Ford Mustang Mach-E GT Review

Introduction

There’s a lot to like about the regular Ford Mustang Mach-E. It’s an electric SUV that looks like a coupe on steroids, and with as much as 351hp on tap, it’s just about worthy of wearing the Mustang name.

Others were less certain, however, suggesting that a Mustang needs to be a full-on performance car if it’s going to have the pony logo on the grille. Seemingly Ford agreed, so it upped the power to 487hp, added a 'GT' badge, and sharpened up the chassis.

We drive it and find out if it’s enough to take the fight to Tesla or if it falls at the last hurdle.

At a Glance

The Mustang name conjures up a specific aesthetic; muscular, low-slung and looks a million dollars. At 4.7 metres long, it’s still a big, US-style car, but it’s a tall SUV rather than a sleek sports car. Still, some clever styling cues mask its bulk, while the front and back ends have classic Mustang flourishes to reinforce the ambition.

In fact Ford has tried hard with the design, even making the roof look like it’s steeply raked towards the rear. It’s not; it’s a styling trick using some black paint to create a coupe-like line, but it shows the desire to keep that Mustang link. It works, making the car look surprisingly svelte, despite its bulk.

The Mach-E GT extends that a little, with some additional styling cues — you’ll notice the unique honeycomb grille that’s a nod to Mustang GTs of the past, but might miss the 20-inch alloy wheels that sit slightly wider under the wheel arches, hiding 19-inch Brembo brakes. It also sits 11mm lower than the regular model, giving it a more purposeful stance.

But what really matters is what’s underneath the skin, and you’ll find a pair of electric motors in the GT. Both produce 296hp, but thanks to how these things work in practice, you ‘only’ get 487hp to play with.

The conversion to GT-spec doesn’t affect the practicality of the Mustang Mach-E, which remains a comfortable, spacious and refined car to drive.

Key Features

Ford is really focusing on connecting its vehicles, from vans monitored using a Ford Liive (yes, ii) control centre, to the Mustang Mach-E GT featuring a digital cabin and connected Sync 4 software.

What does that mean in the real world? The Mach-E GT can be connected to the cloud, which, at its most basic level, allows for advanced route planning and conversational voice recognition.

Beyond that, the Mach-E GT can be enhanced throughout its time with you without needing dealer visits. Over-the-air updates will upgrade the onboard software, improving reliability and quality, and potentially introducing new features or improved performance. Most of these updates install automatically, but it’ll also be possible to download them over Wi-Fi at a time and place that suits you.

To hammer home the point, since I drove the Mach-E GT, Ford has updated the infotainment system so that the large dial can be used to adjust the cabin temperature, a feature missing during my time with the car.

A smartphone app, FordPass, adds more features, although many are somewhat redundant; using your phone to lock, unlock or even locate your car is fine for a party trick, but the ability to plan journeys and have charging stops calculated and plotted along the route is a genuine help. An ‘Intelligent Range’ feature also displays charge levels and remaining driving distance.

Performance & Drive

With 487hp available from the twin electric motors and an impressive torque figure of 860Nm, the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT should be rapid. And it is; the 0-62mph dash takes 4.4 seconds, and it’ll go on to 124mph. Tearing away from the lights on Huntingdon ring road is always entertaining, although it comes with a catch.

That catch isn’t just reduced range from abusing all the ions in the battery pack. That abuse causes heat, which the Ford protects itself from by reducing the power available. It’ll never be a problem in day-to-day use, but you might find that enthusiastic drives are artificially limited.

Three driving modes encourage (or discourage) taking advantage of the power available. Whisper mode isn’t quite as discreet as KITT’s silent mode (that's one for you 80s kids out there), but it tones down the performance, cuts the piped-in false engine noise, and changes the interior lighting to something soothing. Active adds a bit more of everything and is the ‘normal’ drive mode you’ll be in, while Untamed removes all the power limits and turns the simulated exhaust noise up to the max. Finally, there’s an Untamed Plus mode, as if Untamed was still too restrictive. Designed for track use, this unlocks everything and pushes more power to the car's rear.

Handling is fine, helped by adaptive suspension, but it’s never engaging. The sheer weight of the car — it weighs in at two and a quarter tonnes — leaves it feeling a tad lethargic in corners, especially mid-turn, but wide, low profile tyres and a slightly wider track than the regular car aids stability.

In a straight line — or cruising down the motorway — it’s a comfortable, refined and relaxed car to drive. As that's where most will spend their time in the car, that’s a very positive thing.

Running Costs

The highest cost of running a Mustang Mach-E GT will be your monthly lease payments, which are significant. That’s thanks to Ford pricing the GT rather robustly, pitching it head-to-head with the likes of the Porsche Taycan. Strong expected residual values keep rates lower than they could be, which is a positive.

Use the performance available, and your battery won’t last too long. Officially, it’ll manage 304 miles on a charge, and you’ll likely be able to get close to that under light use. However, this is the Mach-E GT, and there’s every chance you’ll be tempted to use the 487hp and drain the battery rather quickly! Expect between 2.5 and 3.0 miles per kWh on a cruise, which gives a range of 273 miles. To find out more about how estimated range will effect your driving? We've got a guide to help you compare official v. real-world battery range.

Recharging is easy, with the car taking a top-up at 150kW. Find a suitable rapid charger — and there are plenty on the main routes across the country — and you’ll be able to top up from 10% charge to 80% in under half an hour. Need to get the most out of every charge? Take a look at our guide on picking your ideal EV charger.

