The Mach-E needs a REAL refresh!

[oadesign]

Ford, please stop with the 'special editions,' where the core of the car pretty much remains the same. The Mach-E needs a REAL update!

In evaluating the EV competition out there, the following are a few observations of mine.

With the Mach-E, @Ford Motor Company hit the mark on many aspects:

• Driver-side and center screens
• Wireless CarPlay/Android Auto
• Generous frunk
• $0 Interior color choices
• Fair-priced paint options

But based on the competition and new laws, misses with:

• 400v architecture, limited to ~150kW DCFC charging
• Its infamous 'bouncy' ride (sheesh @Ford Motor Company, if MagnaRide is truly better, just include it in all Mach-Es!)
• Ineligibility for IRA discounts when purchasing

The market has matured, and the competition (Hyundai/Kia/Genesis) now offers:

• 800v charging architecture, allowing DCFC speeds up to 350kW
• Greater efficiency: Up to 361 miles of range from a smaller battery pack
• Much better ride quality

Where Hyundai/Kia/Genesis fail miserably is:

• Wired CarPlay/Android Auto
• Only the more expensive Genesis offers an interior color other than black
• Small-to-tiny frunks

With my Ford Options term ending in January 2025, I've been tracking the EV landscape in search of an EV that has everything I'm looking for without spending more than I did on my 2021 Mach-E Premium Extended Range RWD. So far, it's slim pickings!

What do others think? The forthcoming new models that I've read about, such as the ID.7, still fail to hit the mark on many of these benchmarks/features.

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[zvez]

Ford, please stop with the 'special editions,' where the core of the car pretty much remains the same. The Mach-E needs a REAL update!

In evaluating the EV competition out there, the following are a few observations of mine.

With the Mach-E, @Ford Motor Company hit the mark on many aspects:

• Driver-side and center screens
• Wireless CarPlay/Android Auto
• Generous frunk
• $0 Interior color choices
• Fair-priced paint options

But based on the competition and new laws, misses with:

• 400v architecture, limited to ~150kW DCFC charging
• Its infamous 'bouncy' ride (sheesh @Ford Motor Company, if MagnaRide is truly better, just include it in all Mach-Es!)
• Ineligibility for IRA discounts when purchasing

The market has matured, and the competition (Hyundai/Kia/Genesis) now offers:

• 800v charging architecture, allowing DCFC speeds up to 350kW
• Greater efficiency: Up to 361 miles of range from a smaller battery pack
• Much better ride quality

Where Hyundai/Kia/Genesis fail miserably is:

• Wired CarPlay/Android Auto
• Only the more expensive Genesis offers an interior color other than black
• Small-to-tiny frunks

With my Ford Options term ending in January 2025, I've been tracking the EV landscape in search of an EV that has everything I'm looking for without spending more than I did on my 2021 Mach-E Premium Extended Range RWD. So far, it's slim pickings!

What do others think? The forthcoming new models that I've read about, such as the ID.7, still fail to hit the mark on many of these benchmarks/features.

as bad as sales are I'm not sure they want to put a whole lot of money into the platform

 

[oadesign]

Certainly the lack of eligibility for Federal incentives isn't helping, as leases aren't for everyone.

 

[VindictivePantz]

I suspect the next revision will be similar to what we're seeing with the MME Rally. Minor adjustments, tuning, but nothing that will be a leap forward.

I would think it'd be 2028 before we see anything significant. It was rumored that there will either be no more ICE Mustangs after that model year, or it's the last model year ICE will be available.

The MME is/was Ford's learning platform. The Lightning improved on some things, but it's still not a well-architected software platform.

All EV manufacturers are in a weird spot with battery technology potentially changing enough in the next 5-10 years that it will make their normal development cycles more challenging. However, I am hoping Ford has learned that better architecture will lead to a better, higher quality, and lower cost vehicle.

 

[Mirak]

As others have pointed out, Ford isn't gonna spend good money after bad doing a significant mechanical refresh of the Mach E anytime soon, because (1) sales suck, and (2) existing battery tech is likely to be obsolete in 5 years. Ford would be better to wait it out.

Likewise, consumers should also wait it out or buy used. Buying a new Mach E, or any EV with existing Li-ion batteries, is dumb (unless you've just got the money to burn). For those who don't want to wait, there are great deals to be found in the used market.

Like it or not, the EV segment is going to largely plateau for a few years.

