Cars

here’s-how-an-off-road-racing-series-will-make-its-own-hydrogen-fuel

Here’s how an off-road racing series will make its own hydrogen fuel

Cars, Extreme E, Features, hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen production, off-road racing, racing / /

Inside Extreme E’s Hydrogen Ambition —

Extreme E, the electric off-road series, is switching to hydrogen in 2025.

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DECEMBER 03: Lia Block (USA) / Timo Scheider (DEU), Carl Cox Motorsport, battles with Amanda Sorensen (USA) / RJ Anderson (USA), GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing during the Copper X-Prix, Chile on December 03, 2023. (Photo by Colin McMaster / LAT Images)

Enlarge / Extreme E travels to remote locations by boat and brings its own energy infrastructure with it. Currently, it makes its own hydrogen on site and uses that to charge EV batteries, but in 2025, the cars will switch to hydrogen fuel cells.

Colin McMaster / LAT Images

ANTOFAGASTA, Chile — On a picnic bench in Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the most remote locations on Earth, Alejandro Agag is holding court.

“Welcome to the edge of the world,” he laughs, gesturing toward the vast desert around him. A gust of wind kicks a cloud of sand and dust across the table. “It’s amazing, this place.”

The 53-year-old Spanish entrepreneur is taking in the sights and sounds of the season 3 finale of Extreme E, the off-road electric racing series he launched in 2021. Part of the series’ ethos is that it races exclusively in regions of the globe that are heavily impacted by climate change (such as the Atacama Desert—the driest, non-polar region on Earth), typically with no spectators present.

And while the competition during the finale is dramatic—with five of the series’ 10 teams in contention to win the championship—racing has taken a firm backseat this weekend. Conversation instead has centered on Agag’s recent proclamation that Extreme E will rebrand as Extreme H in 2025, becoming the first racing series powered fully by hydrogen.

“We want to be the first to be doing it,” says Agag, holding his hand up to shield his face from the still-swirling sand. “The challenge is there, and we love challenges—the challenge of working with a whole new technology, relevant technology that can have real, huge uses in the economy in general.”

The races are short heats on off-road courses.

Enlarge / The races are short heats on off-road courses.

Extreme E

Agag is no stranger to pioneering new racing technology: He is also the founder and chairman of Formula E, which was the first all-electric racing series when it debuted in 2014. To bolster his credibility in establishing Extreme H by 2025, Agag recently announced that the fledgling series would be joining a working group with Formula 1 and the International Automobile Federation (FIA) to further explore the development of hydrogen fuel. Extreme H is also slated to gain FIA World Championship status by 2026.

“My idea, my pitch, for Formula 1 was to say, listen, you don’t know which technology will be the winning one,” Agag explains. “For the moment, you are betting on synthetic fuels… but hydrogen is going to be, maybe, one technology that could be part of the equation. So that’s all that it is, for Formula 1 to keep an eye on what’s going to happen here. And what’s going to happen is we’ll have the first—and, I think for quite a while, the only—pure hydrogen world championship racing.”

In many ways, the working group makes a lot of sense: Five of Extreme E’s existing 10 teams have direct or tangential ties to Formula 1, with the likes of McLaren, Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, and Jenson Button among its team owners. And the use of hydrogen has become an enticing prospect for all of motorsports, partly because it can be used in combustion engines (“They [Formula 1] like noise… and combustion makes noise!” Agag laughs).

Of course, using hydrogen exclusively to fuel a racing series is no small feat, and other hydrogen-based projects have been plagued by setbacks and delays in recent months. Most notably, the Le Mans hydrogen class has already been delayed to 2027, citing safety concerns.

But Extreme E believes its style of racing—short sprints that last approximately 10 minutes—is perfectly suited to showcasing and testing the power of hydrogen fuel cells, and the series’ leadership is confident that after initial testing last month, they will be running their first fully hydrogen race by February 2025.

At Extreme E's race site in Atacama Desert, a series of solar panels are set up in the center of the race site.

Enlarge / At Extreme E’s race site in Atacama Desert, a series of solar panels are set up in the center of the race site.

Gregory Leporati

Getting all the operations up and running in only 13 months certainly won’t be easy, though. “Switching that one letter to H means we have to switch a million other things,” Agag says.

Here’s how an off-road racing series will make its own hydrogen fuel Read More »

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Tesla Model 3 may lose $7,500 tax credit in 2024 under new battery rules

Cars, IRS clean vehicle tax credit, Tesla, tesla model 3 / /

FEOC —

Tesla’s website confirms the tax credit for the electric sedan is going away.

