12 Reasons Why The Ford Mustang Mach-E Will Be A Huge Hit
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Before I explain all the reasons why the Ford Mustang Mach-E will be successful, I want to mention that this is no “Tesla Killer.” We will have detailed articles explaining why this car won’t “kill” Tesla after the reveal, but short version is this car will take most of its market share from the 99% of vehicles that are gas or diesel powered. Other media outlets will promote the false narrative that Ford, Tesla, and all other EVs are fighting each other for the 1% of people who want EVs, and thus, if this car sells well, many of those sales come directly from Tesla.
This would be like saying when the iPhone was pretty new that every Android phone sold at $200 was a lost sale of an iPhone. No, Android hasn’t killed the iPhone, it has greatly expanded the market for smartphones to people who either can’t afford or don’t want an iPhone.
As Steve Hanley covered about 6 months ago, 1 in 5 Americans plan to buy an electric car as their next car! So, why do EVs have a 1% market share instead of 20%? Because when they go to their preferred car dealers, the dealers don’t have any electric cars on the lot (in most states) and they tell the potential customers that electric cars will be great in 10 years, but you don’t want one today. “They just aren’t ready yet.” Tesla, of course, doesn’t say that, and Volkswagen is starting to put out serious ads promoting electric cars, even though in many places they have none to sell. But this article is about Ford, not Tesla or VW.
Ford Mustang
I’ll start off with my history with the Ford Mustang. My father bought a 1964 Ford Mustang the same year I was born. Growing up, I remember him driving it on snowy roads and showing me the fun of oversteer. Once when I was 5 we got stuck in a ditch (in rural Iowa) because the car spun out. We had to find a farmer with a tractor to pull us out. I also remember the danger of no safety belts. My father was having something repaired and the car had no passenger seat. I was sitting in the back with no belt (I’m pretty sure cars didn’t have rear belts, but if they did, nobody used them in those days). My father stopped suddenly and I flew into the dash. I caught myself with my nose and bled all over for a few minutes.
When I got old enough to drive, I was all about fuel efficiency (the 1970s oil crisis had a big effect on me), so I convinced my father into getting a Volkswagen Scirocco that was sporty but got twice the mileage. But I digress.
Reasons Why I Think The Mach-E Will Be A Success
1. The name. Ford gave this car 3 of the most valuable trademarks it owns. The Mustang name has huge emotional value to 55 years of fans. I’m less familiar with the Mach name, but it appears it was a highly respected performance package for the Ford Mustang (but not as expensive as the Shelby Mustangs). The Model E trademark was filed by Ford in 2013 and prevented Tesla from using it to spell S-E-X with its first 3 vehicles. The Mustang name has by far the most value and the fact that Ford is willing to use this valuable asset on an electric car speaks volumes. If this car wasn’t awesome, it would hugely dilute Ford’s Mustang brand, so I expect Ford to do everything in its power to ensure this car is successful.
2. It will be advertised by both Ford and its dealers. Now, we don’t know how much, but this will help the car reach buyers who watch TV and get their cues from it.
3. It will be sold by dealers close to you. According to Statista, Ford has around 3,000 dealers around the United States, vs. Tesla having only about 100. In rural areas like I grew up in, this makes a huge difference. There are 3 Ford dealerships within 20 miles of my small hometown (population of 1,598). The nearest Tesla showroom and service center is 183 miles away in Minneapolis. This will make a big difference in many rural areas. It adds a lot of risk to the buying experience if you are 3 hours from the nearest service center. On the other hand, Ford has its work cut out for itself in training this dealer network.
4. The car isn’t ugly. It might be a little early to say that, but I can tell from the teaser images that it’s going to be reasonably good looking. Many automakers have greatly hurt their EVs’ sales potential because they were designed to look different to attract the environmentally aware consumer looking to show everyone how “green” they are. This strategy worked very well for Toyota and its Prius 10 to 20 years ago, but is now obsolete. Now you just want to design your car to look good to “regular” people.
5. It’s not slow. Somewhere in the 2000s, manufacturers got the idea that EVs should be slow and boring (maybe from the Prius). Most of these cars focused on fuel economy instead of providing the one-two punch of fast acceleration and efficiency. I don’t have access to exact figures, but zero to 60 times should be similar to the Tesla Model 3. Somewhere around 5 seconds for the cheaper models and somewhere around 3 seconds for the higher priced cars. I also don’t know about the handling, but I would hope that Ford would make it handle well with its low center of gravity.
6. Some models will have 300 miles of range. I have the Model 3 Long Range with rear wheel drive with 310 miles of range (it went up to about 320 for a while but is back to 310) and have never gotten below about 40 miles of remaining range. I don’t even know if I need that much range, but it is sure nice to have it. For many new EV owners who don’t know how to use PlugShare or that chargers are sometimes full or broken, having a lot of range will solve a lot of problems.
7. It has fast charging at a decent speed. Ford has announced that it can add 47 miles in 10 minutes at a 150 kW DC fast charger. Although not quite as fast as Tesla, it beats the Chevy Bolt, which is somewhat handicapped by being limited to 50 kW DC charging.
8. Ford has created the FordPass Charging Network to help its customers find a place to charge and plan their trips on the touchscreen on their cars. Unlike Tesla, they didn’t choose to build their own network, but to partner with others. Time will tell how successful this is, but it is better than doing nothing.
9. The car will be affordable. I have been saying for over a year that the Model 3 is affordable, but this car may be even more affordable! It is rumored to start at under $40,000 and should be eligible for the full $7,500 tax credit for a while at least. This should make it only a little more expensive than the regular Mustang, which starts at $26,395. Of course, the total cost of ownership of the Mach-E will likely be lower than the regular Mustang after you figure in the fuel and maintenance savings.
10. The interior will be modern, but likely won’t be as shockingly barren as the Tesla Model 3. I love the big screen that does everything in my Model 3, but not everyone is ready to make that large change in how they interact with a car.
11. It’s not a Tesla. There is a lot of anti-Tesla propaganda out there, and it has made a lot of people not like the company or scared to buy a car from the company. There are a lot of people who want an electric car, but won’t buy a Tesla.
12. Ford plans to make a lot of them. I wasn’t able to find projected production volumes, but the way this is being rolled out, it is clear that this is no compliance car.
Conclusion
Ford has a lot of things it has done right with this vehicle, and unless it has some major flaw as Ford ramps up production, I expect this car to not only sell well, but also improve Ford’s image with both the tech crowd and the gearhead crowd. Stay tuned to this channel because we have lots more Ford Mustang Mach-E news coming from multiple writers. We have people at the unveiling on Sunday (not me), so as soon as we know more, you will know more!
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