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  • (upbeat music)

  • - Hey everybody, this is Sean from The Verge

  • and I'm standing in front

  • of Ford's first mass market all-electric vehicle,

  • the electric Mustang Mach-E SUV.

  • Now we've known about this vehicle for a little while.

  • Ford first teased at the Detroit Auto Show in 2018.

  • And since then there's been almost two full years

  • of speculation about what exactly this

  • first mass market electric vehicle was going to be.

  • And it wasn't until recently

  • that Ford started talking about

  • how the vehicle was gonna be Mustang-inspired,

  • and then turned due about a week or so ago,

  • and Ford said, hey it's not just gonna be Mustang inspired,

  • this is going to be a Mustang.

  • This is going to be the second Mustang ever,

  • and it's going to be electric,

  • which is a pretty radical move for Ford.

  • Now, Ford announced tonight five different versions

  • of the Mustang Mach-E,

  • and all of them go across an entire array

  • of price, range, performance,

  • all starting with the Select Mustang Mach-E,

  • which starts at $43,895.

  • That goes all the way up to the Mach-E GT which is $60,000

  • and that can go about 250 miles but it's all wheel drive,

  • zero to 60 in a little over four seconds.

  • And there's even a performance trimmer

  • that can do zero to 60 in a little more than three seconds.

  • Ford is teaming up with electrify America,

  • which is the charging network

  • that Volkswagen is building out.

  • So there will be a big network of electric vehicle chargers

  • that you can plug right into.

  • This car is gonna be able to charge up to 150 kilowatts,

  • the base version, the Select version

  • will only get up to 115 kilowatts.

  • It's not built out as much

  • as Tesla's supercharger network right now.

  • But honestly, right now electrify America looks like

  • the next best thing over the next couple years.

  • When it comes to electric vehicle charging in the US.

  • Inside it's a pretty simple experience.

  • We're talking a 15.5 inch touchscreen in the center dash

  • with not too many buttons around it

  • just one big volume knob at the bottom.

  • And then one 10.2 inch digital instrument cluster

  • behind the steering wheel,

  • which I actually really like.

  • I've seen a lot of digital instrument clusters

  • in newer cars,

  • especially in electric vehicles

  • and this one's just very simple, it's horizontal,

  • really slender and it just presents only the amount

  • of information that you really need.

  • Just some speed, what mode you're driving in,

  • things like that.

  • Another thing that I really am happy to see in here

  • and I think is gonna be really important

  • is there's a driver monitoring system

  • just above the steering wheel.

  • Ford says that this is gonna be equipped the second version

  • of its Co-Pilot 360 advanced driver assistance system,

  • and that it eventually wants

  • to allow for hands-free highway driving.

  • And if they're gonna be offering that feature,

  • it's good that they're gonna have something in the car

  • that's gonna make sure that drivers

  • are paying attention on the road.

  • One of the biggest problems right now

  • with these advanced driver assistance systems

  • is that people get overconfident with them,

  • they think that they're gonna be able to do more

  • than what they can actually do.

  • And when they take their attention away from the road,

  • and the car needs them to take back over.

  • There's a disconnect there

  • and it can lead to really bad things.

  • This is something that Tesla doesn't even have on its cars.

  • Elon Musk has said that he doesn't think we need it.

  • A lot of other people disagree

  • and I'm happy that Ford included it here.

  • Now Ford called this thing a Mustang,

  • so it's promising Mustang performance,

  • and with the GT version which goes zero to 60,

  • in either three or a little bit more than four seconds,

  • that sounds pretty comparable.

  • But the rest of them are gonna be a little bit slower.

  • I got a ride in a prototype version

  • of the Mustang Mach-E the other day.

  • It was one of the premium trim, so it wasn't the fastest,

  • but it felt pretty fast.

  • It was fast enough to push you back in your seat

  • a little bit.

  • It had that exciting feeling

  • of the instant torque you get from an electric motor.

  • But honestly, I was just more impressed with the sort

  • of cohesive feeling of the inside of the car.

  • There's a lot of headroom,

  • a lot of legroom, even in the back.

  • And especially when you have

  • the panoramic glass roof above you

  • it feels even more open.

  • This is not a cramped car, like some other sort

  • of crossover or small SUVs can feel.

  • This has got a lot of room inside.

  • And Ford's really promising that this is going

  • to be a five seater with a lot of room for a full family.

  • The whole deal here is to give Mustang-style performance

  • with the ability to throw your entire family in the car.

  • Now one thing that's probably gonna be pretty divisive

  • about this car is that there's no traditional door handles.

  • There are buttons on the B-pillars and C-pillars

  • that you push that pop the doors open.

  • They also unlock as you sort of walk up to the car

  • as long as you have your smartphone with you.

  • There are little sort of like winglet handles

  • on the front doors that you can grab

  • to open the door once you've unlocked it.

  • But it's just definitely a different approach.

  • We've seen some other cars do stuff like this,

  • where door handles present themselves or things like that.

  • But this is definitely a bit of a different take

  • that we haven't really seen here in the US

  • and especially from a company like Ford.

  • One of the most remarkable things about the Mustang Mach-E

  • is that it basically didn't exist

  • in pretty much any form two and a half years ago.

  • Ford was actually working on what they call

  • basically another compliance car,

  • something based on the Ford Focus,

  • but the company's new CEO came in

  • and he took a look at the landscape,

  • looked at all the other automakers moving

  • into the electric vehicle space, trying to chase Tesla

  • and said, no, we need to come up

  • with something more exciting.

  • They put a team together and that team came back

  • to the company and said, let's make a Mustang.

  • They actually convinced them to do it

  • and two and a half years later,

  • we're here with the Mustang Mach-E,

  • it's pretty remarkable to see that quick

  • of a turnaround from a traditional automaker.

  • They have a lot of work to do on the software still

  • and I'm sure there's a lot more work to do on the tuning

  • to make sure that the car really does feel like a Mustang.

  • But it seems like Ford's on the right path of this.

  • And honestly, they better be

  • because they're calling this thing a Mustang

  • and people aren't going to take that lightly.

  • Hey, everybody, thanks for watching.

  • Make sure you like and subscribe

  • and let me know in the comments what you think of this car.

  • Do you hate the front end?

  • Do you hate that there is no door handles?

  • Do you really love that there's an electric Mustang coming?

  • I wanna hear about it, let me know.

  • Thanks for watching.

(upbeat music)

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