2026 Ford Mustang Mach-E review

Remember when Ford CEO Jim Farley said his company would “never make an all-electric Mustang“? Something must have been lost in communication, because the Mustang Mach-E is precisely that.

Then again, the Mach-E isn’t really a Mustang. The Blue Oval brand’s electric SUV wears Mustang badges and the iconic pony car’s distinctive triple vertical tail-light elements, and it’s available with rear-wheel drive and a healthy dollop of power and torque too.

But at the same time, it’s an SUV with hardly any of what makes the Mustang coupe legendary – not to mention there’s no roaring V8 because it is, after all, purely battery-electric.

Keep in mind that I have nothing against electric vehicles (EVs), which absolutely have a place in the market and offer a lot if your use case suits their capabilities. The problem is that tacking the Mustang name and badges onto an electric SUV that has no relation to the legendary sports car feels… well, wrong.

But while that might be a popular view, it must be acknowledged that the decision to do so was a clever move on Ford’s part. If nothing else, leveraging the Mustang name has got more people talking about this SUV, despite the ever-growing sea of EVs flooding the Australian market.

You can’t tell us that it hasn’t at least made you aware of the Mach-E, regardless of your opinion on the car.

But even so, the Mustang Mach-E’s 389 sales so far this year in Australia make it Ford’s slowest-selling model, bar the Transit Bus. It may be officially classified as a large SUV but the Mach-E is actually shorter than the top-selling Tesla Model Y, which like other mid-size electric SUVs also dwarfs the Ford in terms of sales.

It found 17,972 new homes in the same period in 2025, while the Kia EV5 attracted 4241 buyers – and even the oft-forgotten Toyota bZ4X has recorded 797 registrations. That EV (along with its Subaru Solterra twin) could soon make the Mach-E an even harder sell when it receives a major update next month, which should bring significant all-around improvements at a much lower price.

But Ford remains confident in its electric Mustang SUV, and is rolling out a raft of minor updates to its styling and powertrain capabilities, the latter including faster charging and a new heat pump.

CarExpert attended the local launch of the updated Mach-E and drove it on major freeways, around outer Melbourne suburbs, and on twisty roads near Healesville to find out whether the changes are worthwhile, or if the Mustang Mach-E is still too niche to threaten the major players.

How much does the Ford Mustang Mach-E cost?

Prices are up for the Mach-E for 2026 (confusingly, Ford refers to it as a 2025 model), meaning the range now starts at $65,990 before on-road costs, which is up by $1000 on the pre-update model. The remaining two variants are both $500 dearer than before.

The price hikes for a model that’s already struggling to sell is interesting, to say the least. After all, the Model Y still starts at $58,900 before on-roads, while the Kia EV5 drops the bar to $56,770 before on-roads – the EV6 is likely more comparable, but that’s dearer at $72,590 before on-roads and selling more slowly than the Mach-E.

Increasingly popular Chinese alternatives are cheaper still: the BYD Sealion 7 costs $54,990 before on-roads, and the Xpeng G6 is priced at $54,800 before on-roads. The point is, the Mach-E is expensive.

It’ll soon get worse too, as those aforementioned updates to the bZ4X and Solterra will no doubt shake things up. We already know the Solterra will be up to $7000 cheaper than before, while boasting a much-improved package – a remarkable change of pace in the context of other EV-averse Japanese brands.

There’s also the recently updated Skoda Enyaq, which starts at $54,990 drive-away for the base 65 Select, or $63,990 drive-away for the more comparable 85 Sportline.

To see how the Ford Mustang Mach-E stacks up against its rivals, use our comparison tool

What is the Ford Mustang Mach-E like on the inside?

This is a classic case of an interior that doesn’t necessarily photograph well but outclasses itself in reality.

The simple shapes, large screen, and otherwise spartan layout are all hallmarks of modern EV interior design. This trend was kick-started by Tesla but, unlike its fellow American brand, Ford has injected a little more tactility into its electric SUV challenger – but it’s not perfect.

The most significant holdup occurs before you even get in. Forget controversies surrounding pop-out door handles, as the Mach-E still has no handles at all.

Instead, you press a touch-sensitive button on the B-pillar to pop open the driver’s door, then pull it open using the fixed grab handle below. This is a needlessly complicated solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

Once you’re in, the cabin is a pleasant place to be. Premium materials and solid ergonomics deliver a strong initial ‘wow’ factor, and it’s easy enough to get comfortable thanks to powered front seat adjustment, even at the bottom of the range.

Synthetic leather upholstery is standard too, providing a nice finish for the surprisingly plush front seats. This is all fantastic, giving the impression that you’ve bought into the world of more luxurious EVs without spending true luxury-car money.

