Gates Electric Vehicle Experience

All-Electric Mustang Mach-E Review

Here is what Elliot Hielscher, Service Advisor at Gates of Stevenage, thought when he got behind the wheel of the All-Electric Mustang Mach-E.

It's 13th June 2023 and the day in which a week of electric motoring begins! I have been very much looking forward to this since my EV Experience was confirmed and now it’s time to get behind the wheel!

First impressions of the All-Electric Mustang Mach-E

When I collected the keys, I was shocked to find the key fob is exactly the same as most Fords - I would have thought that the Mustang logo would have at least been on the fob, rather like Ford do with the newer ST & RS models.

One thing I did like straight from the off was the keyless entry. To open the doors, you have to press a little circular disc on the door pillar. When you want to lock the Mustang Mach-E, you press the padlock button above the unlock disc. There is also the option for unlocking and locking with a pin number which is a nice touch, in my opinion.

My first impressions were good. It’s a big ol’ beast but when you first get into the driver’s seat, you can tell it is fully loaded and there is a lot of technology in there to keep you company. The cabin is very spacious and airy with a massive glass roof.

One of the main things I first noticed when I got in the Mustang Mach-E, is the big B&O sound bar that appears on the dashboard and the massive touchscreen “tablet” up front. This immediately put a smile on my face as I love car audio and a premium stereo is a must for me! Needless to say, I was impressed with the stereo and how well the subwoofer compliments the B&O speakers, allowing you to have it full blast with no distortion whatsoever.

I was pleasantly surprised with how easy the 15.5” touchscreen was to use. I did think it took quite a while for the phone to connect when you first start it up, but other than that, it is very good

It is very easy to navigate and is handy to have all car options, settings, climate control and all things related to the car all controlled via the same tablet interface.

When I fired up the built-in navigation, upon choosing a destination, there was an option for “Chargers”. I clicked on this and discovered that you have to have the FordPass App connected in order to use this feature. As I was only using this car for a week, I did not think it was worth setting up - but I was surprised that you have to be connected to the app for this to work. Another thing to note is that my iPhone 14 Pro Max wouldn’t fit in the wireless charging pad which I thought was a shame.

Naturally, the first thing I did with this being a fully electric car was to check the range - it was 89% charged showing me a predicted range of 261 miles which I thought was quite impressive.

Driving experience

Upon the first drive, up and down the dual carriageways near the dealership and when moving it within the staff car park, I really liked the feel for the car and how light the steering felt considering it is 2-tonnes of motor! You certainly don’t feel like you are carrying 2 whopping great batteries onboard.

Straight away when driving, you can feel there are so many assist systems and driver aids to help keep you safe on the road and so much technology onboard. From blind spot indicators, normal and adaptive cruise control, speed limiter, lane & brake assist just to name a few. One thing you notice is that whenever you start the Mustang Mach-E and drive, lane assist is always on. I quickly found that you can switch this off with ease – if like me, it drives you mad! Within 2 short presses of a button on the steering wheel, it is deactivated, albeit only for your current journey.

Having used the driver aids, one thing I found to be very clever is the switch between normal cruise control and adaptive cruise control. I’ve only even known a car to have one or the other, so this was a big surprise. The adaptive cruise control is brilliant! You can set the distance to which you want to be from the vehicle in front and having put complete trust into the Mustang Mach-E when following a car up to a roundabout with adaptive cruise activated, it stopped a reasonable distance from the vehicle in-front with no dramas or issues.

By day 2, I had come to the conclusion that this really is such an effortless machine to drive! At this point, I had discovered and turned on the “One Pedal Drive Mode”. Suddenly, when driving and you come off the accelerator pedal, you are met with quite a strong regenerative braking force where the car is slowing down to put charge back into the batteries. I must say after a few miles of driving this way, I was converted and didn’t want to turn it off again! It does become a tad strange when approaching a roundabout or junction and you naturally let off like you would in a petrol or diesel car, because you seem to be coming to a stop way before you have reached the junction. Therefore, having to accelerate again to get to the junction takes a little bit of getting used to. But you soon get accustomed to how fierce the braking is when you lift off the accelerator and then you can judge when you can come off the pedal and how quickly the vehicle will bring you to a halt. That said, there were a couple of occasions the system didn’t slow the car down as quickly as I thought and I had to apply the brake, but overall it was very simple and I think a great idea.

When reviewing the All-Electric Mustang Mach-E, I have to talk about the performance. It is incredibly impressive how quickly this car accelerates and picks up. Being an Electric Vehicle, the throttle response is like nothing else. This particular model has the extended range, so an extra battery making it 4 wheel drive and pushing out an impressive 346 brake horsepower and 426 lbs of torque. It is so effortless to drive fast and makes overtaking a complete doddle - all you need is the slightest of gaps and your gone!

Another nice little touch I discovered were the three driving modes: “Whisper” “Active” & “Untamed”. I spent pretty much all of the week in “Whisper” mode, which is more than enough for everyday driving. When I did flick into “Untamed” mode, I was quickly met with a fake car engine noise when accelerating and a funky array of lines which change on the dash when you accelerate. Although I felt a big difference in throttle response between the three driving modes, I found “Whisper” mode more than acceptable to be honest.

Range, Charging and Running Costs

Naturally, you can’t help but have a tad of range anxiety when driving an electric car and planning is key. I had been told about an app called “ZapMap” which tells you where chargers and quick chargers are. I happened to be close to a quick charger which was located in a pub car park, so I parked up, plugged in and was greeted by the option of a 50KW/H or 150KW/H charger. On this occasion, I opted for the faster charger out of the two even though I knew it would be more expensive to charge.

During my driving experience, I needed to charge the vehicle on anther two occasions. After the third and final charge of the vehicle, I decided to work out the total cost of charging, Kilowatts charged and time taken.

It is worth mentioning at this point that I don’t have an online account for any of the above charging companies - I simply charged as a guest . I later found out that signing up can have additional benefits and savings. Also, the charging stations used were all rapid chargers which are also more expensive than fast chargers and home wallboxes.

Charging costs and timings are summarised below:

So in total, I spent £99.19 covering a total of 362 miles - this equates to 27p per mile. The average cost per kilowatt was 87p. Total charging time was 168 minutes.

The All-Electric Mustang Mach-E: Elliot's overall verdict

Overall I absolutely loved my time driving the Mustang Mach E this week and to be honest, I didn’t want to give it back.The ease of driving, effortless overtaking and modern safety systems made me feel so safe when driving it and I had a nice snapshot of what the not so near future will no doubt be like for us all. As a petrol head, it’s also nice to know that the future doesn’t seem boring and most of these big SUV extended battery vehicles do definitely pack a serious punch performance wise. Albeit it, with a big price tag!