It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that the fabled Mustang name is misplaced on an electric SUV. Us enthusiasts are a fickle lot sometimes, and I don't doubt it makes for some utter headaches for those working in product planning and marketing at car companies.
However, in a recent podcast by The Spectator featuring marketing mastermind Rory Sutherland about Jaguar's controversial rebrand, Sutherland makes a good point: "You've got to be very, very careful as a car manufacturer listening too much to car people, because car obsessives often know too much about cars to actually be helpful. They obsess about things that ordinary car buyers are completely indifferent about."
Clearly, Ford stood by this line of thinking when creating the Mustang Mach-E GT you see here. There's no two-door muscle car body or rowdy V8 here – just a pair of electric motors and a smattering of prancing horse badging. If you think that was a cynical failure at trying to reposition a brand, consider this: in that same podcast, Rory Sutherland mentions that he drives a Mach-E, so it can't be such an advertising misstep as most are making it out to be.
Don't get ahead of yourself and think that this magically feels like a muscle car, because it doesn't. It's not trying to feel like one, and that's the whole point. Don't think of it as being the most sacrilegious vehicle to bear the Mustang name either – the four-pot 'Fox body' exists.
The proportions may seem awkward in over-edited press kit photos like many new cars tend to, but it looks surprisingly good in person to me. There are shades of Jaguar I-Pace to its side profile, while it's every bit a Mustang up front. The GT model's flash 20-inch alloys, red Brembo brake calipers, and Grabber Blue paintwork only lift it even higher.
On the inside, it feels quite European in a way, with Alcantara and cloth surfaces, crystal-clear high-res displays, and aggressive-looking bucket seats which threw me a little at first but very quickly became easy to settle into.
"Still, it's not a Mustang!" I hear you cry, and you're right, it isn't. It isn't trying to be, remember? And it's no Mustang when you get it out on the road, either, because it's much, much faster.
Thanks to a monstrous 860Nm of instantaneous torque, it dashes from 0-100km/h in 3.7 seconds, which is a 0.6 second improvement on the automatic Mustang GT and almost a second quicker than the manual. Curiously, it feels more progressive than you might expect, with the power swelling in the progressive and predictable way you'd expect from a V8.
With how quickly it can deliver the full hoof-stomp of its torque, it's easy to engage a controlled powerslide even with constant all-wheel drive, while the steering feels a little bit more lively than many other performance EVs.
And when you think about the badge itself, what does a horse represent? Performance, yes, but also equal parts capability, elegance, and intelligence. This is something that was on full display when I took the Mach-E for a somewhat tongue-in-cheek visit to Hallmark Farm, an equestrian centre operated by Kirby Park Stud proprietor Megan Jones who won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in equestrian team eventing.
While she was busy working with horses that are already being trained up for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, one of her students loaned a few minutes with his beautiful white horse for a quick canter around their training field before his next lesson to get these two stallions pictured side-by-side.
The thing that dawned on me as I got the car positioned for these shots was that it does actually match all four of those qualities. There was a massive dip on the entryway to this field – it's not exactly built for cars to go in there, after all – which no ordinary Mustang would ever clear, but this did. Combine this capability with the elegance of its silent on-road presence and MegneRide suspension, its intelligent and adaptable drivetrain settings that go all the way up to 'Untamed', and the immense performance a vehicle with this much torque can deliver, and the verdict at least became very clear for me.
Ford aren't horsing around by placing a Mustang badge on the front of this, then, because clearly it's every bit a performance car. If you open your mind a bit, 'Mustang' now starts to mean performance generally more than just 'pony car', as die-hards love to insist on calling it. The definition of what constitutes a Mustang has changed a lot over the years – the original started out in life with a straight-six engine – so in a way, it's actually only natural that it would evolve into this.
And what it has evolved into is an absolutely fantastic car, at least in my opinion. Among journo colleagues and other car enthusiasts I talk to, it seems to be a very Marmite vehicle, but having actually driven it back to back with some other performance EVs, consider me sold.
2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT
MSRP (AUD): $104,990
Engine: Dual electric motors, 91kWh lithium-ion battery pack
Transmission: 1-speed automatic
Drivetrain: AWD
Power: 385kW // 487PS
Torque: 860Nm // 634lb-ft
Acceleration (0-100km/h // 0-62mph): 3.7 seconds
Top Speed: 200km/h // 124mph
Weight (kerb): 2281kg
Economy: 25.0kWh/100km (as tested over 606km)