That continues through to the technology, even if we’re not fans of the screen-heavy interiors that EV manufacturers seem to love. This is arguably an area where the Enyaq is a cut above, as its tech is presented in a more hybridised fashion with the inclusion of Skoda’s lovely tactile ‘Smart Dials’.

Ford has something similar, though it’s more rudimentary in both function and form. Glued to the bottom of the Mach-E’s 15.5-inch portrait infotainment screen is a single dial that primarily adjusts audio volume but can also adjust temperature if you first press the on-screen climate controls.

It works fine but is a little unnecessary. Everything else is done solely through the screen, as in other Fords like the Ranger, but those digital climate controls are still as fiddly as always.

We like the level of control you get in the settings menu, but it’ll take a while to get used to it all. Fortunately, the jarring white background can be swapped out for dark mode with a few button presses, again in keeping with the rest of Ford’s portfolio.

The other screen is the slender 10.2-inch unit in front of the steering wheel. This is a tidy display with minimalist graphics, presenting only the most critical information but offering limited customisation.

There’s still a good selection of physical buttons on the leather-wrapped steering wheel, all finished in dull plastic that should be reasonably durable. On that note, piano-black plastic is kept to a minimum and used mostly in areas that shouldn’t attract many fingerprints.

The wheel itself feels on the larger side, making it more SUV-friendly than sporty. This is a bizarre juxtaposition, especially if you’re familiar with the lovely, well-proportioned tiller fitted to Mustang coupes.

There’s a decent amount of storage up front, headlined by a multi-tier centre console with various sliding covers, cupholders, a wireless phone charger, and a nicely padded centre armrest.

The final things worth mentioning up front are the features that set each variant apart. The base Select gets a grey headliner with synthetic leather upholstery, the Premium swaps in a black headliner, and the GT gets firmer seats with stronger bolstering and an embossed ‘GT’ on the centre armrest.

Of course, each variant has a different battery, and the GT flagship is all-wheel drive, but the related interior changes are nothing to get excited about. This leaves the Premium in a weird grey area given it doesn’t add a whole lot to the entry-level Select.

This is largely true with the second row of seats too, as the only real change here is the switch to GT-specific synthetic leather and suede upholstery. It’s still a comfortable area and more than capable of hauling the family.

That said, the bench seat is relatively flat, and the floor feels quite high even without a driveline hump. The sloped roof also makes climbing in a little tight for taller people, not to mention fitting child seats, but you’ll find there’s plenty of space once you’re in and seated.

Amenities include single USB-A and -C ports on the back of the centre console, matching the two up front, along with a pair of rear-facing air vents. All variants also get three top-tether and two ISOFIX anchor points for child seats.

The boot, meanwhile, is decently sized. It’s near enough to the Enyaq (585 litres in SUV body style) but dwarfed by the Model Y’s 938L on-paper figure, though it still feels comparatively spacious – albeit without the deep under-floor cubby of the Tesla.

A powered tailgate is standard, but you’ll have to make do with only a tyre repair kit instead of a spare wheel. Oh, and there’s an additional 49-litre cubby under the bonnet with an internal release should you be small enough to get stuck in it.

To see how the Ford Mustang Mach-E stacks up against its rivals, use our comparison tool

What’s under the bonnet?

There are three trim levels in the Mustang Mach-E range, and each gets a different battery. The longest range claim comes with the mid-spec Premium, which is also the lightest of the three.

The few buyers familiar with the pre-update model will notice battery capacities have changed. The Select now has a 73kWh lithium-ion battery, up from 71kWh, while the Premium gets an 88kWh nickel manganese cobalt unit instead of a 91kWh battery like before.

Nothing has changed for the GT, which still gets a 91kWh lithium-ion battery. Weirdly, none of these tweaks have affected the car’s WLTP driving range – if there have been real-world changes, it’d be splitting hairs to tell the new from the old.

Ford doesn’t quote 0-100km/h sprint times or, more importantly, energy consumption figures. We didn’t get enough time in any one Mach-E on Ford’s launch to record representative real-world energy consumption either, as we saw numbers from 16kWh/100km to 21kWh/100km across a handful of Premium models.

Still, one car’s range estimate seemed to drop in sync with a 65km drive, so we’d expect Ford’s range claims to be reasonably accurate.

To see how the Ford Mustang Mach-E stacks up against its rivals, use our comparison tool

How does the Ford Mustang Mach-E drive?

The Mach-E really is a mixed bag, and that becomes blindingly apparent when you hit the road.

Once you’ve wrapped your head around those nonsensical door handles and planted yourself in the driver’s seat, you’ll take a moment to find the stop/start button behind the steering wheel. Pressing this will trigger an audible ‘startup’ noise to signal the car is on, which is a nice touch in an EV.