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Tesla Model 3 may lose $7,500 tax credit in 2024 under new battery rules

Jonathan Gitlin

Tesla has engaged in a series of price cuts over the past year or so, but it might soon want to think about making some more for the Model 3 sedan. According to the automaker’s website, the Tesla Model 3 Long Range and Tesla Model 3 Rear Wheel Drive will both lose eligibility for the $7,500 IRS clean vehicle tax credit at the start of 2024. (The Model 3 Performance may retain its eligibility.)

From Tesla's website.

From Tesla’s website.

Tesla

The beginning of 2023 saw the start of a new IRS clean vehicle tax credit meant to incentivize people by offsetting some of the higher purchase cost of an electric vehicle. The maximum credit is still $7,500—just like the program it replaced—but with a range of new conditions including income and MSRP caps, plus requirements for increasing the amount of each battery that must be refined and produced in North America.

A new hiccup appeared at the start of December 2023, though—in the form of new guidance from the US Treasury Department regarding “foreign entities of concern.”

China is one of those foreign entities of concern (along with Russia, North Korea, and Iran), and the new guidance says that an EV cannot be eligible for tax subsidies if the components were manufactured or assembled in those countries, or if some of the battery minerals were extracted or refined in those countries (beginning in 2025). It also applies to batteries made by companies that are owned or controlled by foreign entities of concern.

Given the high degree of Chinese state involvement in that country’s auto industry, this will probably mean that fewer EVs will qualify for the tax credit next year.

Tesla is not forthcoming on its site about the reason for losing the tax credit for these Model 3 variants, but it’s not the only automaker to face this problem. Ford also believes the Mustang Mach-E will lose its $3,750 tax credit eligibility on January 1, 2024.

Tesla Model 3 may lose $7,500 tax credit in 2024 under new battery rules Read More »

with-the-heybike-ranger-s,-the-s-stands-for-scooter

With the Heybike Ranger S, the S stands for scooter

Cars, e-bike, electric bicycle, Heybike, personal mobility / /

Urban runaround —

A very fast and foldable e-bike with brake lights, directionals, and a horn.

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Image of a foldable bicycle with a low seat and tall handlebars.

John Timmer

The arrival of e-bikes has blurred the lines between bicycles, mopeds, and scooters. Depending on what country or state you’re in, some e-bikes can legally hit 45 km/hour (28 mph), yet they don’t require a license, registration, or insurance, unlike their competitors. Whether that’s a good or bad thing depends on whether the bike riders in your area ride like lunatics or not.

Regardless of how you feel about the state of things, it’s definitely true that most e-bikes are relatively bike-like compared to mopeds and scooters, lacking things like brake lights, directionals, and other components that make navigating in urban environments a bit safer. Most, but not all. Heybike offers a number of scooter-substitute e-bikes that come with a powered horn, brake lights, directionals, and a zippy motor. As a bonus, they’re foldable. We checked out its latest model, the $1,499 Ranger S.

A foldable heavyweight

Let’s address one thing right away: In our review of the Ranger S’s sibling (the Tyson), we ran into a number of mechanical problems that threatened to make the bike unusable. The only real issue we saw on the Ranger S was a rapidly fluctuating reading of battery capacity. Otherwise, the bike was solid.

Another minor problem we had was with a metal loop that Heybike includes to protect the rear derailleur from damage. Apparently, it served that role during shipping, as it was bent in such a way that it kept the derailleur from reaching the smallest two gear rings. This was pretty easy to spot, and also easy to bend back into its normal position, after which all seven gears were accessible.

The hinge in the center of the frame that allows the bike to fold. The release will only move if the silver metal slider embedded in it is pushed upward from beneath.

Enlarge / The hinge in the center of the frame that allows the bike to fold. The release will only move if the silver metal slider embedded in it is pushed upward from beneath.

John Timmer

The bike’s folding mechanism worked without issue—the frame folds in half so that the front and rear wheels wind up next to each other, and the handlebars fold down to the side. When folded, a different metal loop keeps the front gear ring from resting on the ground.

This is not, however, a “fold it and carry it up the stairs to your apartment” bike. The Ranger S weighs over 32 kg (72 lbs). That’s over 15 kg more than the Gocycle folding bike we reviewed earlier, and it’s enough to make moving it around a challenge. It also lacks any sort of mechanism for holding the bike in a folded position (I’d recommend investing in a bungee cord if you get one), meaning it has a tendency to flop back open as you’re shifting it, adding to the challenge.

