Ford Unveils Mustang-inspired Electric SUV

Ford Unveils Mustang-inspired Electric SUV

Hawthorne, Calif., seems an unlikely spot for an auto industry showdown. But it was here on Sunday night that Ford Motor Co. unveiled its first new-from-the-ground-up fully electric vehicle, the Mustang Mach-E. The event took place in a hangar just a stone鈥檚 throw from Tesla鈥檚 design center, where in a few days that EV pioneer will throw its own party for a much-anticipated pickup truck. Tesla鈥檚 truck will aim squarely at Ford鈥檚 F-150, which has been the best-selling pickup in the U.S. Some Mustang loyalists are complaining that Ford has committed sacrilege by not only electrifying the 鈥橲tang but worse, turning it into a four-door crossover people-carrier. I鈥檒l argue that it鈥檚 simply smart business to expand a beloved nameplate into a broader product lineup that includes the high-demand SUV category. Porsche fans felt the same way when the German automaker launched the Cayenne SUV, now a top seller. And this recognizes that Ford is now down to producing a small number of passenger cars.

11 billion by 2022 to do its part for the environment, including EV versions of the F-150 and Transit cargo van 鈥?in a bold rather than bland direction. The Mustang lineage is more than skin-deep: Ford has focused on performance too. Two electric motors independently power the front and rear wheels, and both rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive options will be available. The base Mach-E will have the equivalent of 332 horsepower and 417 lb-ft of torque. The top-end GT variant will pack a massive 459-horsepower equivalent and 612 lb-ft of torque 鈥?far more grunt than an F-150 can claim. Ford says the GT is capable of 0 to 60 in the mid-three-second range. The Mach-E will offer as much as 300 miles of range in rear-wheel drive dress and with the optional extended-range package. Other editions will have a minimum range of 230 miles. Through Ford鈥檚 FordPass app, owners will have access to 12,500 charging stations across the U.S. The company has already EV-trained more than 2,100 dealerships and 3,500 technicians, with more coming.

Ford has even partnered with Amazon to allow buyers to purchase home chargers online that Amazon鈥檚 delivery teams will install in your garage 鈥?and that will also carry Amazon鈥檚 90-day satisfaction guarantee. To aid customers in finding those charging stations and planning their route time accurately to include charging stops, Ford has put its next-gen Sync technology into the Mach-E. That offers 100% cloud-based connectivity enabling real-time updates. Owners can access it all through the enormous, 15.5-inch vertical center touch screen (sound familiar?). The company says that Sync鈥檚 algorithms quickly adapt to an owner鈥檚 preferences, schedules and favorite apps. And the Mach-E will be equipped to over-the-air software updates, another Tesla-esque feature. One old-school touch: a digital gauge cluster just where a driver is used to seeing it, right above the steering wheel. Sometimes when it works for buyers, don鈥檛 fix it. 7,500 federal tax credit too. 500 deposit online via a dedicated Mach-E site to reserve a vehicle.

Ford鈥檚 EV move bears a resemblance to historical roots. I鈥檒l posit that creating a Mustang SUV, and electric to boot, was just about as bold and daring a move as Ford II鈥檚 greenlighting Shelby to reinvent sports-car racing. In 2017, thanks in large part to executive vice president, president of global markets and self-identified hopeless car lover Jim Farley, Ford invested in what amounted to a start-up within the company, internally called Team Edison. Set apart from the Ford campus in a building in downtown Detroit, the cross-functional team includes designers, engineers, marketing experts and software specialists, among others. Some are lifelong Ford executives with global experience. Others are former bankers, dot-com entrepreneurs, a musician, an aerospace engineer and one rocket scientist who put a satellite into Mars鈥?orbit. Their mission was, and is, to change the way a whole new vehicle could be imagined, tested and put into production 鈥?faster, better and smarter than the company鈥檚 existing complex pipelines are able to.

鈥淲e realized that we needed to play to our strengths: SUVs, performance cars, pickups and commercial vehicles,鈥?said Ted Cannis, Ford鈥檚 global director of electrification. Key to the team鈥檚 pivot to the Mustang vision was Jason Castriota, first the head of the Mach-E project and now the global brand director for battery electric vehicles, who joined Ford in 2016 as chief of global advanced design. 鈥淛ason was a critical part of us turning in this new, more aspirational direction,鈥?Cannis said. Castriota brings to Ford and Mach-E his experience as one of the most successful supercar and hypercar designers of our times. In the early 2000s, he became the youngest head designer at Pininfarina. While there, he penned, among others, the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano and the Maserati GranTurismo. 鈥淚鈥檝e been so fortunate to realize my childhood dream and create what are, for most, unattainable exotic cars fueled by my passion,鈥?Castriota said. I鈥檓 not here to tell you that Ford has won just yet. I haven鈥檛 even driven a Mach-E myself, although I was an impressed passenger for a few high-speed, closed-track minutes with a pro Mustang race driver behind the wheel of a prototype. It鈥檚 all in the execution. For Ford, and everyone else.