I did it. I took the plunge and “went electric.”

Why did I go electric?

Did I do it because I wanted to save the environment?

Ugh, kind of?

Depending on where your electricity comes from, one would need to drive between 8,400 and 78,700 miles with an EV to offset the carbon footprint of a gas-powered vehicle. Check out this article by Reuters for more info on this.

Don’t assume that your purchase of an EV will automatically save the world. This fallacy is a topic widely debated online. Please reserve your judgments about gas-powered vehicles until you comprehend the entire picture.

I drive roughly 25,000 miles per year, and at that annual mileage figure, there is a significant emissions offset.

I live in Northern California. Every other car is a Tesla. I questioned whether I was guilty of attempting to “keep up with the Jones’?”

Nah, Teslas are great and all, but at the time of my purchase, the federal tax credit did not apply to Tesla vehicles. If it did, I may just have purchased a Model Y because the customer service representative (not a “salesperson”) was incredibly accommodating.

I dig Tesla’s business model and hope that more brands adopt the low-pressure, high-customer service model that Tesla employs.

My lack of financial incentive to purchase the Model Y exposed one of my main reasons for “going electric.”

I was looking to offset taxes that I owed our federal government.

Let’s not kid ourselves, though: I want to save the environment and share with my neighbors the features and benefits of an electric vehicle because I love the sound of my own voice (both audible and literary…hence this blog).

Last summer (June of 2022), I did the research, and for me, all signs pointed to the 2022 Mustang Mach E.

To be specific: I purchased the premium, all-wheel drive, extended range model…in Space White.

Mistakes that I made:

1. I was in a hurry: had I purchased the Mach E earlier in the year, I could have ordered it paying under MSRP via the Ford X-Plan and saved some hard earned dollars.

2. Because of my rushed decision, I paid over MSRP and had zero leverage when negotiating with dealers. This car was hard to come by. The only vehicles available were orders that customers had not taken. These orders were up for grabs on dealer lots and they took advantage of the supply shortage mixed with increase demand. I still have a hard time looking my Dad in the eyes when talking about this purchase.

However:

1. The numbers still penciled out: my car payment is just slightly above what I was paying in gas each month.

2. Further crunching the numbers: based on my vehicle usage, my increased electric bill “solar true up” came out to roughly $4,000 (forecasted over 12 months). My annual spend in gasoline was $8,000. For you math wizards, that is a $4,000 savings in annual fuel consumption.

3. I needed a new car regardless. My beloved Subaru Forester had over 200,000 miles on it and was burning oil like Ebenezer Scrooge’s desk lamp.

4. I qualified for the coveted $7,500 tax credit

On to my 20,000 mile review of the 2022 Mustang Mach E

The Good

1. As of this writing, I haven’t been to a gas station in 8 months unless I’ve had to use the filthy toilet or buy some ice on my way to a BBQ.

2. The range is acceptable for 90% of the drives that I make. The extended range battery in my Mach E is rated for 270 miles, but in perfect conditions, I can put over 300 miles on a single charge. At an 80% charge, I start each day with ~220 miles of range.

3. It’s quick! The vehicle accelerates swiftly with the instant torque. There is a Han Solo/Chewbacca the Wookie lurching-feeling as if you punched it into hyperspace by pressing the accelerator. The premium’s 0-60 time is clocked in at 4.8 seconds.

4. One pedal braking: smooth and less back and forth with your foot from the “gas” to “brake.” The one pedal braking is intuitive and the learning curve is minimal coming from a traditional vehicle.

5. The Mach E interior feels like a car…a futuristic one. The Mach E has the massive vertical screen, but all of the refinements that one would find in a vehicle created by an auto manufacturer who’s been making cars for a very long time. Anyone can hop in and instantly identify the controls needed to operate the vehicle.

6. The screen: I love it. Google or Apple Maps look fantastic on the 15.5 inch vertically mounted screen. The touch controls are intuitive along with a physical knob for adjustments.

7. Maintenance: according to Forbes, maintenance for an EV is roughly $0.06 cents per mile compared to $0.10 for an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle. That’s a 40% savings, or for my 25k miles an annual savings of $1,000. Services are recommended every 10,000 miles compared to the synthetic oil burning recommendation of 7,500 miles. This equates to less time spent at the dealership.

8. The app: I have a love/hate relationship with the FordPass app and it will therefore be listed on both the Good and Bad list. On one hand, the app based capabilities for the Mach E are fantastic. I can set the cabin temperature to precondition to warm on those cool winter mornings. Automatic updates are installed to improve the vehicle via over the air Wifi updates. I can even take advantage of charging during “off-peak” hours to reduce my electric bill. However, there are times that the app can cause frustration…see below.

