Ford’s first modern all-electric car designed from the ground up is set to be revealed on Sunday, November 17 in a live-streamed event from Los Angeles. Immediately following that announcement, the company says it will begin accepting $500 refundable reservations online.
The crossover-style vehicle, Ford calls it an SUV, is set to compete with the Jaguar I-PACE and Audi e-tron which are already available but it is likely to be priced more in line with Tesla’s forthcoming Model Y.
Rumors have it that a standard model battery pack and rear wheel drive will help keep prices in check but it’s official that a larger pack option with around 300 miles of EPA estimated will be available. There are also hints that by using dual motors for all-wheel drive it can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in under 3.5 seconds.
Among the few details officially released so far are some teasers regarding the charging capabilities. According to a press release from Electrify America, the Mach-E will have a “charging ability” of 150 kW allowing it to add “up to 47 miles in 10 minutes”. It also will reportedly charge from 10 to 80 percent adding about 210 miles of range in about 45 minutes.
Taken together, those charging specifications imply that the Mache-E can charge similarly to the Audi e-tron which is unusual in its ability to maintain a 150 kW charging rate nearly all the way to 80 percent state of charge.
The Audi uses pouch cells from LG. Ford has previously used pouch cells from LG in their Focus Electric small car which was sold between 2012 and 2018. It isn’t yet certain who is supplying the cells for the Mach-E.
But what about efficiency? Adding 47 miles of range in 10 minutes at 150 kW implies adding about 25 kWh of energy and dividing that into the added range gives around 500 Wh per mile which is not so great. On the other hand, Ford has said that when charging on 240V AC power at 48A it can add about 32 miles for every hour of charging and that implies a much better efficiency of around 350 Watt hours per mile. The Audi e-tron and Jaguar I-PACE are EPA rated at around 450 Wh per mile.
At 500 Wh per mile, a 300 mile extended range battery pack would have to be around 150 kWh. The largest Tesla battery pack is 100 kWh today but startup electric vehicle maker Rivian says it will soon sell pickups and an SUV with batteries packing as much as 180 kWh. On the other hand, at 350 Wh per mile it would only take a battery size of around 105 kWh to do 300 miles. The e-tron and I-PACE manage just over 200 miles of range with packs a bit under 100 kWh.
The confusion should soon be clarified as Ford shares many more technical details about the new electric Mustang with the media between now and the public November 17 event. In the meantime, the YouTube channel E for Electric has a very good context-setting discussion with InsideEVS contributor Tom Moloughney which is embedded above.
Electric Revs will be in Los Angeles covering Ford’s technical briefing on the Mach-E later this week and will have more details soon along with coverage of many other events and EV news coming out of the LA Auto Show which opens to the public on November 22 and Automobility LA which precedes it.
Categories: General
Electric Revs 
Based on the numbers, I think the Mach-E is very similar to the Jaguar I-PACE and Mercedes EQC. Most likely, the Mach-E’s EPA efficiency is around 3.3 mi/kWh with a 90 kWh battery pack. If it does maintain a similar charging rate all the way to 80%, it’s peak DCFC rate would only be 85 to 90 kW. Still, that’s a better average charging rate than most EVs are capable of.
LikeLike