This is not to say the folding is pointless. You can definitely store it in a smaller space than many other e-bikes. And it was a snap to lift it into the hatchback I drive, allowing me to take the car in for service without needing to find a place to sit for a few hours. But it doesn’t open up the full range of use cases that an easier-to-manage folding bike would.

When fully folded, the Ranger S is fairly compact but awkwardly heavy.

Enlarge / When fully folded, the Ranger S is fairly compact but awkwardly heavy.

John Timmer

The upside of the robust construction is that the Ranger S can haul a lot of stuff. The total capacity is listed as 180 kg (400 lbs) between rider and cargo. Heybike offers panniers for the rear rack, with 30 liters of capacity, and you can place up to 13 kg (28 lbs.) in an optional front basket. This isn’t a cargo bike, but it can definitely haul some groceries home, even if you’re a heavy rider.

The drivetrain

The Ranger S is a Class 3 e-bike, meaning it has a maximum speed of 45 km/hour (28 mph). That comes thanks to a 750-watt motor that can hit a peak output of 1,200 W. Heybike rates its 14.4 Ah battery as providing enough juice to provide pedal assist for up to about 90 km (55 miles), but that is presumably at its lowest assist setting. It’s clear that running it on its maximum assist setting burned through the battery far more quickly than that, although the rapidly fluctuating battery meter on the display made it difficult to tell just how much more quickly—or how much further I could go before the battery went flat. Range anxiety joined me for many of my rides.

The motor is tied to a cadence sensor, which registers when you’re turning the pedals and kicks in the assist if you are. Since you have to pedal an otherwise very heavy bike for a bit before the sensor triggers the motor, there’s also a throttle that will take you up to 32 km/hour (20 mph) before cutting out.

With the Heybike Ranger S, the S stands for scooter Read More »

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Porsche gives Ars a look inside its next EV: The all-electric Macan

battery electic vehicle, Cars, porsche, porsche macan, Premium Platform Electric / /

macan a new one —

Porsche’s sporty SUV is about to go electric; here’s what to expect.

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Three prototype Macans drive on a test track

Enlarge / Porsche’s all-electric Macan is almost on sale.

Porsche

LEIPZIG, Germany—The Porsche Macan has carved out a rather solid reputation for itself over the years, bringing hot hatch-like driving fun to the premium midsize crossover segment. Next year there’s an all-new Macan, an entirely electric one that makes use of a new EV platform shared with corporate sibling Audi. Earlier this summer we spent a few hours driving prototype Macan EVs around Los Angeles, but at the time Porsche was being tight-lipped in terms of technical details. Now, on a visit to the factory in Germany where the cars will be made, we’ve learned a little more.

PPE

The new Macan is one of the first EVs to utilize Premium Platform Electric, which Porsche is developing together with Audi. Other PPE-based EVs due in the near future include the Audi Q6 e-tron SUV, A6 e-tron sedan, and maybe even a station wagon, and if you click some of those links you’ll find deadlines that have come and gone sometime in the past.

That’s because development of PPE hasn’t gone quite as smoothly as everyone at Volkswagen Group would have hoped. A significant factor in that has been software-related trouble at CARIAD, VW Group’s new software division. But the first PPE cars are headed to market soon, and in the case of the Macan, with more than 1.8 million miles (3 million km) of testing under its tires.

  • We were treated to a rather energetic track ride in the new Macan.

    Porsche

  • There’s an off-road course next to the Porsche factory in Leipzig.

    Porsche

  • The factory in Leipzig (seen here in 2019) has been carbon-neutral since 2021, and can build electric Macans alongside conventional or plug-in hybrid Panameras and Cayennes.

    Porsche

New drive units

The Macan’s permanent magnet synchronous electric motors are similar to those found in the Porsche Taycan, and like that EV, the Macan (and all other PPE vehicles) operates at 800 V. The higher voltage means less copper is required for wiring, and there’s an additional payoff in terms of faster DC charging. Porsche says the lamination of magnets on the rotors has been improved over the Taycan, as has the water cooling.

There are slight differences between the front- and rear-axle drive units. The front drive unit sticks with U-shaped hairpin copper wires for the stator, and silicon electronics in the inverter, but the rear drive unit moves to I-pin stator wiring and silicon carbide for the inverter, which enables higher switching frequencies.

