Ford Mustang Mach-E

REPORT 2

£57,030 OTR/£58,180 as tested/£1,503 pcm

WHY IT’S HERE

Is an electric family SUV charming enough to be a ‘Mustang’?

DRIVER

Jack Rix

FORD WILL PROBABLY BE DELIGHTED WITH THIS PHOTO. THE MUSTANG Mach-E sandwiched between a sports car and a proper belt and braces off-roader. That’s exactly how Ford wants the Mach-E to be viewed, a hybrid between the tyre-eviscerating muscularity of the Mustang badge and the usefulness of a mildly raised, four-door, hatchback body. So does the marketing wishlist actually match the finished product?

Sort of. The skew is most definitely more towards a comfy, quiet, family friendly SUV than anything actually sporty, but I can’t deny that the Mach-E’s shapely haunches and galloping horse logos everywhere do start rubbing off on you. You feel like you’re in something significantly more potent and exciting than, say, a Skoda Enyaq.

Confession number two. I like the widescreen telly flipped through 90º and glued to the dashboard. Thought it was a Tesla-chasing gimmick at first, but the learning curve is quick and gentle, and I love how you can have CarPlay doing its thing across the top half of the display and still loads of room to have your climate controls and other useful shortcuts underneath.

My most visceral initial impression though, exacerbated by the Bronco’s crudeness, is the way this car’s built. Within seconds you can see the Bronco is a car screwed together specifically for the American market where size, weight and fit ’n’ finish aren’t of major concern. The Mach-E has been designed for a more discerning global audience and feels just as solid as its European enemies... but then so it should for almost £60k.

Problems so far? The infotainment system decided to not recognise my phone and refused to launch CarPlay on one occasion, but a hard reboot by pushing and holding two buttons on the wheel (thank you YouTube) sorted that out, and with the temperature plummeting the predicted range is falling fast. More on the joys of running an EV in winter next month.