 

[mdolan92869]

As others have pointed out, Ford isn't gonna spend good money after bad doing a significant mechanical refresh of the Mach E anytime soon, because (1) sales suck, and (2) existing battery tech is likely to be obsolete in 5 years. Ford would be better to wait it out.

Likewise, consumers should also wait it out or buy used. Buying a new Mach E, or any EV with existing Li-ion batteries, is dumb (unless you've just got the money to burn). For those who don't want to wait, there are great deals to be found in the used market.

Like it or not, the EV segment is going to largely plateau for a few years.

Yeah, but we need cars with new technology soon because in California we will all have to buy a new car in 2026 if this law gets passed. So glad all of the other problems in California are solved so that they could worry about us driving too fast.
Sorry, speeders: New bill would require speed-limiting devices in California cars

 

[helium89]

As others have pointed out, Ford isn't gonna spend good money after bad doing a significant mechanical refresh of the Mach E anytime soon, because (1) sales suck, and (2) existing battery tech is likely to be obsolete in 5 years. Ford would be better to wait it out.

Likewise, consumers should also wait it out or buy used. Buying a new Mach E, or any EV with existing Li-ion batteries, is dumb (unless you've just got the money to burn). For those who don't want to wait, there are great deals to be found in the used market.

Like it or not, the EV segment is going to largely plateau for a few years.

Any automaker that is waiting for the next big thing in battery technology to put serious work into their EV lineup is going to be left in the dust. Ford’s next generation battery partner isn’t expecting prototypes to be ready until 2026. Assuming Ford plans on designing a new platform around their new battery, it will be a while before they’ll have concrete enough battery specs to do even the initial design work for a vehicle. If they don’t do some sort of refresh that addresses their inadequate software architecture and ongoing hardware issues (HVBJB and underpowered heater come to mind), they aren’t going to be a serious player in the EV market.

I understand that their EV sales haven’t been great, but they seem to be taking an incredibly myopic approach to this whole thing. An increasing number of states and countries have already announced bans on purely combustion powered passenger vehicles. Other automakers are going all in on EVs. Now is Ford’s chance to win market share and demonstrate that it can adapt to increasingly software driven automotive technologies.

Instead, they’re doing the bare minimum to fix known hardware issues, taking forever to address (and even longer to fix) bugs that their software updates introduce, continuing to try to use software updates to cover up bad hardware (crippled L2 charging, for example), and refusing to properly cover rental cars when their shoddy workmanship leaves customers without functioning vehicles (seriously, who thinks it’s a good idea to nickel and dime their early adopters?). Unless they plan on giving up on the passenger vehicle market altogether, I don’t see how they expect this to play out. They seem so concerned about stopping the bleeding on their quarterly financial reports that they have lost sight of everything else.

 

[LincolnLuvr]

I thought the 2nd gen Mach-E is coming in 2025-2026? Of course that might have been pushed back with the slow sales.

 

[Mirak]

Any automaker that is waiting for the next big thing in battery technology to put serious work into their EV lineup is going to be left in the dust. Ford’s next generation battery partner isn’t expecting prototypes to be ready until 2026. Assuming Ford plans on designing a new platform around their new battery, it will be a while before they’ll have concrete enough battery specs to do even the initial design work for a vehicle. If they don’t do some sort of refresh that addresses their inadequate software architecture and ongoing hardware issues (HVBJB and underpowered heater come to mind), they aren’t going to be a serious player in the EV market.

I understand that their EV sales haven’t been great, but they seem to be taking an incredibly myopic approach to this whole thing. An increasing number of states and countries have already announced bans on purely combustion powered passenger vehicles. Other automakers are going all in on EVs. Now is Ford’s chance to win market share and demonstrate that it can adapt to increasingly software driven automotive technologies.

Instead, they’re doing the bare minimum to fix known hardware issues, taking forever to address (and even longer to fix) bugs that their software updates introduce, continuing to try to use software updates to cover up bad hardware (crippled L2 charging, for example), and refusing to properly cover rental cars when their shoddy workmanship leaves customers without functioning vehicles (seriously, who thinks it’s a good idea to nickel and dime their early adopters?). Unless they plan on giving up on the passenger vehicle market altogether, I don’t see how they expect this to play out. They seem so concerned about stopping the bleeding on their quarterly financial reports that they have lost sight of everything else.

Well, I guess we’ll see. But the pullback is real, and it isn’t just Ford.

