food has been paying a bit fast and
loose recently with its badges hasn't it
a refer of course to the Pew formerly a
little Terrier of a coop a recently
resurrected as yet another small SUV and
now there's this an all-electric SUV
with a Mustang badge on its nose hey
what you're looking at is the new Ford
Mustang Mac II that's right
Ford has named a battery-powered SUV
after the world's most famous muscle car
the Mackay bit is a nod to the
high-performance Mustang Mach 1 from the
late 60s it's Ford's first mass-market
electric car the first project from the
internal Evi skunkworks loners team
Edison and you can order your Mustang
wacky now but only through Ford's online
portal with either rear-wheel drive or
dual motor four-wheel drive and the
choice of a 75 kilowatt hour or a 99
kilowatt hour battery pack to save me
reading out an endless list of numbers
here's a split box for you to hit pause
and peruse at your leisure got all that
excellent just in case you didn't know
here's a bit of a breakdown the cheapest
one is the rear-wheel drive 75 kilowatt
hour model which should cost from around
40 grand but you still get 280 miles on
the W ltp range that is an around 252
horsepower the one with the claimed
longest range is the rear-wheel drive
model but with the bigger battery with
that you get 370 miles of range the
fastest one that's the all-wheel drive
model with a big battery you get 332
horsepower they're not 60 in 7 seconds
and the spangly asjuan isn't this this
is just an all wheel drive version but
it's called the first edition it's a
limited run and it gets all the options
labelled on it so stuff like unique
grabber blue paint full-length panoramic
roof of bno sound system 360 degree
cameras the lot no prices for that one
yet but we suspect somewhere north of 50
grand which is all well and good I hear
you cry but none of that apart from you
perhaps the range before you have
fill up again as anything remotely to do
with a good old v8 powered Mustang the
link of course is in the way this thing
okay so we're gonna do our design walk
around the bit now but before we do I
think it's worth just taking a moment
and just taking in this cars overall
design because Mustang and SUV there are
two things that just shouldn't go
together it's like strawberries and
balsamic vinegar but it does kind of
works doesn't it my first impression
when I walked in here was it looks like
a concept car because you got this Bluff
grille you've got no door handles it's
smoother than a production car should be
isn't it anyway let's look at the
details maybe work out why this car
looks like it does and the first thing
is the face unmistakably Mustang right
but get a picture of the the new the
2019 coupe a house and you'll see there
are no actual carryover parts three
stripes and the headlight design that
Mustang of course narrow eyes oh this is
a bit of a giveaway isn't it Mustang
badges there are no Ford badges on this
car
apparently they agonized over this one
internally should it just be an inspired
by Mustang SUV or should it be a proper
extension of the Mustang family the
thinking was if you're proud of the car
the car is good enough go big or go home
and I think they've made the right
decision here that's obviously on the
grill so this is Bluff this whole thing
could have just been flush or it could
have been fake mesh to make it look like
a petrol-powered car but none of those
white works or what they did with this
Bluff grill to let you know it's an
Eevee but then inset it slightly just
hinting at a grill I think works quite
nicely doesn't it and down here are the
air intakes with the switch have been
flaps that you so often see of electric
cars coming around the side
Wheelz yeah these are 19-inch wheels
these are the biggest one that you can
get for the moment at least there's your
charging port then we get to what is
probably the defining feature of the
Mustang Macke that's the gauze the fact
that there are no door handles
obviously there's arrow benefits to that
but I can't think of another car that
didn't have door handles cut into the
sheet metal the McLaren 12c
perhaps I'm sure the Internet's gonna
correct me on that but here's how it
works so you hook up your phone to the
card you can use your phone as a key or
you have your key in the pocket and as
you approach the car the door opens
automatically by about 4 inches I don't
have my phone hooked up to the car so
I'm going to push this button instead if
I push that and the door comes out to
meet you you stick your fingers behind
it and you open it up simple as that
you'll notice there's a little handle
here that's because in testing some
customers were a bit worried about
getting their fingers in that gap there
so they've included the handle and the
rear door exactly the same push this
button here the door comes out to meet
you stick your hand in and you flick it
open Ford says is actually a lot easier
to open doors like that rather than
having to pull a handle like this when
you got babies in one arm laptops and
the other arm shopping hanging around
your neck who knows and here's another
thing if your phone runs out of battery
or you've lost your key which let's face
it is quite likely then there are
numbers there's a keypad on the b-pillar
here so you can use a four-digit code to
get into the car and then once you're in
there you can put in another four digit
