
All-Electric Ford Mustang Mach-E SUV - clouddrover
https://www.thedrive.com/news/31073/the-all-electric-2021-ford-mustang-mustang-mach-e-suv-is-here
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tyingq
I'm mystified with the Mustang branding. There's 55 years of inertia behind
that meaning a 2 door sports car.

~~~
mirimir
It's no worse than a Porsche SUV.

~~~
tyingq
At least they didn't call that a 911. Porsche does have a niche make, but this
is reusing a model name.

~~~
ollie87
Other manufacturers have done it, look at MINI.

That started off as a Morris Mini-Minor, turned into a Morris Mini/Austin
Mini, then just a Mini, then Rover Mini, then BMW turned it into it's own
brand, MINI.

Ford are presumably just taking the brand awareness of the Mustang to create a
sub-brand of performance cars. Which makes sense as people all over the world
are aware of the Mustang.

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inetsee
Maybe I'm an old fogey, but this car looks much more like "a traditional
compact crossover SUV", and much less like a "traditional Mustang".

~~~
abawany
I was reminded of a 'shooting brake' ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting-
brake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting-brake)), which added to the
appeal for me personally.

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nickpeterson
I'm torn. On one hand, I'd love reasonable competition to Tesla in this space,
but I guess I assumed it would be at a much better price.

The other thing is, I don't think the average Ford buyer will purchase this.
Simply put, if you're interested in an electric SUV, and have 45-60k you can
part with, you'll buy the Tesla Y or maybe the Audi. Who wants to drop 60k on
a crossover Ford SUV?

~~~
lallysingh
Explorer buyers put up the kind of money easily. Look at their higher trim
level prices.

The reason they went with the Mustang brand here is to "macho" up the vehicle.
Which most Ford buyers wouldn't otherwise touch.

Electric Crossover = hippie weak bullshit.

Electric Mustang Mach = Manly strong fast.

You think I'm joking.

~~~
nickpeterson
Do people really pay that much for explorers? I kind of always assumed that
was the sticker and a mixture of incentives and family discounts factored
heavily. It's kind of like when people buy a Dodge or Chrysler, I just assume
they get some sort of crazy deal because otherwise what's the point?

~~~
wil421
Have you ever heard of the Dodge Hellcats? They have a following and old
muscle car fans would be swayed by a Mustang badge. They make a $100k Grand
Cherokee Trackhawk that’s double the price of my Trailhawk.

German cars are nice but there’s no way I’m paying that much for parts and
labor on top of the sticker. Not to mention they are making them much harder
to work on. Remove the intake manifold to change the plugs or coil, why?

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sprflyprgrmrguy
I wish they kept it called a Mach-E, and maybe slipped in a pony somewhere as
homage (on top of the obvious styling queues)

That being said, calling it a Mustang Mach-E is going to get the industry, and
community, more abuzz than simply calling it a mustang inspired EV called the
Mach-E.

I like it well enough, and I hope the electronics end up in a future Mustang
coupe, like this bad boy: [https://www.autoblog.com/2019/11/06/ford-webasto-
lithium-mus...](https://www.autoblog.com/2019/11/06/ford-webasto-lithium-
mustang-ev-3-facts-sema/)

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abawany
This Top Gear short-take on the car was interesting for the details it
covered: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA-
qgSB076c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA-qgSB076c) . I watched the
livestream - it was no Apple event but had some nice moments. I noticed the
resemblance to the Tesla giant screen but I think they got some elements of
the Mercedes with the assistant plus the physical dial on the screen seems
like a big usability improvement.

