They screened Bullitt over Christmas, Peter Yates’s achingly stylish mess of continuity errors and flying hub caps, where the cars get longer scripts than the actors and Steve McQueen eyebrows have their own credits. Watching this love letter to McQueen and Ford’s ’68 Fastback Mustang was a poignant reminder of how things were and how things are going to be. Notice for instance, that there’s been more fuss over Brexit negotiations on rules-of-origin for lithium-ion batteries than any other motor car parts. Battery electric, whether we like it or not, is happening and in evidence I give you this, the new Ford Mustang Mach-E.  

Where old Mustang was built at Ford’s iconic plant at River Rouge in Michigan (In the Sixties, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas were filmed singing Nowhere To Run in a convertible being built on the assembly line), new Mach-E is built at Ford’s plant in Cuautitlán Izcalli, Mexico – they’re not expecting Little Mix down there anytime soon. 

It goes on sale in the UK this spring, priced from £40,350 – at its launch in 1964, the original Mustang cost $2,500…

So why has Ford dragooned one of its most famous sub brands into an electric future? Clearly the post-Trump world, which promises America rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, will force the pace in battery-electric cars, even in the States. There’s also the prospect of Draconian fines from the EU (and post-Brexit Britain) for failing to meet corporate average carbon-dioxide emissions targets. Ford needs to sell serious numbers of zero-tail-pipe-emissions cars to avoid them. 

The official spin here is that the blue oval chose to put its efforts centre stage with the Mustang name (even though the Mach-e carries no Ford badging) and younger owners will appreciate its SUV style and redolent name. It’s not all electric Mustangs, though; Ford has an option on Volkswagen’s MEB battery-electric chassis technology, which in the future will underpin some rather cheaper battery Fords. 

The Mach-E is based on a much-modified version of the Focus/Kuga platform called GE2, though it’s bigger than both cars, with an overall length of 4,712mm, a body width of 1,881mm and a relatively low roof height of 1,625mm. It seats five in comfort with head and leg room to spare. With the driver on board, it weighs 2.2 tonnes and there’s 402 litres of luggage space with the rear seats up and an 81-litre waterproof, wash-out ‘frunk’ under the bonnet.

You need to do your homework on the brochures here; for starters there are two battery sizes; 88 or 68 (net) kWh, both guaranteed for eight years and 100,000 miles. There’s a choice between single-motor rear-wheel drive, or twin-motor all-wheel drive. The first cars to be offered will be standard rear-drive and 4x4, along with a fully-loaded 4x4 First Edition model. 

Power outputs range from 265bhp for the least powerful battery, rear-drive model, to 346bhp for the AWD extended-range version, which we’ve driven here. Range measured in the WLTP cycle goes from 273 miles to 379 miles respectively for the rear-drive model with the standard and big battery, and from 248 to 336 miles for the equivalent 4x4 models. Just a note here for those calculating a regular long-distance route; using the air conditioning or heating, driving hard, using the lights, demisters and wipers, and hilly terrain will reduce those range predictions by as much as half. 

Later next year we’ll get a high-performance 480bhp GT version. With its larger battery, 4x4 drivetrain and 20-inch wheels, the GT will have a top speed of 124mph, 0-62mph acceleration in 3.7sec and a range of 304 miles. Ford has even produced a 1,400bhp drifting special aimed at making as much brouhaha as possible for the rest of the model range. 

Mach-E has not yet been listed on the Government’s OLEV plug-in grant site, so the cheapest price of £40,350 is for the basic 68kWh rear-drive car without the grant, rising to £57,030 for the AWD 88kWh car as tested, although since the latter is priced over the £50,000 watershed, it will not attract a plug-in grant. The GT version is expected to cost about £75,000. 

Charging the battery to 80 per cent takes about 45 minutes on a 150kW DC fast charger, although there aren’t many of these in the UK. Plugged into a 7.4kW home wall box, a full recharge will take about 14 hours. 

In ‘Infinite Blue’ coachwork, this is a reasonably good-looking, if very American crossover, though the filled-in grille seems derivative of a Tesla and while the slanted rear lamps are traditional Mustang, they’ve also been cribbed by Peugeot for its 3008 SUV.  There are no conventional door handles, just a push-button system and a small finger hook on the back of the door, which takes a bit of getting used to. 

