Ford To Bump Mustang Mach-E Production To 270,000 A Year

Ford announced this week that it has built its 150,000th Mustang Mach-E at its Cuautitlán assembly plant in Mexico. That may seem like small potatoes to some, especially since Tesla says it plans to manufacture 20 million electric cars a year by the end of this decade. Nevertheless, sales of the Mach-E have made Ford the second bestselling electric car brand in the US.

The Mach-E is not just for North America, though. It is sold in 37 countries, including Venezuala, Brazil, and New Zealand. In fact, during a recent trip to Spain, I noticed billboards advertising the car in Barcelona and again in the Canary Islands. Who would have guessed you could buy one in Tenerife?

The company says it is accelerating Mustang Mach-E production and targeting global annual production rate of 270,000 as part of its plan to scale to a rate of 600,000 electric vehicles annually by the end of 2023 and 2 million by 2026. The good news for EV advocates is that 8 in 10 Mustang Mach-E customers in the US and 9 in 10 customers in Europe have replaced an internal combustion vehicle with a Mustang Mach-E. Demand in the US is so strong that the cars remain in dealer inventory for only about 10 days before finding a buyer.

Ford Mustang Mach-E photo courtesy of Ford Motor Company.

“When we put the pony on this Mustang, we knew we’d have skeptics. What we didn’t quite know then was just how popular this car would become,” said Darren Palmer, vice president for electric vehicles at Ford’s EV division known as Ford Model e. “I love seeing Mustang Mach-E vehicles on the road and talking to customers, and I am seeing more and more of them.”

Growth in global sales of the Mach-E is causing Ford to upgrade its Cuautitlán Stamping and Assembly Plant to meet the demand. A Ford insider told me the company initially worried no one would buy the Mach-E, so the decision was made to build it in Mexico and target a modest run rate of just 30,000 cars a year. The success of the car has been a welcome and pleasant surprise for the company.

“The plant is buzzing,” says Deborah Manzano, Ford’s director of manufacturing. “There’s a new battery line, new chassis line, additional assembly line, we’re literally maxing out the space to make more Mustang Mach-E vehicles. We most recently added a new paint shop, too. Nothing is standing still for long!”

The Mustang Mach-E is a Top-Rated Luxury Electric Vehicle according to Edmunds and has won several industry awards. AAA named it the best overall car for 2022. That’s all well and good, but nothing could be better music to the ears of Ford executives than the sound of all those cars flying off dealer’s lots almost as fast as they are unloaded from the trucks that deliver them.