As you get comfortable with the aforementioned electric seat adjustment, you might also flick on the climate control. Hot or cold air comes on promptly; this is a result of the new heat pump, which is one of the only major changes for this model update, so it’s fortunately very effective.

So far, so good. The well-constructed and generally tidy interior gives you the sense that there’s been some thought put into the Mach-E, and you wouldn’t be wrong for expecting the trend to continue once you’re on the move.

Flick the column-mounted gear selector to Drive and you’re good to go. Power delivery is smooth, and we found the car quiet and refined in its most docile drive modes, and the cabin well insulated from road noise.

The steering is also nicely weighted in normal driving, and we like that its weight varies with speed. It makes for an easy drive right out of the box, and milling about town or cruising along the freeway is similarly effortless – the car doesn’t feel too big, and outward visibility is good even if the side mirrors seem small.

When you lay your foot into the throttle, the Mach-E responds with a proper shove in the back. Even in the two rear-drive trims (we’ll touch on the GT in a moment), the car has no issue getting its power to the ground and can easily get you out of trouble quickly if need be.

Of course, the rear wheels can easily break traction under high torque loads, which is one of the few tendencies the Mach-E shares with its coupe namesake. It’s also a trait that makes this EV feel alive, making it one of the few EVs that is comfortable letting its hair down.

This is evident once you hit twistier roads, as the car will happily kick its rear-end out under power – like the Mustang coupe, its traction control system is pretty liberal. It can certainly be a good bit of fun, but it’s not quite the well-rounded package it could be.

Handling is fine, but not extraordinary. The car will still follow the steering wheel into and around bends without too much fuss, but it isn’t easy to fully trust that it won’t understeer at any given moment. The Mustang itself isn’t known for being sharp and pointy, so that isn’t the end of the world.

Instead, the Mach-E’s biggest shortfall is its ride quality. It’s simply far too firm, especially given this is largely an electric family SUV, not a sports car – despite the name.

We don’t necessarily dislike firm riding cars, but it only really works when body control is dialled in to match. All three Mach-E variants crash over bumps and toss their occupants around. But interestingly, the two variants with passive suspension seem to ride marginally better than the adaptive alternative.

We were surprised to find that the MagneRide adaptive damping of the GT doesn’t improve the ride like Volkswagen’s comparable Dynamic Chassis Control does with the Enyaq. The GT is especially firm and especially crashy, and it doesn’t even offset that with sharper, more confident handling; it’s still a bit all over the place.

This, paired with the firmer sports seats, makes the GT a fairly unpleasant drive on lumpy rural roads. We had ample time with all three variants, and our opinion is that the Select offers the best compromise between everyday comfort and handling, leading us to prefer it over the other two.

Further, and as much as we know it’s hardly an accurate comparison, the Mustang GT coupe rides so much better. It’s still firm and sporty (and of course lighter), but the setup feels appropriate without bucking you out of your seat.

The big redeeming factor for the GT is its blistering speed. Its all-wheel drive system provides plenty of traction without sapping the liveliness we’ve already mentioned, but even that isn’t enough to justify it over the Select or Premium – especially not for more than $100,000.

Getting from 0 to 100km/h in less than four seconds is cool, but straight-line speed is kind of the default EV party trick. You can at least liven it up a little using any of the three drive modes, with ‘Untame Plus’ being the GT’s ace up its sleeve.

This sharpens throttle response while enabling an electric-acceleration sound that isn’t emulating an engine but instead sounds like a spaceship. We don’t mind this as a small injection of character, and you can feel the powertrain becoming more alive the instant you change modes.

The Mach-E continues to offer a one-pedal drive mode which works well, though we find it odd that you can’t adjust regenerative braking strength separately.

Otherwise, everything in the Mach-E works as intended. There are no annoying safety quirks to bug you, aside from Ford’s typical, almost-too-sensitive passive lane-keep system, but it hardly gets in the way.

So the bones of a genuinely solid electric SUV are here, but the final execution can seem a little underdone.

To see how the Ford Mustang Mach-E stacks up against its rivals, use our comparison tool

What do you get?

As before, there are three variants in the Mustang Mach-E lineup.

2026 Ford Mustang Mach-E Select equipment highlights:

• 19-inch alloy wheels
• Tyre repair kit
• Single-motor drivetrain
• One-pedal drive
• Heat pump
• Automatic LED headlights
• LED tail-lights
• Rain-sensing wipers
• Black power-folding side mirrors
• Puddle lamps with ‘Pony’ projection
• 10-way power-adjustable front seats with memory
• Heated front seats
• Synthetic leather upholstery
• Metal Grey interior stitching
• Heated, synthetic leather-wrapped steering wheel
• 10.2-inch digital instrument display
• 15.5-inch touchscreen infotainment display
• Wireless Apple CarPlay
• Wireless Android Auto
• DAB+ digital radio
• Satellite navigation
• Voice-activated controls
• Wireless phone charger
• 10-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system
• Digital rear-view mirror
• Power tailgate
• Panoramic glass roof
• Dual-zone climate control
• Selectable drive modes
• Keyless entry

