Ford just put out the sketch above to talk about its upcoming “Mustang-inspired” Mach 1 electric crossover along with the line that the company wants it to get 300 miles of range. These two points seem to contradict each other.
You can read Ford’s full press release here on Medium if you’re curious, because Ford is a tech company now. (Hey, we tried that once too! Good luck to all involved.)
So, let’s assume the crossover is going to get 300 miles of range. So far the only EVs that have that kind of range are vehicles that have been built on dedicated electric vehicle platforms. VW, which is in the midst of going all-out on EVs just put out a statement to that effect when it said its next EV will be on a dedicated platform, as reported by the Financial Times:
As VW executives see it, the problem is that the company has been producing electric cars with an “assembly toolkit” tailored for petrol and diesel vehicles. The e-Golf and the e-Up, introduced in 2013, were in effect existing models stuffed with batteries but, even today, the best versions have a top range of 300km.
“To make it a fully fledged electric car, you need to start with a battery pack between the wheels and then you build up the car,” Herbert Diess, chief executive of the VW Group, told the FT at the Geneva car show in April. “Then you have an effective battery system, the range, and you get a lot of freedom for the design of the car, to make more interior space with the same footprint.”
What I’m getting at is if Ford does actually base the Mach 1 on the upcoming rear-drive platform built for the Mustang, Explorer and various Lincolns—that is, if the Mach 1 really is Mustang related—I don’t see how it’s going to get that kind of range. All the EVs that are built off of normal car platforms are in the low to mid 200s.
So either the Mach 1 gets the range, or its connection to a Mustang is just a name and some taillights.
We’ll see, I guess, where Ford puts its priorities.
UPDATE: Thursday, September 6, 2018, 4:36 p.m. ET: Ford called me up to affirm that the car will not be Mustang-based. Ford wanted this abundantly clear that it will not share its architecture with the rear-drive Mustang at all.
The car will be on dedicated battery-electric architecture.
Priorities clarified, then. Name and taillights. Got it.