The rear seats fold 60/40 per cent onto their bases, though the high rear floor means the load bed is almost flat though elderly dogs might need a helping hand into the back – the space underneath holds the charging cables. Towing capacity, should you be so moved, is 750kg at the braked maximum. Climb in and this seems like the big family crossover it is. Sight lines obscure the far edges and manoeuvring is tricky and requires all the parking-sensor bells and whistles. The switch gear and steering column stalks are straight out of Ford’s parts bin and are the same as those in a Fiesta, which isn’t the greatest start for a 50-grand car. 

In the centre of the facia, however, is a huge 16-inch upright screen, which handles connectivity, audio, sat nav and heating controls. Again, it’s very like a Tesla, although there is a reason that these big touch screens are taking over, which is that they free up dashboard space and they’re much cheaper than the complex switches required to handle modern-car connectivity. 

There’s some love gone into the facia, though, with grainy twill fabric panels on the dash and red stitching on the vegan-leather upholstered seats. There’s wit in the control logic, too, even if it is corny. Diving modes are a choice of “Active”, “Whisper” and “Untamed” (shouldn’t that be ‘Unbroken’?), the digital speedo has “Ground Speed” written underneath and the propulsion sound is like a gurgling V8. 

The big centre touch screen takes some familiarity to master, although it at least has the Panasonic-developed, large knurled button at the bottom, which adjusts levels according to what is displayed on the screen. There’s a simple capstan control knob to select Drive, Reverse, Neutral or Park, with a Low button in the centre, which simply ups the rate of regeneration braking. You can alter this on the screen, too, which gives a one-pedal operation where the vehicle slows sharply if you lift off the accelerator. 

Connectivity consists of the latest Ford SYNC system, which gives intelligent range and sat nav calculations and voice control. There's the latest camera-and-radar safety systems and an active parking system, powered tailgate, intelligent cruise control, and a panoramic sunroof. 

The 2.2-tonne kerb weight asks quite a lot of the conventional ‘steel’ suspension comprising McPherson-strut front and multi-link independent rear, and fixed-effort dampers (only the GT version gets magnetorheological adjustable dampers). The search for chassis stiffness and restricting body roll has extracted a price in ride quality and the 19-inch Continental tyres clamber around at low speeds, resound off sharp-edged bumps and bash over sleeping policeman. 

The steering feels well weighted, but is noticeably dead feeling around the straight-ahead position with a rushed build up of weight as you turn the wheel. It’s not ghastly and this is certainly a driver’s choice of battery cars, but Ford sets such importance on steering quality that it’s a bit disappointing. 

The motors whine a little, but they accelerate Mach-E with alacrity. Next year’s GT will set a new bar, but this is swift and easy to drive, without leaving your lunch behind, even in Active or Whisper modes. And the throttle action is progressive and well honed, so you don’t get that runaway-train impression that some rivals induce. 

Braking, however, isn’t such a success. The pedal feels wooden and slowing down comes in a series of surges, with a somewhat abrupt halt. The one-pedal operation works as well as most, although the Low setting on the gear selector is perhaps a better solution in town. 

On a miserable and congested day in London, with heater and air con working hard, we reckon the range had fallen from 336 to about 270 miles. Efficiency is a par-for-the-course 3.8 miles per kWh and using the latest UK generation figures, the Mach-e’s well-to-wheels greenhouse gas emissions are 38g/km.  

Just slapping a horse on the front of a family crossover does not a Mustang make. The Mach-E is certainly a better-driving battery car, but weight is its enemy and that low-speed ride is harsh. The good things about this electric Mustang are its range and (relatively) low price, but it feels gimmicky in places and with the Tesla Model Y, the Polestar 2, Audi’s Q4 e-tron and various other Volkswagen rivals all arriving next year, this market segment is about to become a whole lot busier. You’ll probably need to see all those vehicles before you choose to saddle up with a Mustang. 

The Facts

Ford Mustang Mach-E

Price: from £40,000, as tested £57,989 before £3,000 PiGG 

Motor: twin AC synchronous motors on each axle driving through single-speed step-down transmissions. 

Battery 98.7kWh gross (88kWh net), liquid-cooled, 376-cell lithium-ion 

Power/torque: 346bhp/428lb ft  

0-62mph: 5.1 seconds

Top speed: 112mph 

Range: WLTP 336 miles, see text 

Efficiency: 3.8 miles per kWh

CO2 emissions: zero at tail pipe, well-to-wheels 37.9g/km 

VED zero rated.

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