Sam Krahn 
The 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E is almost here, bringing an exciting new offering to the Mustang lineup. It’s the most radical and controversial addition to the Mustang lineup ever, as an electric crossover is essentially the opposite of the fire breathing, V8 muscle car as we know it. But Ford insists the Mach-E is a Mustang through and through, in the driving experience and design alike. Ford CEO Jim Farley was recently featured on an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage, where the two chatted about all things Mach-E.
The biggest takeaway from the discussion is how Farley insists the Ford Mustang Mach-E is worthy of the Mustang nameplate. One of the biggest fears car enthusiasts have about EVs is they will be void of any emotion in the driving experience. Internal combustion engines give sound, vibrations and interaction an electric vehicle simply cannot replicate. Sure, they can compete on the drag strip like nothing else, but that just becomes a party trick eventually. To really convince us, they need to engineer some of that into the driving experience.
“We didn’t want to create a commodity product, we wanted to put emotion in electric vehicles,” said Farley in the video. “We designed a little noise into this… it’s a Mustang and we want it to feel like a Mustang.”
Ford CEO Jim Farley also talked about how they spent a great deal of time cold weather testing. This was partially top ensure the battery was ready for the cold, with limited loss of range and performance, but there was more interesting comment for enthusiasts. He said the engineers didn’t want to leave frozen lake testing because the Ford Mustang Mach-E was so much fun to drift. While you probably won’t be having any tail-out antics daily driving the Mach-E, it’s good to know you can in the right conditions. All of these comments lead us to believe Ford put a lot of energy into giving the Mustang Mach-E more emotion that its rather stale competition.
And that’s especially seen in the Ford Mustang Mach-E 1400, which was also featured in the video. Farley spoke about how the vehicle, done in collaboration with Vaughn Gittin Jr. and RTR Vehicles, was designed to excel in any situation, from drag racing to drifting to circuit racing. It’s clear Ford want’s to make their electric vehicles fun and exciting with the Mustang Mach-E, something any car enthusiast will love to hear.
