A good EV: A road trip with and review of the Ford Mustang Mach-E

Enlarge / No matter if you call it Rapid Red, candy-apple red, or cherry red, it looks gorgeous on the Mach-E. (credit: Eric Bangeman)

Last February, we had a chance to spend a couple of days with the Ford Mustang Mach-E. Automotive Editor Jonathan Gitlin's take on the Mach-E was largely positive, but the short testing window he had left us with some unanswered questions. So when a cherry red Rapid Red Mustang Mach-E recently appeared in front of my house, I set about to get some answers.

In particular, I wanted to find out how good of a battery-electric vehicle the Mach-E is. I jumped on the BEV bandwagon in January 2020 with the purchase of a Jaguar I-Pace. In that time, our family has put over 20,000 miles on it, with a good proportion of those driven between our home in suburban Chicago and my grandparents' old place outside of Shelbyville, Illinois. With a door-to-door distance of 216 miles (418 km) that covers suburban, interstate, and country driving, it's a good opportunity to see if a car's range is as advertised and how real-world driving conditions can affect BEV range.

Ford sent us another Premium e-AWD model with a usable battery capacity of 88 kWh and a sticker price of $56,200. The twin electric motors churn out 346 hp (258 kW) of power and 428 lb-ft (580 Nm) of torque, and the compact SUV has an advertised range of 270 miles. Driving down to Shelbyville and back would give a good read on range and power consumption in different driving conditions.

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