2021 Mustang Mach-E GT – Paving The Way For Ford Electric Performance

Ever since the debut of the original Tesla Roadster 15 years ago, it’s become increasingly clear that electrification is the future of high performance. There are no street legal, production internal combustion engine vehicles today that match or beat the fastest electrically propelled models. Electric luxury sedans like the Tesla Model S and Lucid Air are sprinting to 60 mph in the low to mid 2 second range. We’ve now had a chance to drive the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT and this electric five-passenger crossover can run with the previous fastest pony, the Shelby GT500 and do so much more. 

For those not paying attention, the Mach-E is Ford’s first purpose-built electric vehicle, a controversial crossover with a Mustang badge and styling cues, that does a surprisingly good job of emulating the characteristics of the iconic pony car. We’re not going to rehash everything about it except to say that it brings much of the driving fun of the coupe to a family-friendly form factor.

Until the arrival of the GT variant, it was offered in a choice of single motor rear wheel drive or dual motor all-wheel-drive with two battery sizes. The single rear motor yields 290-hp when paired with the larger, extended range battery. The smaller front motor on the AWD brought the total to 346-hp and 428 lb-ft. For the GT, Ford has installed the larger motor at both axles bringing the peak power to 480-hp.

Standard GT is equipped with specially developed P245/45 20-inch Continental high-performance all-season tires and has its torque capped at 600 lb-ft. Ford is also offering a GT Performance Edition that among other upgrades rides on similarly unique Pirelli summer tires that offer more maximum grip. With those tires, the peak torque is allowed to get up to 634 lb-ft. By comparison, that aforementioned GT500 gets 760-hp and 625 lb-ft from its lovely supercharged 5.2-liter V8.

Despite that additional output and roughly a 1,000 lb weight advantage, the GT500 and the Mach-E GT performance edition both manage to sprint to 60 in about 3.5-seconds. How can that possibly be? It seems completely antithetical to Newton’s laws of motion. It’s all in how the power is delivered.

Ultimately, no matter what kind of technology a vehicle has, the limiting factor is four little patches of rubber, not much bigger than the palm of an adult human hand. That’s the area of the tire that is in physical contact with the road. The GT500 has only two of those delivering tractive effort and getting a clean launch is actually really difficult although the launch control on the current generation of Mustangs helps a lot. Still, getting that initial burst of acceleration is limited by how much two tires can transmit. Also that engine, no matter how much low end torque it delivers can never match an electric motor that delivers its peak torque from zero rpm.

The Mach-E has less torque to work with, but all of it is immediately available as soon as you start to squeeze the accelerator pedal and its distributed through twice as many patches of rubber. That means you get easily accessible thrust instantly every time. You could certainly beat it with drag racing slicks on the GT500, but we’re talking about the equipment you drive off the dealer lot. I’ve driven numerous GT500s over the years, and never been able to get this kind of acceleration so effortlessly. Even the all-season shod base GT does the sprint in just 3.8 seconds. The Mach-E’s closest competitor is the Tesla Model Y and the performance model delivers similar mid-3 second 0-60 runs.

But life is about so much more than just 0-60 in a straight line. You need some twists and turns to keep things interesting. Despite it’s near 2.5-ton heft, the Mach-E is surprisingly nimble. Granted it’s no Miata or Boxster in the curvy stuff, but the idea that a family vehicle like this should feel so good to drive would have been almost unthinkable when I earned my engineering degree thirty years ago. Here we can thank the battery pack that contributes so much of that mass because it’s all down in the floor which gives this and other EVs such a low center of mass, always a good thing when you want to change directions.

So what else makes a Mach-E a GT? Both variants get distinct front and rear fascias. A carbonized grey “grille” with a backlit pony badge and a new lower splitter is an immediate tell. The base GT gets 20-inch cast, 5-hole aero wheels while the PE gets multi-spoke wheels in the same size. Both get bigger brakes with 385-mm front rotors and four piston Brembo calipers. Cooling for the battery, motors and electronics has been beefed up to help ensure consistent performance. 

The PE also gets Magneride dampers which provide near instantaneous variable damping rates that enable a more comfortable and controlled ride with the ability to instantly snub out motions when braking or cornering hard. These are always a great addition to any vehicle with serious performance aspirations. Inside, the PE also gets more aggressively bolstered performance seats which are a big help when the cornering gets aggressive.  

The GTs also add a new drive mode to the existing whisper, engage and unbridled modes that the Mach-E has had since launch. Unbridled Extend is intended for track or autocross use and retains the same more aggressive sound as the original unbridled as well as the increased steering effort and pedal mapping. Interestingly, it actually reduces the total output of the motors somewhat and rebalances them.