  • This is the front drive unit.

    Porsche

  • And that same drive unit installed in a powertrain.

    Jonathan Gitlin

  • Here’s a rear drive unit.

    Porsche

  • And the rear drive unit installed in a rolling chassis.

    Jonathan Gitlin

  • Part of our briefing on the new Macan included using VR to examine different internal components.

    Jonathan Gitlin

All Macans will use the same front drive unit, but there are two rear drive units available; the most powerful Macan Turbo has a motor that’s 10 mm longer and 20 mm wider at the rear axle. Expect outputs around 603 hp (450 kW) and 737 lb-ft (1,000 Nm) for that top-spec car, which, as I discovered in LA, is a lot of fun to drive.

The powertrain can regenerate up to 240 kW under braking, at deceleration rates of up to 4.3 m/s2. Porsche’s management board continues to fight philosophical battles over the merits of one-pedal driving; for now there’s quite little (as with the Taycan), and you need to press the brake pedal to slow (which will regeneratively brake the car until you pass that deceleration threshold.) But the flip side is a car that is extremely efficient at coasting.

A new battery pack

All Macans will feature a 100 kWh (gross capacity) battery pack. It uses 12 modules with 15 prismatic cells in each, with a nickel cobalt and manganese cell chemistry. It has 23 percent more energy density and much more energy content per module than the Taycan’s pack and uses 60 percent less cobalt. Porsche says the pack has been designed to be much more repairable, with easily replaceable modules.

Porsche

You’ll find charging ports on either side of the Macan—both will accept an AC charge at up to 11 kW, and one will also accept a DC charging plug. At an 800 V DC fast charger, the Macan should charge at up to 270 kW, and go from 10-80 percent state of charge in 22 minutes. If you only have access to a 400 V DC fast charger, the battery pack effectively splits itself into a pair of 400 V batteries that can charge in parallel at up to 150 kW.

(As yet there’s no word from Porsche as to whether it will adopt the North American Charging Standard for US EVs, so expect cars in our market to come with CCS1 plugs, at least until further notice.)

New infotainment

Miriam Mohamad, a UI/UX manager at Porsche, gives Ars a demonstration of the company's next infotainment system.

Enlarge / Miriam Mohamad, a UI/UX manager at Porsche, gives Ars a demonstration of the company’s next infotainment system.

Porsche

There’s also a new iteration of PCM, Porsche’s infotainment system. It’s now built on the Android Automotive OS, although the user interface theme will be extremely familiar if you’ve been in a current Porsche. There’s excellent onboard voice control (in 23 languages), supplied by Cerence as opposed to Google Voice Assistant, and there’s an area microphone that can tell which seat you’re sitting in if you issue it a command.

The cockpit also features an ambient light strip that provides visual cues for various events, from indicating that the voice assistant is listening to showing charging status to giving you an egress warning to let you know not to door an approaching cyclist.

Porsche gives Ars a look inside its next EV: The all-electric Macan Read More »

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Tesla again threatens to sue Cybertruck buyers who try to resell the cars

Cars, Policy, Tesla Cybertruck / /

Do not sell happy fun truck —

Clause deleted from public version of terms is in the contract sent to buyers.

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Tesla's boxy cybertruck displayed outdoors in New York.

Enlarge / Tesla Cybertruck displayed at Lincoln Center in New York.

Getty Images | Roman Tiraspolsky

Tesla has revived a contract clause that says the electric carmaker could sue Cybertruck buyers for $50,000 or more if they resell during their first year of ownership.

As we reported a month ago, the Cybertruck-only clause was added to the public version of Tesla’s Motor Vehicle Order Agreement Terms & Conditions and then deleted after the lawsuit threat attracted some attention. But now, people who ordered the limited launch edition “Foundation Series” Cybertruck say the order agreement they received from Tesla has the clause added back in.

The clause says Cybertruck buyers must offer the car back to Tesla at a reduced price before any attempt to resell the vehicle within one year of delivery. If Tesla declines to buy the Cybertruck back, the owner could resell it only if Tesla provides “written consent.”

“You agree that in the event you breach this provision, or Tesla has reasonable belief that you are about to breach this provision, Tesla may seek injunctive relief to prevent the transfer of title of the Vehicle or demand liquidated damages from you in the amount of $50,000 or the value received as consideration for the sale or transfer, whichever is greater. Tesla may also refuse to sell you any future vehicles,” the clause said.

