Enlarge / Americans love pickup trucks, but most pickup-truck loving Americans are not ready to go electric yet. Meanwhile, there's almost nothing to buy if you want a smaller, cheaper EV. (credit: Ford)

For the last two years, a small "skunkworks" at the Ford Motor Company has been working on a low-cost electric vehicle platform, according to Ford CEO Jim Farley. Farley revealed the existence of this new platform during the automaker's quarterly financial results call with investors on Tuesday evening. The company is rethinking its electrification strategy, having now faced up to the reality that the current crop of EVs are too expensive for mass-market adoption to take off.

Ford was early to market with its Mustang Mach-E crossover, itself the product of a skunkworks-style development process: an internal group called Team Edison , formed to add some excitement to what was originally going to be a more boring compliance car. The team also took the bold step of making a fully electric version of the country's best-selling vehicle, the F-150 pickup truck.

Demand for the electric F-150 Lightning appeared strong, but a series of price hikes has resulted in really expensive trucks languishing on dealer forecourts and Ford cutting production shifts to reduce output. The Mustang Mach-E is still selling, although with barely any growth year on year .

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. (credit: 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.

Enlarge / Ford's latest Mach-E variant is designed for fun on or off the tarmac. (credit: Ford)

Ford has a long and successful history with rallying, having won numerous races with motorsport-modified versions of more mundane machines like the Escort, Sierra, and Fiesta. Now it's applying some of that know-how to the electric Mustang Mach-E with a new version that goes on sale early next year, the Mustang Mach-E Rally.

Until now, the Mustang Mach-E to purchase if you were looking for some fun has been the Mach-E GT, particularly if you opted for the $64,900 Performance Edition, which comes with magnetorheological dampers and better tires . Ford reckons the Mach-E Rally will cost about the same as that version, and it, too, rides on those magnetic fluid-filled dampers, together with new springs that give it a 20 mm higher ride height than the Mach-E GT.

The rear wing is inspired by the Ford Focus RS, and all Mach-E Rallys will have a black-painted roof. (credit: Ford)

There are big front brake discs and 19-inch wheels shod in Michelin CrossClimate2 tires that have bigger sidewalls (and therefore absorb more bumps) than the 20-inch wheels and tires fitted to the GT. Ford has also added some underbody shielding to protect the front and rear motors from rocks, and there's protective film to help prevent stone chips on the doors and wheel arches.

Enlarge / Like the FedEx arrow or the elephant in GM's new logo, once you see the bandito mustache, you'll never unsee it. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Last year, Ford issued a recall for almost 49,000 Mustang Mach-E crossovers due to a problem with the electric vehicles' high-voltage battery contactors. The automaker's fix was a software update to two control modules on the Mach-E, but on Monday Reuters reported that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation has opened a recall query to see if Ford's software recall actually did the job.

On June 21, 2022, Ford issued a recall for 48,924 Mustang Mach-Es, also instructing dealerships to stop delivering the EVs to customers until the software fix was ready. The problem was battery contactors that could overheat during DC fast charging or with repeated use of full throttle; that overheating could lead to either arcing or the contact surfaces deforming, which in turn could lead to a complete loss of power while driving.

According to the recall safety notice , Ford had 286 warranty claims for open or welded contactors between July 2021 and May 2022. Ford's fix was a software update to the secondary on-board diagnostic control module and the battery energy control module.

Enlarge / Like the FedEx arrow or the elephant in GM's new logo, once you see the bandito mustache, you'll never unsee it. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Ford is reopening its order books for the Mustang Mach-E battery-electric vehicle, and it's cutting prices in the process. The automaker has also switched battery chemistry for the standard-range models, boosting their power and range in the process. The price drops were announced shortly after Ford's Q1 2023 financial results were published, and it was a good three months for the company, which saw profits grow 20 percent, year on year.

"We continue to find ways to improve the value of the Mustang Mach-E. Upgraded BlueCruise rolling out for new and existing Mustang Mach-E owners, increased range and faster DC charging times on standard range models show how we are relentlessly improving our products for our customers," said Marin Gjaja, chief customer officer at Ford Model e.

Ford's switch to LFP (or lithium iron phosphate) batteries has been in the works for some time now. The cell chemistry has a lower energy density than the nickel cobalt manganese cells that are more common in US and European BEVs, but it's also much less susceptible to thermal runaway and requires much less crash protection as a result. Consequently, LFP battery packs can devote more volume to cells, and while cell energy density is worse than NCM, things don't look quite so bad at the pack level.

Enlarge / The Tesla Model Y earned a good rating in IIHS' rear seat protection crash test. (credit: IIHS)

Only four of 13 midsize SUVs earned good ratings when it came to protecting rear-seat passengers in an impact, according to new crash tests performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Of that 13, two were battery-electric vehicles—the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Tesla Model Y—and both achieved good ratings, as did the Ford Explorer and Subaru Ascent.

The IIHS has been crash-testing cars at its Vehicle Research Center in Virginia since the early 1990s after noticing that most head-on collisions were offset, something the federal government's crash tests did not account for. Since then, the organization has added several other crash tests that car manufacturers are eager to pass in order to earn a coveted "Top Safety Pick" rating.

The IIHS updated its moderate overlap front crash test in 2022 after becoming frustrated that front-seat safety gains made by the industry have not been shared with those sitting in the back of a car.

Enlarge / We're not the world's biggest fans of all-touchscreen interfaces, so it's good to see Ford adding a physical control for temperature and fan speed to the Mach-E by adding new functionality to the car's volume knob. (credit: Ford)

This week, Ford pushed out a new over-the-air software update to its Mustang Mach-E electric crossovers . The new software "power-up," version 4.1.2, adds a bunch of improvements to Ford's Sync 4A system, including a new UI, more full-screen Apple CarPlay, and a couple of new games. But perhaps the most notable improvement is the addition of physical controls for the climate control and heated seats.

Well, kind of. As you might imagine, an OTA software update would probably struggle to add new physical hardware to a car, at least until someone finally develops replicator or transporter technology. Rather, Ford has leveraged the fact that the Mustang Mach-E's infotainment screen features a large, twisty knob to control the volume.

But now, the knob will do double duty. If a driver taps one of the icons to select the temperature, fan speed, or heated seats, the knob switches over from controlling volume to controlling the temperature or fan speed (depending upon which one you selected).

Enlarge / Our Creative Director didn't know that I have a fondness for the Ford Ka and still miss the one I sold before moving to America, but I like that he chose one for this graphic. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

As I look back on Ars' automotive year and the new cars, crossovers, SUVs, and trucks that we drove in 2022, I have started coming to a conclusion of sorts. And it's this: Forget the top-of-the-line, fully loaded, superduper electric vehicle; what you want is the least powerful, least expensive variant. And that's true whether you want an EV because you want to drive something that's very efficient or if you're a driving enthusiast who's going electric.

It's a thought I've alluded to more than once this year, and the effect can be seen when you look at a pair of first drives that bookended this year: the Kia EV6 (which starts at $48,500 for the EV6 Wind) and the Kia EV6 GT (a hefty $61,400). The extra $12,900 buys you a much quicker 0–60 time, and a twin-motor, all-wheel drive powertrain with much more power. But the GT uses the same battery as the cheapest rear-wheel drive EV6, and with its bigger wheels it only has a range of 206 miles compared to the RWD EV6 Wind, which can do 310 miles on the same number of kWh.

OK, so score one for the hypermilers. And for the enthusiasts, I have to report that the cheaper car I drove in January was more fun on the back roads. Because it's more fun to drive a slow car quickly than a quick car slowly.