In unbridled you get the full 480 hp and 600+ lb-ft, but when driving on a track this will heat up the battery, motors and electronics faster which can lead to reduced performance after the first lap or two. As drivers of older Teslas know, having your fun taken away early isn’t much fun. Instead, Ford when the extend mode is engaged, the power is cut by an undisclosed amount but probably no more than about 5-10%. The front motor is cut more than the rear which also shifts the torque balance from 50/50 to 40/60. This helps give the GT a bit more of a rear drive type feel and helps with being able to use the accelerator to manage the cars attitude when cornering, something the Mach-E has always been pretty good at.

The regenerative braking is also cut back in this mode so it relies on the very capable and predictable friction bakes. The battery is also precooled as soon as this mode is engaged to help keep it in its performance sweet spot. The result is a car that doesn’t feel notably slower but when we drove it over multiple laps on a relatively long autocross course, it felt extremely predictable and even more nimble than on the road in normal unbridled. It should be able to maintain consistent performance over many laps of this.

On the road, running along the Pacific Coast Highway, the Mach-E GT PE is really in its element. It doesn’t feel like a car this weighty should be able to do what this one does, and yet it really feels like a Mustang – sans the roar of a big V8 of course. The instant response of the electric motors has it sprinting from corner to corner while the big brakes in combination with regenerative braking consistently shave off kinetic energy. With the Magneride dampers, even over some less than perfect pavement, the suspension soaks it up while the body motions are kept in check.

Driving on the 101 north of San Francisco and through redwood forests, the base GT feels very nearly as quick although you can feel the all-season tires reach their limits a bit sooner and the standard seats don’t restrain your torso quite as well. The most notable difference however is the ride quality. Particularly on the freeway which has had many repairs and has more waves than are immediately visually apparent, the base GT feels a bit bouncier than the performance edition.

I would recommend spending the extra $5,000 for the performance edition package just to get the better seats and the Magneride dampers. Unless you live somewhere where the roads are always as smooth as glass, you will appreciate those advanced dampers.

If you’re looking to be a bit frugal, you might take a pass on the Co-pilot 360 active 2.0 with Bluecruise. The batch of GTs we drove were among the first equipped Ford’s new hands-free driving assist and others that have the active drive assist hardware since launch should be seeing an over-the-air software update in the coming weeks.

I’ve previously tried BluecCuise on a prototype F-150 and this drive in the Mach-E confirmed my opinion that BlueCruise is simply not yet as good as GM’s similar Super Cruise system. Like Super Cruise, BlueCruise uses a combination of surround view cameras, five radar sensors and high-definition maps to restrict use to enable hands-free operation on divided highways. Ford also uses an infrared driver monitor system to watch the driver’s eyes and make sure they stay on the road and ready to retake control at a moment’s notice.

For now, BlueCruise is limited to 130,000 miles of roads known as Blue Zones. GM has over 200,000 miles of roads now accessible. While BlueCruise generally follows the lane fairly well, staying in the center, it is lacking a key feature that was in Super Cruise when it launched four years ago. Super Cruise has always used the maps as a long-range sensor to look ahead a couple of miles. When a curve is coming that might be too tight for the current set speed, it will automatically slow the car as it approaches the curve and then resume the previous speed as it exits.

For unknown reasons, Ford hasn’t incorporated this capability yet although they plan to add it in the future through an OTA update. As a result, BlueCruise users will have to keep a close eye when going through curves at highway speeds and put their hands back on the wheel to add some steering if the vehicle starts to drift out.

The Ford user interface for BlueCruise is also not as good. Rather than a light bar in the steering wheel that gives clear and unambiguous indications of the current mode, BlueCruise relies on a predominantly blue graphic in the cluster that is less clear. BlueCruise also lacks the auto lane change capabilities of the latest GM version and the F-150 won’t support towing, something that will be on the 2022 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra. Most of these features are expected to be added via OTA, but we don’t know when.

Overall, the Mach-E GT is an outstanding high-performance electric crossover, my complaints about BlueCruise notwithstanding. With a sticker price of $61,000 delivered for the GT and $66,000 for the PE, it’s significantly less than the $72,900 MSRP of the GT500. Plus the Mach-E is still eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit while the Shelby is saddled with an extra $2,600 gas guzzler tax. The base GT has an EPA estimated range of 270 miles while the stickier tires on the PE drop that to 260 miles.

However, when the 2022 model year starts rolling out later this fall, the 2021 models will get an OTA update that will unlock some additional battery capacity increasing the range by 10-15 miles. DC fast charging will also be improved. Instead of reducing the charge rate when the battery gets to 80%, it will now keep up the pace until the battery is at 90% charge. Those are the sort of upgrades that used to be limited to Tesla owners. However, as more automakers start deploying OTA capability, other drivers will also get these benefits. Whether you like Elon Musk or not, we can certainly thank Tesla for showing the way to EVs and other benefits to the rest of the industry.