01 Ford Mustang Mach E Rally 2025 review lead front01 Ford Mustang Mach E Rally 2025 review lead frontIntroductionSay what you will about Ford (and following the launch of the Capri and axing of the Fiesta, plenty have) but it’s still a company with a sense of humour. How else do you explain it still offering a V8 Mustang, a Ranger Raptor and now this: the Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally?Design & styling02 Ford Mustang Mach E Rally 2025 review front drivingYou could think of it as Ford’s take on the Porsche 911 Dakar or Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato. For some rough-road capability, the Ford Mustang Mach-E has been given a range of rally-themed addenda. It’s based on the Mach-E GT – the 480bhp, dual-motor high-performance version – but it has been given a 20mm suspension lift with reprogrammed magnetorheological dampers.AdvertisementAdvertisementThey’re joined by white rally-style wheels that are an inch smaller than the ones on the GT to give a taller sidewall on the all-season tyres. Skidplates protect the front and rear motors and there’s a Rally Sport drive mode that relaxes the stability control and makes the accelerator response more linear so that it’s easier to slide the car on loose surfaces.Ford has given the Rally some cosmetic touches as well, such as the Focus RS-inspired spoiler, the striping pack and gloss white accents in the interior.Of course, the Mach-E Rally is not as serious as those £200,000 ruggedised supercars but it’s not meant to be. Instead, it’s a fun way to jazz up an electric SUV. In fact, it’s sold in the UK simply as a £2250 option pack on the GT.Ride & handling16 Ford Mustang Mach E Rally 2025 review rear cornering stonesThe problem with the off-road sports car idea is that finding public dirt roads is not easy in most of England, so just as important as the Rally’s performance off road is what it does on it, so let’s start with that.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe Mach-E GT always suffered from a restless ride with lots of bump-thump. Although softer suspension with more travel and taller sidewalls on the less performance-oriented tyres haven’t entirely eradicated the problem – there’s still an ever-present background rumble that you hear as much as feel – the changes have tempered it to an acceptable level for a performance car.As with the normal GT, the Rally is extremely keen to rotate into and out of a corner, particularly when the roads are as cold and greasy as they were during our test. It’s certainly amusing, and the new Rally Sport mode does seem to make the car’s responses a little more linear, but it’s still flawed as a driver’s car. The brake pedal has a lot of dead travel and then grabs quite suddenly. The steering is weird too: in the more sedate modes it’s extremely light, while in Untamed mode it becomes quite heavy and gets that Ford-typical elasticated feeling but no more actual feedback to speak of.The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N has simply moved the game on for fun EVs. It has better body control and more options to make it do what you want it to. But you wouldn’t want to take the Hyundai off the Tarmac, which is something you can (and should) do with the Ford. It is unfazed by a bit of light fording and mud-plugging, and really comes alive on a loose surface. It can be made to slide very easily and feels essentially rear-wheel drive.While a single-motor Mach-E would probably do big drifts as well, the Rally very cleverly blends in some front-wheel drive to stabilise the slide initially and to start pulling you out when it senses you want to straighten up. There’s still a sense of the software second-guessing you sometimes, but it’s less noticeable than when we drove the normal GT on a wet track.MPG & running costs01 Ford Mustang Mach E Rally 2025 review lead frontWhether this capability is of much use to you will depend on where you live, of course. If you drive exclusively on the road, the Ioniq 5 N is easily the better performance EV. It’s £11,790 cheaper and the Mach-E in general is feeling its age, particularly as an EV. It has a very large battery, at 91kWh (usable capacity), but it averaged only 2.4mpkWh in normal driving on our test. Granted, temperatures were near freezing, but the Genesis Electrified G80 I drove on the same day managed 3.4mpkWh. An average of 2.4mpkWh gives the Ford a range of only 218 miles, and it charges at just 150kW (and well below that most of the time).VerdictAdvertisementAdvertisementFord didn’t really have to make the Rally, but I’m glad it has because it brings some colour and niche interest to what could be an otherwise boring class of cars. It goes back to that sense of humour: this is a relatively low-risk thing for Ford to do, but it’s a nice halo car and it’s fun. As with the Dakar and Sterrato versions of the 911 and Huracán, the changes make a better road car and enable you to go play in the dirt or the snow if you want to.]]>
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