Ars was contacted by one Cybertruck buyer who provided us with a copy of the order agreement he received after submitting a $122,135 order. The agreement received by this buyer contains the resale-lawsuit clause that was deleted last month from the public version of the order agreement. The public version has a rule against quick resales but not a specific lawsuit threat.

The buyer told us that he paid a $250 order fee on Friday and previously paid a $100 reservation fee. According to the order agreement, Tesla doesn’t have to refund those types of fees if a buyer cancels a purchase after submitting a completed order.

Invitations to order sent Friday

The clause’s reappearance was also confirmed Friday in a post on a Cybertruck buyers forum. People who made early Cybertruck reservations received their invitations to order the limited-availability Foundation Series edition on Friday.

As an Electrek article notes, it’s unclear whether the clause applies only to the Foundation Series version of the Cybertruck. “It might just be for the Foundation series, or might be for all Cybertrucks for a while—until it is available in more than ‘limited quantity,'” the article said.

The public version of Tesla’s Cybertruck pre-order agreement has an anti-resale clause that says the company “may unilaterally cancel any order that we believe has been made with a view toward resale of the Vehicle or that has otherwise been made in bad faith.” That version doesn’t include the lawsuit threat that was sent to buyers.

One person who posted in the Cybertruck forum was unhappy that they only received the version of the order agreement with the lawsuit warning after paying a $250 order fee. The buyer who provided us with a copy of his order agreement called it “ridiculous” that the clause “is not in bold print on the order page.”

The $120,000 Foundation Series is reportedly limited to 1,000 cars. Tesla’s website says the Cybertruck versions costing $68,890 and $96,390 will be available in 2024, and a $49,890 version will be available in 2025.

Tesla again threatens to sue Cybertruck buyers who try to resell the cars Read More »

ford-f-150-lightnings-will-soon-offer-home-ac-power,-possibly-cheaper-than-grid

Ford F-150 Lightnings will soon offer home AC power, possibly cheaper than grid

battery EVs, bidirectional charging, Cars, EVs, Ford, Ford F-150 Lightning, pickup trucks, V2H, vehicle to home / /

A giant battery that happens to have wheels —

It’s only one truck and one thermostat, but it could be the start of a V2H wave.

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It's a hefty plug, but it has to be so that an F-150 Lightning can send power back to the home through an 80-amp Ford Charge Station Pro.

Enlarge / It’s a hefty plug, but it has to be so that an F-150 Lightning can send power back to the home through an 80-amp Ford Charge Station Pro.

Ford

Modern EVs have some pretty huge batteries, but like their gas-powered counterparts, the main thing they do is sit in one place, unused. The Ford F-150 Lightning was built with two-way power in mind, and soon it might have a use outside emergency scenarios.

Ford and Resideo, a Honeywell Home thermostat brand, recently announced the EV-Home Power Partnership. It’s still in the testing phases, but it could help make EVs a more optimal purchase. Put simply, you could charge your EV when it’s cheap, and when temperatures or demand make grid power time-of-use expensive (or pulled from less renewable sources), you could use your truck’s battery to power the AC. That would also help with grid reliability, should enough people implement such a backup.

The F-150 Lightning already offers a whole-home backup power option, one that requires the professional installation of an 80-amp Ford Charge Station Pro and a home transfer switch to prevent problems when the grid switches back on. Having a smart thermostat allows for grid demand response, so the F-150 would be able to more actively use its vehicle-to-home (V2H) abilities.

It’s one vehicle and one thermostat, but it’s likely just the start. General Motors’ latest Ultium chargers, installed with its 2024 EVs, will also offer bi-directional home charging. The 2024 GM EVs scheduled to implement V2H are generally pretty hefty: the Chevrolet Silverado EV RST, GMC Sierra EV Denali Edition 1, Chevrolet Equinox EV, Cadillac Escalade IQ, and the comparatively smaller Cadillac Lyriq.

Ford and GM are also partnering with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) to research bi-directional charging programs. Beyond a single vehicle powering a single home, there’s movement toward incorporating EVs into “V2G,” or vehicle-to-grid charging. V2G programs typically involve a utility, with an owner’s consent, using some of a car’s battery power to stabilize the grid during extreme heat events, making the grid more flexible. Roughly 100 V2G pilot programs were launched or being researched in late 2022 when California became interested in wide-scale implementation.

