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2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E I FIRST LOOK
eep underground at Ford’s Product hatchback looks just as dorky as the other didn’t want to buy it, in a decision that
Development Center, a large three compliance vehicles. went all the way up to Bill Ford, the Blue
studio has been converted into Back in 2014, Ford saw the writing on Oval decided to put a pony on its first
an “immersion room,” its tempo- the wall; the decision was made to go elec- proper, mass-market electric vehicle.
rary walls papered with endless tric. We were shown a quarter-scale clay Meet the newest member of the
D PowerPoint slides. Normally, vision model of an equally dorked-out, front- Mustang family, the Ford Mustang
boards like this are a clear indication that wheel-drive CUV that was set to go into Mach-E.
both imagination and inspiration were production right around now. Luckily for A Mustang-badged electric vehicle?
snuffed out of the project three months in. car enthusiasts, smarter and cooler heads And an SUV, at that? Really? Yeah, for
But then something caught my eye—a intervened. real. Ford leveraged the brand’s great
slide titled “Winning Will Not Be Driven Instead of delivering an electric car that strengths—namely, the fact that almost
by Compliance.” Ford didn’t want to build to dealers who every person on earth likes the Mustang.
Below the headline were four cars: a didn’t want to sell it to customers who Not only that (and I found this next part
BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, Chevy Bolt EV, particularly gratifying to learn), but
and an electric Ford Focus. Although I performance car customers are also
strongly dislike the poor-driving i3, have much better educated about battery
forgotten about driving the Leaf as many electric vehicles (BEVs) than the average
times as I’ve driven it, and imagine that a car buyer.
small battery shoved into a Focus would One of the hurdles to BEV adoption is
be ho-hum, I genuinely like the Bolt. We the persistent myths about cars powered
voted it our 2017 Car of the Year. So why by batteries. A few Ford shared with
was it on this slide? Then it hit me: As us: 92 percent of new car buyers think
good as the Bolt might be, Chevy’s electric electric cars are toylike; 75 percent
Door handles? You don’t need no stinkin’ door handles.
Ford has ditched ’em in favor of buttons. One reason
why is that children find handles difficult.
Fully electric. The Mach-E doesn’t
use any gasoline, and it never will.
Also, Amazon will come to your
house and install a charger.
THE MACH-E DOESN’T DEVELOP
POWER IN A WAY ANY MUSTANG HAS
—AND THAT’S NOT A BAD THING.
FEBRUARY 2020 MOTORTREND.COM 31