code on the screen to start the thing up
back to the design quite an interesting
feature here you'll notice the body
color comes down here that gives you
that lovely sloping sweeping like
roofline but the actual roof stays a bit
higher it separates away from the body
color that gives you the practicality
that gives you the space inside but in
silhouette you get the design all right
coming around the back what else can I
tell you well
it's a bit of a square isn't it but
there's a reason for that you need this
bluff rear end to keep the air attached
down the side of the car for as long as
possible to reduce the turbulence to
maximize the range what else we got more
Mustang badges more Mustang inspired
lights in fact I spoke to the designer
of this car earlier and he said he
didn't want to be too heavy-handed with
the Mustang design cues that he had a
box of ingredients and in the corner
there was a little part of Mustang spice
and just a word on the dimensions
because frankly I make most cars look
bigger than they are
overall it's 42 millimeters narrower but
16 millimeters longer and 27 millimeters
lower than a Porsche but care in terms
of boot space you get 402 liters or 1420
liters with the rear seats down which is
about 100 litres less than you get with
the Macan but you make that up with a
hundred liter front boot which
interestingly is waterproof and washable
with a drain plug at the bottom perfect
then for very small very wet docks when
it comes to the interior Ford has
clearly taken a leaf out Tesla's book
here because there are physical buttons
here you just can't Oh No there they are
there's some on the wheel there's a gear
selector down there there's a volume
switch on the central screen but you get
the idea screen is king in this car you
get two of them the first is an
instrument cluster behind here 10.2 inch
screen really slim that gives all your
driving information and your speed is
labeled ground speed which is a classic
Mustang Q and then you get the central
portray orientated 15.5 inch screen
which is absolutely massive and in fact
that's half an inch bigger than the one
you get in the model three clear one
average now all the functions on this
screen aren't working because this is an
early prototype but the big idea here is
this is an all-new HMI and it's written
in html5 code rather than software
specific to the car so it's easy to
update and it responds to the screen the
other big idea is the fat
you can run apps from carplay and
android auto simultaneously with native
apps on the screen so for example you
could have Waze running over here
helping you to avoid the traffic but
then Ford's native map over here with
all your charging stops along the way
it's also got over-the-air updates there
is a true range predictor which takes
into account weather and gradient and
traffic along the way to tell you
actually how much range you'll have when
you get there and it's supposed to learn
as you go along so after just a few
hours it'll only bring up the functions
it knows you really need in terms of
seating position we are obviously
slightly higher off the ground but all
the reference points here are taken from
the Mustang so the way the seat relates
to the steering wheel and the shoulder
line here all your reference points are
taken from the Kupe in terms of
materials will there's some quite
interesting stuff going on obviously the
interior is dominated by this slab of
screen in the middle but you've got
quite an interesting mix here leather
seats leather here a sort of fake
carbon-fiber coating here your air vents
and then it gets quite interesting
because this entire panel that runs the
full width of the dash is one of the
speakers from the Bang & Olufsen premium
10 speaker sound system so it's not only
a good place to put the speaker it's
also a nice tactile material to have
right in front of you
Ford has obviously made the most of the
fact that it's gone evie architecture so
you don't have a transmission tunnel
here what you have is a large storage
tray with wireless charging for your
phone another storage tray underneath
big cupholders another storage bin there
and there's space for three full-sized
adults in the back it really is quite a
complete car this especially when you
can see that they developed it from
scratch in just two years ok they did
have an all-new eb platform ready to go
even so it's not just good this car it's
a wrap
it's unlike anything I've ever seen who
forward before and this is just the
beginning of Ford's Evi mission it's
already confirmed the transit and f-150
Ibiza imminent while an even quicker GT
version of the Maquis will arrive in
around nine months interesting isn't it
that Ford has gone premium with this
thing aimed high it's aimed for the
Tesla Model Y in terms of range and tech
and square footage of screen I'll be
honest though when I first heard they
were gonna pimp out the Mustang name in
an SUV I thought that's a horrible idea
but now I see the logic this could have
been just another generic crossover but
instead Ford has taken desirability into
account it's grabbed our attention is it
going to drive like a Mustang no of
course it's not but that's missing the
point isn't it if you're more into v8
some burnouts we'll don't fret the
original Mustang isn't going anywhere
anytime soon
you
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