The Bad

1. Charging: Yes, “range anxiety” exists folks. You’d be surprised how many charging stations you unassumingly drive by every day in California. Despite Cali being the greenest state, I still struggle at times to find legit charging stations. Apps like Plugshare are life savers and help you find the nearest charging station and assist with plotting routes. You’ve never planned a road trip and sweat over whether you will have enough gas for where you are going. Longer trips still feel like navigating by the stars. More on this later.

2. Charging Faults: Remember the love/hate relationship with the app? This is one of those times. I’ve nearly been stranded due to charging faults. Whether this is through the app or the actual charger remains to be clarified. There area also charge settings that you must remember to adjust if you are charging out on the road versus at home. You will need to go into the app, and select “charge when plugged in” to automatically initiate a charge. When you get back home, you need to go back to your charge settings and re-select the “preferred time” and charging level preference so that your car doesn’t charge directly to 100% during Peak energy usage times. It’s a bit of a pain in the @$$.

3. Range: Don’t buy a vehicle based on the “estimate range” 270 for the Mach E is at 100% charge. This range will increase or decrease based on the weather and driving conditions. Also, it is recommended to only charge your vehicle to 80% to preserve battery longevity. If the advertisements gave the actual estimates, I feel that consumer fanfare would diminish on EVs.

4. Sync 4 sometimes buggy: Like the cologne in “Anchorman” Sync 4 is like “Sex Panther: 60% of the time, it works 100% of the time!” When the Sync 4 system is firing on all cylinders (pun intended) it is brilliant. Sometimes though, my iPhone will drop or not connect. It typically defaults to my wife’s phone (it knows who’s really in charge) when we are both in the car. On occasion, my vehicle will also drop out of my user settings, which is a bummer because I love my settings.

5. Motion Sickness: This one is a point of contention in my family. My kids will occasionally complain of being “queasy” in the back seat. The Mach E is so smooth and quick, it really has a different feeling to it than an typical gas powered vehicle. I’m empathetic to this, but the other week they said the same thing about my wife’s 4Runner. You be the judge on this one if you take a test drive!

Would I buy another Mach E?

The short answer: absolutely

My recipe for the perfect EV

1. Has an estimated range of 400+ miles: remember, the true range is 80% of the “full charge” estimated range. Manufacturers suggest only charging to 80% to preserve battery longevity. Therefore, 400 miles is really 320 miles which is roughly what you’d expect from a fuel efficient gas powered vehicle.

2. Fast charging capabilities: A vehicle that can handle a 350 kw charger. To give you an idea of the difference, a one-hour charge on a 50 kW standalone charging station provides around 172 miles of range. Compare this to a 15-minute charge on a 350 kW split charging station that delivers around 298 miles—that’s almost double the range in just a quarter of the time. 15 minutes to get nearly a full charge is incredible.

3. Ability to use J1772 AND Tesla Superchargers: Sounds like this is in the works as Tesla is considering opening up is vast network of supercharges to standard J1772 charging vehicles (like my Mach E). This instantaneously reduces my anxiety about long distance road trips.

4. Condition efficient batteries: I have zero scientific basis for this desire, but to have a battery that maintains it’s efficiency despite the weather conditions would be awesome.

5. Long lasting batteries: most batteries are warrantied up to 100,000 miles. At that point, the efficiency begins to reduce. Many people (myself included) like to drive their vehicles until the wheels fall off. It remains to be seen how long these vehicles will go before a battery replacement is needed. Maybe instead of a new vehicle, one would simply purchase a new battery for $18,000? Time will tell on this one.

So there you have it! 20,000 miles in the Mustang Mach E. I hope you enjoyed my experience and insights as much as I enjoyed zipping around in Sparky. The 100,000-mile review should be posted sometime in the year 2026. Stay tuned!

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/when-do-electric-vehicles-become-cleaner-than-gasoline-cars-2021-06-29/

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/credits-for-new-clean-vehicles-purchased-in-2023-or-after

https://www.fordpartner.com/partnerweb/jsp/howitworks/fordpartner_rules.htm#faq2

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorzelany/2022/10/06/by-the-numbers-what-it-costs-to-maintain-an-electric-vehicle/?sh=2ed346bc64d3

https://www.plugshare.com/

https://blog.evbox.com/level-3-charging-speed