Traditional automotive manufacturers have finally responded after Tesla’s repeated price drops over nearly 6 months. Ford announced another preorder for its electric SUV Mustang Mach-E that comes with an improved driving range, also with a price drop of US$3,000.
The Mustang Mach-E is the second best-selling EV in the US market, and had been sold at an unprecedented volume in 2022, though Ford has not allowed new preorders for quite some time now due to insufficient capacity. The company recently completed the upgrade of production lines for its Mexico plant that will soon begin ramping up capacity, and announced today to be officially reaccepting preorders in the hope of making up for its sluggish sales during Q1 this year.
The new Mach-E has received a major makeover, where all rear-wheel drive models adopted with a standard battery capacity can arrive at a driving range of 400km under the EPA specification, while the AWD model can also go up to 361km, which is a significant improvement from the older version. The new model is fully adopted with LFP batteries, whereas the AWD version would also come with an extra 45 horsepower. Fast charging from 10% to 90% now only takes 33 minutes, which is an improvement of 5 minutes.
Perhaps it is an effective reduction of cost from the new plant, or a response to Tesla’s constant price drops, but the new Mustang Mach-E has fully dropped in prices too, where the high-end and low-end models are now US$4,000 and US$3,000 cheaper, and the lowest price tag has fallen to US$42,995. In addition, 90-days of driving assist system BlueCruise 1.2 is also complimentary upon purchase.
▲ Ford’s 2023 Mustang Mach-E is scheduled to release at the end of the year in Taiwan.
Ford hopes to double the capacity of its new plant this year, and aims to delivery 210K units of electric Mustang. However, Ford must resolve the first issue that is the requirement of the Inflation Reduction Act pertaining to EV assemblage in North America, as well as how raw materials for batteries must also come from the aforementioned continent. This is why Mustang Mach-E owners would only receive 50% of carbon reduction subsidy as high as US$3,750, while Tesla owners would receive US$7,500 in contrast.
(Photo source: Ford)