Reviewed: The Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally – What’s in a Name?

by Greg Karpinski

New to the market for 2021, the Mach-E was Ford’s first real foray into the burgeoning electric vehicle market and, to drive brand recognition, the curious decision was made to apply the Mustang name, branding and styling cues to an electric crossover.  Ford wasn’t the first automaker to bastardize heritage in the name of sales and in an interview with Autocar, Ford CEO Jim Farley was even quoted as saying, “We will never build a Mustang that isn’t a Mustang.  For instance, there will never be room for a small, two-row Ford SUV with a Mustang badge stuck to it.”  He didn’t stop there, continuing, “one thing I can promise; however, is that we will never make an all-electric Mustang.”  That leaves the Mustang Mach-E in a bit of a pickle, as you might imagine. 

The good news is that, regardless of name, Ford built a very good crossover EV. 

The Fine Print: Ford wanted us to try out the Mustang Mach-E Rally so badly they dropped one off with a full charge and even said we

fill it up on their dime at Electrify America charging stations.

The Mustang Mach-E Rally doesn’t just whisper “off-road fun,” it shouts it through a megaphone painted in the eye-searing Grabber Yellow of our tester.  Sitting on chunky, white rally wheels, this electrified banana stallion looks so far removed from its namesake, despite the unmistakable Mustang face and badging all over.  Now it’s lifted, rugged and ready to fling dirt like it’s in a Ken Block tribute video.

Ford leaned hard into the rally look and sought to differentiate the Rally from the Mach-E GT upon which it’s based by including a unique grille shield with integrated fog lights, a revised chin spoiler offering an additional 0.6 degrees of approach angle, a revised suspension with an additional inch of ground clearance and that sweet, Focus RS-inspired rear wing.  Plus graphics.  All the graphics.

The biggest win might be the 19” rally-inspired wheels, which are a love-letter the classic OZ Racing Rally Racing wheels.  Ford lets buyers option them in either black or white and makes the curious decision to have them wear Michelin CrossClimate2 all-season tires with a relatively meager 235 section width for this 5000-pound crossover.  The Mustang cues are plentiful, with the pony logo featured prominently front and rear but one of the best features of the Mach-E is that Ford actually offers colors.  In addition to the vibrant Grabber Yellow of our tester, Ford lets buyers choose from Molten Magenta, Eruption Green and Velocity Blue to help break up the sea of gray in modern parking lots. 

Overall, the look largely works, especially from the front three quarter view.  The strong Mustang cues play nicely into a sharp nose and the integrated fog lights set the Rally apart from other Mach-E’s.  The view from the rear is less endearing as the Mustang styling doesn’t fit on a crossover – the taillights look forced and the proportions are out of whack.  From a usability standpoint, we’d also strongly prefer mechanical door handles over the little popper buttons and the handle nub that our Common Man said strongly resembled a gas station restroom door.

Inside, the Mach-E Rally feels very much like a wannabe Tesla with the giant 15.5-inch touchscreen running Ford’s Sync4A.  This, of course, means you need to use the screen to change things like Drive Modes, vehicle settings, climate control and seat heating.  High-quality buttons are a much better solution for the vast majority of functions, so this is a bit of a disappointment.  Fortunately, Sync4A includes wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and screen resolution is great, but the system responsiveness is a bit laggy when compared to rivals and camera resolution is below average.  One thing Ford got right when compared to Tesla is the dedicated 10.2-inch screen for an instrument cluster. 

The Ford Performance seats manage to be both cushy and supportive and look quite cool with the Oxford White painted seatbacks and performance ActiveX seating material with the reflective Miko inserts.  The front thrones are heated but unfortunately not cooled, which seems a bit of an omission in a nearly $60,000 vehicle.  Passenger volume is decent for the class and even with the rakish rear design, cargo volume is 29.7 cubic feet with the rear seats up and 59.7 with them folded flat.

To build the Mach-E Rally, Ford starts with the dual motor Mach-E GT and includes the optional Performance Upgrade, which adds an extra 100lbft of torque for a total output of 480hp and a stump-pulling 700lbft.  That results in some serious acceleration – the sprint to sixty takes only 3.4 seconds and keeping the accelerator pinned will trip the lights in the quarter mile in 11.9 seconds at 113 miles per hour.  For those of you keeping track at home, that’s quicker than the fire-breathing 500hp Mustang Dark Horse. 

Acceleration is bang on, but handling is a bit of a mixed bag.  In creating the Rally, Ford Performance lifted the suspension an inch and revised the dampers and swaybars to allow more lean and bite when zipping through a rally stage.  Off-road, it absolutely works and RallySport mode allows drivers to engage a serious slip angle and then allow that big power and torque to pull you through turns sideways.  It’s a bit of a hoot, but on road performance suffers as a result and the tires are largely to blame.  The Michelin CrossClimate2s give up grip rather quickly and noisily when pushed, with the car defaulting to understeer at the limit, though it’s easy to rotate with the throttle.

EPA estimated range for the Mach-E Rally is a rather meager 265 miles, down a bit from the Mach-E GT it shares the 91kWh battery pack and dual motors with.  The chunkier wheels and tires and revised design all rob a bit of range and with the rapid acceleration, it’s hard not to degrade that further by romping away from every stoplight in Unbridled Mode.  Charging is best done at home – the 400V architecture only allows charging speeds of up to 150kW on a DC fast charger using the CCS plug, which limits charging options for owners.  Ford has developed a NACS adapter for charging at Tesla Superchargers, but the charging speed is still severely limited by the architecture and the Mach E can only manage going from 10-80% in around 30 minutes.  This really limits the Mach-E Rally’s viability as a road trip vehicle and will require a bit more planning over a comparable Tesla or especially an ICE vehicle.

Our tester included BlueCruise, which is Ford’s Advanced Driver Assistance System that uses over 130,000 miles of mapped highway known as Blue Zones where BlueCruise can operate and change lanes, hands-free.  Engaging the system is relatively straightforward – once the driver has enabled Adaptive Cruise and Lane Keep assist, the car will alert the driver on the digital cluster that they’ve entered a Blue Zone and after one press of the Adaptive Cruise button to set speed, the car will take over.  We found its functionality to be similar to that of Tesla’s original AutoPilot, tracking lanes and other vehicles with relative ease.  Lane changes are prompted by the driver and that functionality could be finicky at times, strongly preferring a nearly empty highway versus the actuality of unpredictable traffic moving at variable speeds.

At $63,580 as tested, the Mustang Mach-E Rally is hardly a bargain – especially when you factor in its limited range, charging architecture and the compromises that come with turning a road-focused EV into a dirt-slinging machine.  But here’s the thing, nobody else is even trying this.  It’s the only truly rally-inspired electric crossover you can buy, blending Mustang attitude with a dose of rally car swagger.  It may not be perfect, but if you want to slide silently through gravel while looking like a hero from a late-night rally stage, this is the only game in town.