semi-prestige area of EV motoring. It’s a tough spot, and Ford sold less than 125 of the Mach-E last year – compared with around 500 combustion runners – and is now heavily discounting the superseded Mach-E with prices slashed by around $20,000.
If that becomes a number funk, and outright confusing, let’s get back to the basics on the Mach-E.
So is it a Mustang, or a marketing move to cash-in on the history and following of one of the USA’s most iconic muscle cars? Even the name, Mach-E, is a twist on the Mach-1 model from the 1970s.
The answer, of course, is both. It’s a re-imagined Mustang for 2026 and it won’t be the last, as Chevrolet is also working on a new way to approach the ’stang’s long-time rival, the Camaro.
So we could eventually see Mustang-versus-Camaro, EV-versus-EV, in the family SUV space.
But, right now, I’m back in the Mach-E after an update late last year that added more performance and range at the bottom end, giving as much as 600 kilometres between charges.
But Ford only has a flagship AWD GT for me, which means the range indication is around 550 kilometres and I’m getting a kick from 434 kiloWatts and 955 Newton-metres.
Those numbers look like they should rival a Porsche Taycan EV for straight-line slap, but the Mustang is more genteel. It’s not about the punch you get from the old-school V8, with the focus more on refinement and range.
And the Mach-E is refined. It’s nicely quiet, the ride is smooth, and the cabin finishing is impressive.
In the real world, with a bunch of freeway running, the range is more like 450 kilometres. It’s good but not great.
Those words, really, are the sum of the car.
It’s good for what it is and what it does, and there are people who should probably consider the Ford against a Tesla.
A Mach-E could also be an ideal companion to a Mustang V8 in a typical two-car Australian garage. The EV for weekly chores and combustion for weekend fun.
If nothing else, it will be a relative rarity on Australian roads.
But the bottom line for me is simple: it’s not my Mustang.