 An electric Mustang is an idea that seemed almost unfathomable just a few short years ago, but now it exists. Ford went really far out on a limb here by calling this thing a Mustang, and you know what? It's pretty good. I'm not going to beat around the bush here. The Mustang Mach-E is the most competent electric vehicle not made by Tesla or Porsche on the road right now, and in a few areas is maybe even a little bit better than the EVs Elon Musk has been making for the last decade. The Mustang Mach-E is really solidly built, it's a lot of fun to drive, it has plenty of range for daily driving and short trips, and it puts technology front and center in a way that other automakers usually mess up. It's not exactly cheap, it starts at around $43,000, and this version which I tested for the last week with all-wheel drive and the extended range battery pack costs about $55,000. But it can be more affordable than a Tesla Model Y or even a Chevy Bolt depending on which version you buy, because Ford's cars are still eligible for that full federal EV tax credit. And it's certainly more attainable than the luxury electric cars that currently make up the EV market right now, like the Jaguar I-Pace, the Mercedes-Benz EQC, and the Audi e-tron. But Ford dared call this a Mustang, so let's start with a few Mustang things, like performance. There are five total models with a variety of ranges from 211 miles to 305 miles. The model I tested had a range of about 270 miles and could go from 0 to 60 in just about 5 seconds. That's not the quickest version Ford will sell, that'll be the GT Performance coming later this year, which can do it in 3.5 seconds. There are three driving modes. Unbridled has the tightest steering and the quickest acceleration and is basically your best bet for flirting with local speed limits. Whisper is, of course, the quietest mode and also offers the loosest steering and really smooth coasting when you pull your foot off the throttle. Engaged is sort of a middle ground, a mix of somewhat sporty driving but without the oomph of unbridled mode. I should say, this doesn't have the same kind of heart-stopping acceleration that the Porsche Taycan or Tesla's performance models offer. If you want that from the Mustang Mach-E, you're going to have to wait and pay more for the GT Performance or regular GT version. But I found this had enough giddy-up for me in an SUV of this size, and while I was comfortable with 270 miles, I wouldn't want to buy one with less. There's another component to the Mach-E's Mustang-ness that we should probably talk about, and that's its looks. I did think it looked a little bit strange at first, especially with the grill-less design on the model that I tested, but it really grew on me over time. I don't love the metallic silver color that I had on this review unit. I would have much rather tried the really bright blue that our video directors Becca and Alex had for this shoot. And I also really like the sort of yellowish orange that Ford's keeping for the highest performance models that are coming out later. I'm less in love with the look of the car from the rear, where it looks like the Mustang's iconic tri-bar lighting is sort of trying to escape from the back of a more pedestrian SUV. Overall though, I think Ford did a good job of making it just as different enough that it catches people's eyes without making it too strange. I got a lot of thumbs up and questions about it when I was driving and parking it over the past week, and you could tell that people were really familiar with it in a way that I wouldn't have expected. What are you driving? An electric Mustang. What the f-ck? That is so sweet! I was like, it's got ponies on it! It says Mach! That's a good thing for electric cars, which Tesla aside have so far looked so different that they're kind of off-putting, or so similar in some cases that it's hard to tell what's different about them at all. One place where I think Ford has a leg up over Tesla with the Mustang Mach-E is, shocker, build quality. On the outside there aren't any big seams between the panels, and then on the inside everything just feels really well put together. There's not a lot of road noise, it's just pretty clear that this is coming from an automaker that has spent a century almost perfecting the car making process. The interior is really comfortable without feeling so nice that you wouldn't want to eat a cheeseburger in it, and it's just really spacious too. There are also a bunch of USB-A and USB-C ports, which is a nice touch, and a wireless charging pad, which I love, except for the fact that my iPhone kept sliding around while I was driving, which prompted a really distracting error message. My big draw is the main 15.5-inch portrait touchscreen on the dashboards. First, I love the physicality of it. Despite the floating effect, it really feels solidly bolted on, and better yet, like you could sort of hammer away at the screen for years without something going wrong. The quality of the panel is great too, the graphics are crisp and the colors are bright. You really have to go hunting to see any pixels or jagged edges. Now, the logic of the software on the main screen feels a little bit fuzzy. There's an almost webOS-y card-based system that surfaces frequently used functions, but it doesn't offer quick access to deep menu settings like drive modes or screen brightness, which I think would be more useful. There are also just little quirks that I couldn't really stand, like how Ford's mapping system doesn't let you move the map to repopulate search results when you're looking for, say, EV chargers. And while this is a touchscreen, there's also a big silver volume knob at the bottom, which has pretty satisfying feedback, but I just use the volume button on the steering wheel most of the time. One more thing that I wish was a little bit different about this user interface was just a little bit more customization on the instrument cluster screen, like the ability to put, say, how many kilowatt hours per mile you're using or other things. Ford has a couple different versions that will pop up depending on which driving mode you're in, but there's no real customization as to what's on that screen behind the steering wheel, and I kind of wish there was. These are all things that could be changed with over-the-air software updates, which is something Ford's promised with the Mustang Mach-E. That's something that Tesla has popularized over the years, but