Mustang Mach-E Premium adds:

• Brembo front disc brakes
• Painted red brake calipers
• Red interior stitching
• Multi-colour interior ambient lighting
• Black headliner

Mustang Mach-E GT adds:

• 20-inch alloy wheels
• MagneRide adaptive suspension
• Dual-motor drivetrain
• Ford Performance sport front seats
• Performance synthetic leather and suede upholstery
• Metal Grey stitching
• Untame Plus drive mode

To see how the Ford Mustang Mach-E stacks up against its rivals, use our comparison tool

Is the Ford Mustang Mach-E safe?

The 2026 Ford Mustang Mach-E boasts a five-star ANCAP safety rating based on testing conducted by sister organisation Euro NCAP in 2021. This doesn’t apply to the top-spec GT, which is unrated.

Standard safety equipment highlights:

• 10 airbags, incl:
  • Driver
  • Passenger
  • Front side
  • Rear side
  • Full-length curtain
  • Driver knee
  • Front centre
• Autonomous emergency braking
• Blind-spot monitoring
• Evasive steer assist
• Front and rear cross-traffic alert
• Front and rear parking sensors
• Intelligent adaptive cruise control
  • Lane-centring
  • Predictive speed assist
  • Stop/go
• Post-impact braking
• Reverse brake assist
• Surround-view camera
• Traffic sign recognition
• Tyre pressure monitoring

Mustang Mach-E GT removes the front centre airbag.

To see how the Ford Mustang Mach-E stacks up against its rivals, use our comparison tool

How much does the Ford Mustang Mach-E cost to run?

Ford Australia backs the Mustang Mach-E with its five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, alongside a standard eight-year, 160,000km battery warranty. Servicing is required every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first.

Ford’s current pricing guide outlines service costs that alternate between $140 and $185 all the way out to the 12-year mark.

For context, Skoda offers eight- or 10-year service packs for the Enyaq, which cost $1650 and $1950 respectively. Over eight years, the Mach-E will cost $1300 to service, while 10 years bumps that to $1625. So as expensive as it is upfront, the Mach-E is relatively cheap to own.

For further context, the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid costs an average of $270 to service each year over five years.

To see how the Ford Mustang Mach-E stacks up against its rivals, use our comparison tool

CarExpert’s Take on the Ford Mustang Mach-E

I had genuine interest and high hopes for the upgraded Mustang Mach-E, because it’s a car I really wanted to like. Unfortunately, there are still a few things that keep it from matching Australia’s electric top dogs.

I personally know Mach-E owners who love and swear by their cars and there’s something to be said about brand loyalty here, as one bought a Mach-E for use as a daily driver alongside a 1960s Mustang convertible weekender.

But that in itself is part of the issue, as it’s surprisingly difficult to pinpoint who exactly the Mach-E is aimed at. Someone coming from an older car may be enticed to jump into an EV when it’s built by a brand they’re familiar with, and the Mach-E is a perfect example given Ford’s universal awareness.

On the other hand, many EV-savvy individuals will likely steer clear of the Ford in favour of something proven and cheaper, which is why the Model Y sells as well as it does, and in the meantime a plethora of other brands that were initially slow to the EV world are beginning to really step up their game.

Ford, meanwhile, still seems to be a bit behind the eight ball with the Mach-E. These updates feel a touch lacklustre and therefore make it difficult to recommend, even if you aren’t considering any of the other more popular EVs.

Granted, Ford has produced an EV with a solid drivetrain and a comfortable interior, while its exterior styling certainly places it among the more stylish electric SUVs currently on sale – especially compared with the hordes of bland blobs going around.

But man, the Mach-E’s ride needs attention. It’s such a letdown given we had similar complaints about the pre-update model. Even if it’s supposed to be a ‘sportier’ EV, there’s no reason for it to be quite as crashy as it is.

Given the sublime adaptive damping in the Skoda Enyaq (one of many better alternatives), we’re also disappointed that Ford’s adaptive MagneRide system seems to worsen the ride compared to the other two passive Mach-E setups.

These shortcomings make the ‘Mustang’ branding feel like an afterthought rather than a development target.

Additionally, the Premium grade doesn’t appear to add enough to justify the near-$15,000 premium (pardon the pun) over the base variant, even with 600km of range, and the pricey GT seems too far out of reach to be a realistic consideration for most EV buyers.

If you must have a Mustang Mach-E, the Select is our pick of the bunch: it’s the cheapest, arguably the most comfortable, and still has everything you need. If not, you’ll almost certainly get a better deal elsewhere.

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