~~~
kozak
There were many intentional references to Tesla during the unveiling event:
[https://electrek.co/2019/11/17/exclusive-bill-ford-at-the-
mu...](https://electrek.co/2019/11/17/exclusive-bill-ford-at-the-mustang-mach-
e-scrum-acknowledges-being-on-teslas-turf/)

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p1mrx
So the motor controller in an electric vehicle is basically spitting out sine
waves at 200+ kW. It'd be cool if they could tune that to 120/240V 60Hz,
bypass the motor, and add a connector that powers your house.

~~~
yumraj
Nissan Leaf supports that.[0] Not sure if other cars do too.

[0] [https://www.nissan-
global.com/EN/TECHNOLOGY/OVERVIEW/vehicle...](https://www.nissan-
global.com/EN/TECHNOLOGY/OVERVIEW/vehicle_to_home.html)

~~~
p1mrx
It looks like Nissan is using the CHAdeMO port's DC pins in reverse, to power
an external inverter. That's less fun than generating AC from a motor
controller, but I guess it's sensible to keep the car's job as simple as
possible.

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ec109685
It’s amazing how long it has taken car companies to copy the signature
features of the Tesla: styling that doesn’t scream “ev vehicle”, over the air
updates, long range and large touchscreens.

I am happy to see some real Tesla competition.

~~~
jaysonelliot
Huge touchscreens are a cheap way to avoid the expense of designing an
ergonomic dashboard. Manufacturers don't care that they're a UX nightmare,
ruin night vision, or take the driver's attention away from the road. They
just care that they're cheap, and give salespeople a "feature" to point out.

~~~
johnbrodie
With all the regulation around cars and driving already, I'd love to see
regulation around controls. It makes 0 sense to me to ban cell phones because
they are distracting, but then allow giant touch screens in the car with no
analog dials/switches for common features.

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woodandsteel
This is great news. If we are going to save the climate, it is absolutely
essential that people move to ev's. The problem so far has been that the
legacy car companies have not been producing ev's in a big way, much less
working hard at selling them. And because of that, the public thinks that ev's
are not good enough to buy.

Having one of the main American car companies producing and selling an ev will
do a lot to help educate the public and help get the ev revolution off the
ground.

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m0zg
If you're going to use the Mustang brand, start the lineup with a $100K no
holds barred sports roadster. Retro styled, if possible. Sure, you won't sell
many, but you will establish yourself as not a joke in this space at least.
Then go aggressively after the lower end of the market using the lower end
"generic Ford" brand. Tesla did the right thing with their go to market
strategy IMO. Ford could play a better version of it, because they have
multiple entrenched brands. This is just baffling. 6 second 0-60 EV is like a
fucking Soviet Lada when compared to other EVs, numbers like this should not
be associated with the Mustang brand, especially at the price point they plan
to sell this at.

~~~
sprflyprgrmrguy
They built this for SEMA. I don't doubt that they could sell a small
production run of these for 100-200k range

[https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2019...](https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2019/11/05/webasto-
ford-team-up-mustang-lithium-battery-electric-mustang-car-sema.html)

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Element_
The interiors resemblance to Tesla is amazing (big layout oriented center
screen). I wonder why the exterior has such a long hood when it is not needed
to cover up an internal ICE engine.

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newnewpdro
A long hood is arguably one of the marks of a mustang, though I don't know if
that played a role in their design process.

It certainly adds more crumple zone and frunk capacity though.

~~~
bryanlarsen
Yes, in the presentation they specifically mentioned that the hood was
lengthened when the Mustang branding was decided on.

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jachee
It has been a long time since I've had feelings this difficult to sort out.

Can't wait for ATP to cover this in their aftershow.

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RickJWagner
Ford's big chance to 'get it right' and join Tesla at the top of the
aspirational ranks.

It better be reliable.

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tibbydudeza
Now this looks awesome coming from a stodgy US car maker .. some serious
competition for Tesla.

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dmix
That giant screen... I'd love that.

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thomasfl
Ford has started making Teslas.

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crb002
WTF. Main feature of my mustang is all the analog controls and it not having a
media system to hack into.

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kozak
Not in recent years at all.

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leesec
Only 9 years after the Model S and not as good.

Still, happy to see big players invest more in electric.

~~~
fsh
How can you possibly know? It's not out yet.