Ford’s FordPass app already allows F-150 Lightning owners to manage how much of their battery is made available during power outages and notifies them when a switchover is happening. Such an opt-in, limited option would likely be part of Ford and Resideo’s partnership. Still, there are many questions inherent to any kind of automated grid power, including those around battery degradation, privacy, and, of course, a new wrinkle on range anxiety.

Ford F-150 Lightnings will soon offer home AC power, possibly cheaper than grid Read More »

revisiting-the-ford-mustang-mach-e—how’s-the-pony-ev-doing-3-years-later?

Revisiting the Ford Mustang Mach-E—how’s the pony EV doing 3 years later?

car review, Cars, electric car review, Ford Mustang Mach-E / /

yay or neigh —

This midsize crossover EV has a lot more competition than when it debuted in 2021.

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A Ford Mustang Mach-E, head-on

Enlarge / The Ford Mustang Mach-E is now in its third year of production, so it felt like a good idea to see how it’s maturing.

Jonathan Gitlin

When Ars first drove the then-new Ford Mustang Mach-E back in early 2021, the car was an attention magnet. Now, almost three years later, the Mustang Mach-E is a much more common sight on our roads, but so are other electric crossovers from most of Ford’s usual rivals, including the sales juggernaut that is the Tesla Model Y. We decided to book a few days with a Mustang Mach-E to see how (or if) this equine EV has matured since launch.

Originally, Ford had been working on a much more boring battery electric car until Tesla started delivering its Model 3s, at which point a hastily convened “Team Edison” set to work adding some much-needed brio to the design, rethinking Ford’s EV strategy in the process.

Giving this midsize crossover EV a Mustang name tag remains divisive—I expect a reasonable percentage of comments to this story will be people showing up to complain, “It ain’t no real Mustang.” The crossover’s name is what it is, and there are plenty of Mustang styling cues, but even with the designers’ trick of using black trim to make you ignore the bits they don’t want you to see, there’s no denying the proportions are pretty far from coupe-like.

The Mustang Mach-E has good angles and bad angles.

Enlarge / The Mustang Mach-E has good angles and bad angles.

Jonathan Gitlin

It’s cheaper now

Our test car was a Mustang Mach-E Premium eAWD model with just a single option ticked, the 91 kWh (useable capacity) extended range battery. This increases the car’s EPA range estimate from 224 miles (360 km) to 290 miles (467 km) but costs $8,600, which, combined with the delivery charge, bumps the sticker price to $67,575.

At least, that’s what this Mustang Mach-E cost when it arrived on the press fleet some 5,500 miles ago. Ford had to respond to Tesla’s string of price cuts, dropping the MSRP by almost $7,000 and cutting the cost of the extended range battery to $7,000—when I configure the same spec on Ford’s online car builder, it tells me the total price should be $59,940 with all the various fees. (A further price cut came to most other Mustang Mach-E variants in May, but not for the extended range Premium eAWD.)

And until the end of this year, the EV is still eligible for half of the clean vehicle tax credit. However, Ford believes that $3,750 credit will no longer be available to Mach-E buyers from next year as new rules regarding batteries made by “foreign entities of concern” go into effect. These remove eligibility from EVs batteries made in China or by Chinese-owned companies from January 1, 2024.

Taillights say Mustang, but the car's width and height say crossover.

Enlarge / Taillights say Mustang, but the car’s width and height say crossover.

Jonathan Gitlin

It’s a hard life

The fact that the Mustang Mach-E’s trip computer hadn’t been reset in 3,572 miles (5,749 km) provides an illustrating insight into both the life of a press fleet vehicle as well as the long-term efficiency of this EV. Collectively, the car had been driven very unsympathetically over that time, grading the drivers at 1 percent for deceleration and 2 percent for both acceleration and speed. Despite the lead foot treatment, the average of 2.7 miles/kWh (23 kWh/100 km) matches the EPA efficiency estimate (expressed as 37 kWh/100 miles).

I’m guessing this particular car spent most of those miles in Unbridled, which is what the Mustang Mach-E calls its sport mode. That or Engage, which is the middle of the three settings and the one used to calculate the car’s official efficiency.

In Whisper (think eco mode), you don’t get quite all the 346 hp (258 kW) or the full 428 lb-ft (580 Nm), and the 0–60 time feels between a second or two slower than the 4.8 seconds that’s possible if all the electric horses are harnessed at the same time, at least 3.1 miles/kWh (20 kWh/100 km) should be possible.

Revisiting the Ford Mustang Mach-E—how’s the pony EV doing 3 years later? Read More »