Test Drive: Can Ford's Mustang Mach-E Rally Hit the Mark?

Car manufacturers love to lean into heritage from time to time. Ford is no different, of course, and one of its latest nods to its previous off-road prowess is this car – the Mustang Mach-e Rally. Breathed on with a variety of go-anywhere touches, it’s a car which isn’t too serious and is designed to inject a little bit of fun into Ford’s largest electric SUV.

But is it a niche too far, or does it offer something genuinely useful? We’ve been behind the wheel to find out.

The Mach-e Rally is actually available as an optional extra when you’re looking at a standard Mach-e GT. It means it’s not an entirely standalone model, but rather part of an optional extra when looking at the regular car.

But don’t go thinking that this means it’s just a set of stripes and a jazzy paint scheme – far from it. The suspension of the Rally gets a specific tune with a 20mm boost in ride height over the standard car, while the eye-catching 19-inch alloy wheels come equipped with gravel-gripping all-terrain tyres.

What’s it like to drive?

One area where the Rally remains the same as the standard Mustang Mach-e GT is under the bonnet. You’ve got a dual-motor setup at work here – with one at the front axle and one at the rear – which combines to form a substantial 480bhp and 950Nm of torque. As a result, 0-100 km/h comes in at around 4 seconds, so it’s more than speedy enough to live up to that Rally name.

However, the Mach-E Rally also features a very large battery, at 91 kWh, which translates to a claimed range of up to 510 km. It’s not an overly big range considering the size of this battery, but it does mean that the Rally isn’t going to be restricted to local excursions.

From its bright yellow colour to the go-faster bucket seats, there’s little about the Mustang Mach-e Rally that feels serious and this filters through to the driving experience. It’s fast, of course, but there’s far more going on here than outright speed. In fact, because of the added suspension travel and chunkier tyres, the Rally rides far more pleasantly than the standard GT and cruises along easily.

But find a twisty road or gravel section and the Rally comes alive. It’s not afraid to start rotating, but it’s all done in a very approachable manner. As we’ve found with other Ford models, the Rally’s steering has a rather strange elastic feel to it, but it’s predictable at least. The Mach-e remains a big car, mind you, and placing it on a smaller road takes a bit of effort.

How does it look? What’s it like inside?

Unless you’re looking at some kind of scissor-door supercar, there are few cars which can turn heads quite like the Mustang Mach-e Rally. With its stripes, commanding presence and upright stance, it’s a car which really gets a lot of attention wherever it goes.

You don’t have to have the ‘Grabber Yellow’ colour if you don’t fancy it, mind you. There are more understated ‘Glacier Grey and ‘Absolute Black’ shades if you’d rather something a little more low-key, while ‘Grabber Blue’ dials things back up again. In our view, the Rally looks best in these brighter shades to reflect its character.

Much of the Rally’s interior will be familiar to those who are used to the standard Mach-e’s interior, but there are some choice upgrades to give it a more go-anywhere feel. The main ones are the Rally-embossed seats which get a cool-looking white plastic shell to the back of them, but aside from that, it’s all quite standard. It’s not a bad thing – the Mustang Mach-e’s interior is already a pleasant place to be – but it’d be nice if there were a few more upgrades to speak of inside.

The good news is that the Rally remains practical, too. You’ve got 402 litres of boot space as standard, rising to 1,420 litres with the rear seats folded down. An extra 100 litres of space can be found in the ‘frunk’, too, making it ideal for the charging cables.

What’s the spec like?

As we’ve mentioned, the Rally comes through as an additional pack to the standard GT. It’s mainly there for those go-anywhere features such as the upgraded suspension, beefier wheels and more out-there exterior design.

The Mustang Mach-e GT is already quite an expensive car, so the Rally pack lifts this EV’s price to around $60,990, £69,300 or €80,300, depending on where you live. That's before you’ve added any other features. That said, the large central screen feels premium in design and feel, while most areas of the cabin are nicely put together with solid materials used throughout. It’s just all starting to feel a touch old – the Mustang Mach-e hasn’t changed a lot since it first arrived several years ago.

As expected, the Mustang Mach-e Rally is a car which doesn’t take itself too seriously and that’s something which is often lacking in the EV space. It’s well finished, too, and we far prefer the ride quality in this model to that of the standard GT-specification car. You can have some genuine fun behind the wheel of the Rally, too, and its performance is likely to put a grin on the faces of all those who drive it.

But it’s also quite expensive and can’t offer the range that rivals bring to the table, nor does it feel quite as up-to-date inside as others in the same space.