 

[Jimrpa]

Ford, please stop with the 'special editions,' where the core of the car pretty much remains the same. The Mach-E needs a REAL update!

In evaluating the EV competition out there, the following are a few observations of mine.

With the Mach-E, @Ford Motor Company hit the mark on many aspects:

• Driver-side and center screens
• Wireless CarPlay/Android Auto
• Generous frunk
• $0 Interior color choices
• Fair-priced paint options

But based on the competition and new laws, misses with:

• 400v architecture, limited to ~150kW DCFC charging
• Its infamous 'bouncy' ride (sheesh @Ford Motor Company, if MagnaRide is truly better, just include it in all Mach-Es!)
• Ineligibility for IRA discounts when purchasing

The market has matured, and the competition (Hyundai/Kia/Genesis) now offers:

• 800v charging architecture, allowing DCFC speeds up to 350kW
• Greater efficiency: Up to 361 miles of range from a smaller battery pack
• Much better ride quality

Where Hyundai/Kia/Genesis fail miserably is:

• Wired CarPlay/Android Auto
• Only the more expensive Genesis offers an interior color other than black
• Small-to-tiny frunks

With my Ford Options term ending in January 2025, I've been tracking the EV landscape in search of an EV that has everything I'm looking for without spending more than I did on my 2021 Mach-E Premium Extended Range RWD. So far, it's slim pickings!

What do others think? The forthcoming new models that I've read about, such as the ID.7, still fail to hit the mark on many of these benchmarks/features.

Pretty sure there’s no frunk (practically speaking) in the ionic 5. I wouldn’t even find a hood release in the one I rented to check it out.

 

[kltye]

Just wanted to point out my favourite fallacy with faster charging: higher-voltage packs are not absolutely necessary for faster charging. The problem with the Mach-E are its relatively small DC cables that can't sustain much higher than ~200 amps for a long period of time, and its insane cooling strategy that doesn't allow the pack to hit higher than 100°F, which would allow for higher C-rate charging deeper into the pack without risking lithium plating.

Pretty sure there’s no frunk (practically speaking) in the ionic 5. I wouldn’t even find a hood release in the one I rented to check it out.

There's a frunk, just a relatively tiny and rather useless one.

 

[Jimrpa]

Just wanted to point out my favourite fallacy with faster charging: higher-voltage packs are not absolutely necessary for faster charging. The problem with the Mach-E are its relatively small DC cables that can't sustain much higher than ~200 amps for a long period of time, and its insane cooling strategy that doesn't allow the pack to hit higher than 100°F, which would allow for higher C-rate charging deeper into the pack without risking lithium plating.


There's a frunk, just a relatively tiny and rather useless one.

That’s not a frunk. What you see there, my friend, is the incredibly lazy “engineering” several companies (including the likes of GM, MB, and BMW) are doing to avoid having to break their “the front of the car is full of mechanical junque “ paradigm

 

[kltye]

That’s not a frunk. What you see there, my friend, is the incredibly lazy “engineering” several companies (including the likes of GM, MB, and BMW) are doing to avoid having to break their “the front of the car is full of mechanical junque “ paradigm

I do agree it's a pathetic excuse for one, but bear in mind the E-GMP platform is a ground-up EV platform, unlike BMW, et al.'s implementation of their EV platforms. I think the E-GMP cars have relatively short hoods and large storage on the inside, which compares much more favorably against the Mach-E as opposed to the rest of the "let's make a chassis that can accommodate a battery and a large ICE" market.

(Bjorn's banana box test shows the Ioniq 5 being able to store about the same number of banana boxes as the Mach-E, even without a usable frunk).

 

[Xweb]

Hyundai/Kia/Genesis

Personally, I would not own any of those brands. The Mach E seems more premium to me. Better than Tesla, not quite as premium as BMW/Porche. To me, the next step up would be the iX, which I will seriously consider once my options lease ends. It is not much of a looker, but seems to check a lot of boxed for me.

 

[VaderMachE]

I've thought about this as well. There's really nothing on the market that even grabs my attention. I don't feel the look of my Mach is dated, so there's that. We'd all love more miles and faster charging, that'll take more than Ford to improve. Magnetic ride would be killer to have, but again, not a deal breaker. I may just purchase mine when time comes. It still makes me smile when I get behind the wheel, and I have zero regrets with that.

Oh, and I never use my frunk, so that's not a thing either.

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