big automakers usually tend to get wrong, so here's hoping Ford actually gets it right. There is one big feature that is still missing right now on the Mach-E that I wish I could have tested, which is that Ford's promising a true hands-free driving mode. It'll be the first in Ford's lineup, and it's basically comparable to what GM and Cadillac have been doing for the last few years with Super Cruise. In its place right now, there's just a more normal advanced driver assistance package, which does include things like lane centering, but I did find it to be a little finicky. Even when the true hands-free driving option comes out, it'll only be available on highways that Ford maps ahead of time. And there's a camera behind the steering wheel that's actually on this version of the Mach-E already that'll be tracking your eyes to make sure you're paying attention to the road, so don't expect this to be some fully self-driving car. For the most part, the Mach-E is a really great experience, but the biggest drawback is the same drawback of any EV that's not a Tesla right now. Charging. Charging in the US is just a mess. There are all sorts of different networks with different charging rates, with different pricing structures, different upkeep for those charging stations, and it's just a real hit-or-miss experience that's difficult to navigate, even if you know all of that going in. You have to be pretty highly educated on what the different services are and what they offer, and even then you can still run into problems. For example, I went to an Electrify America station. This is basically Volkswagen's version of Tesla's supercharger network, and still ran into problems. I would plug the Mach-E into one outlet and it would give me an error message. I would plug it into another and it would charge way slower than it should. It's enough of a drag already to know that you're going to have to spend maybe 30 minutes, 40 minutes, maybe even longer at slower stations. But it's worse when you get there and you have to spend more time doing this little do-si-do between all the different charging stations just to find one that's working. And if Volkswagen's network isn't going to be able to do it, then the smaller networks are certainly going to have trouble with it. And even when they work well, they're charging your car more slowly. This is a problem and it needs to be fixed. It's not necessarily Ford's problem to fix. Though, I will say, Ford is collecting all of these networks and sort of combining them into what it's called the FordPass charging network. In theory, it's a really good idea. They're making all these charging networks easy to find in the FordPass app or in the dashboard screen of the Mach-E so that you have a one-stop shop for your nearest charging. And Ford is also even trying to bundle some of those services together into your Ford account so that you don't have to have all these different charging accounts and charging apps. You could theoretically just pull up, plug in, and let it take care of all of the financial stuff in the background. That doesn't quite work really well just yet. And the problem that Ford's going to face with this is that people are going to buy this car and use those charging networks and run into some of those problems. And they might wind up thinking, boy, Ford's charging network is a real bummer. And so I hope that those charging networks can improve really quickly. And in fact, a lot of them are all out there right now raising a lot of money trying to do just that. But even in a best case scenario, it's going to be another couple of years before we have something that's really comparable to Tesla's supercharger network or big enough to handle the market that these automakers say they're going to be able to create with electric vehicles. Now, a few other things before I'm done here. One, I didn't have much need for it during the week I spent with this car, but there's a lot of good storage in the Mustang Mach-E. The front trunk is especially big. The car also just feels bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside. In our driveway, for example, it looked comparable in size to our Subaru Impreza hatchback. But from the driver's seat, it felt like I was behind the wheel of a much larger full-size SUV. Some of this comes from the fact that you're riding above the battery pack, which offers a more commanding view of the road. But it's also because the Mach-E has an all glass roof that offers more headroom in general. I don't think people should underestimate just how important the Mustang Mach-E could be. The Mustang branding makes it instantly familiar, and the design is striking enough that it gets noticed right away without being so out there that it's uncomfortable or weird or alien. It's the kind of car that in a couple years, if enough of them are on the road, it could really make people take notice and think about buying an electric car in a way that the I-Pace or the Audi e-tron or the Chevy Bolt never have or will. I think Ford is tapping into something only Tesla really does well right now with the Mach-E, which is trying to mix that modern design with increasing ubiquity in a way that could make people feel like they're missing out on something, much like the effect a new iPhone can have. There are definitely still hurdles, don't get me wrong, starting with the fact that the first big batch of Mustang Mach-E deliveries has been delayed. Ford's not the only company to face this problem. Volkswagen, Audi, and others have all run into issues getting their first mass market EVs on the road, but it's still a problem Ford needs to solve. Even when it does, Ford will have other questions to answer too, like around charging, how receptive dealers will be to this car, how Ford's software updates will go, and how good and more importantly, how safe the hands-free driving feature will be. But for now, that it exists is an achievement in its own right. Three years ago, Ford set out to make a new electric car as part of a multi-billion dollar push into electric vehicles. It originally wanted to make something that was more like a Ford Focus, but that was thankfully turned into something that is far more exciting in the Mustang Mach-E. Hey everybody, if you have any questions, comments, thoughts, opinions, I'm sure a couple of you out there might have some thoughts about an electric Mustang. Let me know in the comments. I'd love to hear what you've got. Thanks for watching.