Car tax is set at zero, for now, as it is for all electric cars. Company car drivers will also face a BIK burden of just 2%, or less than £600 a year for 40% taxpayers.

Visits to your local dealer will be few and far between, as servicing is required just once every two years or 18,000 miles. It’s entirely possible that you’ll need just one service over the period of a lease. Warranty cover lasts just three years, with a 60,000-mile limit, which isn’t particularly generous, but extending that to cover individual needs is possible.

Interior

There’s one dominant feature inside the Mach-E GT, and that’s the enormous 15.5-inch infotainment screen stuck in the centre of the dashboard. Virtually every one of the vehicle’s functions is accessible through this screen, but to avoid people like me bemoaning the lack of buttons, it’s managed to attach a physical rotary dial on the screen itself to offer some tactile opportunities.

The software running it all is Ford’s Sync 4, which is a neat, tidy and attractive package and works well across Ford’s range of other vehicles. The problem with the Mustang Mach-E is, surprisingly, that the screen is just too large. Tackling button presses while driving is tricky on any touchscreen, but you have to stretch to reach some of the Ford’s features, which means you concentrate more on the screen than the road.

There’s a lot of information on there, too, some hidden away in multiple submenus. Arguably, that’s because the instrument panel in front of the driver is so small. That’s neat, and it usually shows the information you really need, but it seems like a missed opportunity.

What’s not been missed is a sense of space. There’s a lot of room in the Mach-E, with a notable amount of space in the rear seats — passengers won’t complain about a lack of head or knee room.

The cabin is presented in a fine, if unexciting, colour scheme, with lots of greys, brightened up by some faux-metal trim. Some red pinstriping would suit it as a reminder that you're in the GT model. Even a sporty but ultimately useless straight-ahead marker on the steering wheel would add a bit of visual excitement.

It’s loaded with equipment, which goes some way to explaining why the options list is limited to just colour choices. Every model, from entry-level to GT, receives the digital dashboard and infotainment system, with connected navigation and voice control. There’s a wireless charging pad for a smartphone, a 10-speaker B&O sound system, an electric tailgate and 360-degree cameras, and all the usual equipment you’d expect, such as climate control and a DAB radio. You can allow Ford to connect to the car remotely and update software when required, keeping the vehicle fresh and even offering the possibility of additional services being added.

The boot is practical and pleasingly large (it measures 402 litres), although a fabric parcel shelf does little to contain either tyre noise and comes undone easily; it then slides up and blocks your rear view, which is something that was less than ideal on the M4. A second boot at the front of the car makes for a handy storage area for charging cables, but there’s room for a little cargo, too.

Safety

The Mach-E went through Euro NCAP’s demanding safety testing programme soon after it was launched, where it was awarded the full five stars. Built with the same chassis and body, there’s no reason to think the GT version would differ in any way.

It’s loaded with safety equipment to keep you away from an accident in the first place, including essentials such as automatic emergency braking. You’ll also find evasive steer assist, forward collision warnings, lane-keeping aids and lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring and adaptive cruise control with lane centring.

Front and rear parking sensors and rear cross-traffic alerts help prevent minor knocks in cities and car parks, too.

Options

Building your perfect Mach-E GT won’t take long, as Ford has kept the options list remarkably short. You can choose the colour and, er, that’s it.

The car comes in black, with an off-white colour adding an extra £800. Every other colour, including the dramatic Cyber Orange, costs £1,150.

To finish things off, you can have the 20-inch alloy wheels in black for an additional £400.

Rival Cars

Everybody is gunning for Tesla, and the Mustang Mach-E GT goes almost directly head-to-head with the Tesla Model Y. Elon Musk’s model has a big battery pack with long range expectations and impressive performance. It’s not a refined ride, though, and the quality leaves much to be desired.

BMW’s entry to the medium-sized electric SUV segment is the iX3, and it’s an impressive bit of kit. It looks conventional, drives conventionally, and offers the performance and handling you’d expect from BMW. You also get the high prices and near-endless options list that you also expect from BMW.

It doesn’t have quite the ability of an SUV like the Mustang Mach-E, but the Kia EV6 GT offers good practicality, excellent tech and, with 577hp, immense power and performance. Like the Mustang Mach-E, it’s not quite a sports car, though, and you might have to wait a couple of years before Kia can supply one.

Verdict

You can never quite get past the fact that the Mach-E is an electric SUV, and while it attempts to be a sporting proposition in this more powerful version, arguably, it isn’t doing enough to wear a GT badge. Or, for that matter, a Mustang badge.

When you consider that it costs around 25% more than a regular Mach-E, both in terms of cash and monthly leasing payments, then you’re going to want to seriously consider if a marginal two seconds off the 0-62mph sprint with a 15% reduction in range is worth the extra outlay.

Ford has built a good car here. It’s fast, undoubtedly, and handles well, but it doesn’t entirely engage in the way we’d want a GT-badged model to do. It’s a mark of how fondly we think of the regular Mustang Mach-E that the GT doesn’t quite float our boat. 

Ultimately, if you opted to save your money (sorry, paymasters at Select!) and went for a cheaper Mach-E model, you'd get very nearly the same bang for substantially less buck.

Where to next?

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_{*Score based on Select’s unique meta score analysis, taking into account the UK’s top five leading independent car website reviews of the Ford Mustang Mach-E}

_{**Correct as of 09/01/2022. Based on 9 months initial payment, 5,000 miles over a 48 month lease. Initial payment equivalent to 9 monthly payments or £5,156.91 Ts and Cs apply. Credit is subject to status.}