FORD MUSTANG MACH-E WAS BENCHMARKED AGAINST THE PORSCHE MACAN

The Ford Mustang Mach-E certainly riled up controversy when the iconic nameplate was placed on an electric SUV. Sure, it’s not like the Mustang as we know it, but as an electric family crossover, there are few vehicles that can match it. Maybe because there wasn’t anything close to the Mach-E on the market while the all-electric SUV was in development. The Tesla Model Y included.

Because of this, we asked Mark Kaufman, head of Ford’s EV development squad Team Edison, what vehicle(s) the Mach-E was benchmarked against to find out. It turns out one of those vehicles was the Porsche Macan.

“In the early days of development for Mustang Mach-E, many of the anticipated competitive EVs had not launched yet so we had to be more creative with our benchmarking,” said Kaufman. “Porsche Macan was interesting for us given the similar size, sport heritage and brand premium.“

The Porsche Macan has long been heralded as one of the best driving crossovers on the market, so it makes total sense that Ford used it when developing the Mustang Mach-E. The Tesla Model Y wasn’t available yet, and other EV crossovers were larger, with less of an emphasis on driving enjoyment. The Macan is one of the most desirable and engaging family vehicles available, and Ford wanted its new electric entry to be the same.

And it showed with our time with the Mustang Mach-E. Its driving personality closely reminded us of the Ford Ford Focus RS hot hatch, which in our minds supersedes any performance SUV. That means there’s a great baseline that the Mach-E is starting with, as the quicker Mach-E GT and even more powerful GT Performance Edition are expected to build on the performance capabilities of the all-electric SUV.

Based on everything we know about the Mach-E and Kaufman’s comments, using the Macan was a great way for Ford to enter a white-space segment with something invigorating. They’ve achieved just that with both the Mustang badge, and the way the EV actually drives.

The 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E began deliveries to customers in December 2020.