Ford Mach-E shatters range anxiety issue

General Guides  Low Emission Vehicles 

Next time you hear someone talking about electric cars and they mention the dreaded range anxiety, ask them if they're enjoying their life in the 1800s.

Ok, that's a slight exaggeration, but they're so far out of date they may as well be living in another century. And the Ford Mustang Mach-E has the Guinness World Record to prove it.

Ford's Mustang Mach-E team decided to set a new benchmark “miles per gallon” for electric vehicles to demonstrate that range anxiety fears are totally unnecessary.

Ford's recently commissioned “Go Electric” report on consumer perceptions reveals that the general public believe the average range a fully charged electric car can travel is under 150 miles. In reality you can easily double that with many electric cars and still have a bit of battery left over. The reported range of the Mach-E is actually 379 miles.

But writing it down in the spec sheet and actually delivering that kind of range in the real world are completely different….aren't they?

World record team members Paul Clifton, BBC transport correspondent, and co-drivers Fergal McGrath and Kevin Booker, who already hold petrol and diesel economy records between them, set out to answer that question in the most emphatic way possible. Under those circumstances there's only one option: get in the car at John O'Groats and drive south until you get to Land's End.

Tackling the UK's longest direct route should prove the Mustang Mach-E's viability for everyday journeys

The aim was to set two benchmarks at the same time. One for efficiency (basically the amount of electricity used) and one for the least amount of time spent charging the car. The result is that Ford's latest all-electric car, the Mustang Mach-E, is a Guinness World Record holder after demonstrating its ultra-efficiency.

Leaving John O'Groats with a fully charged battery, independently verified data showed that the Ford Mustang Mach-E travelled over 6.5 miles per kilowatt hour (kWh) of electrical energy on the long journey south. That doesn't mean much to most of us because we're used to thinking in miles per gallon. It takes a little bit of maths to put into context, but the number that comes out at the other end of the equation is astonishing.

With an 88kWh battery capacity, that level of efficiency translates to well over 500 miles of range, adding more than 120 miles to Mustang Mach-E's official 379-mile range. That's treble the miles per kWh target for this new electric vehicle record. If the Mach-E can achieve well over three times that distance in the hands of professionals, it can easily deliver its official ‘miles per tank' to regular owners.

Electric top-ups x 2

Even more surprising is that the 840-mile trip to Land's End required only two main charging stops, one in Wigan and one in Cullompton. The record-breaking performance on Britain's most lengthy journey required stopping for less than 45 minutes of charging. Fast charging the rear-wheel drive extended range Mustang Mach-E, which set the record, adds around 73 miles of driving range from 10 minutes of charging.

The Highway Code recommends a break from driving of at least 15 minutes every two hours. This record just shows that safety-conscious drivers would actually pause their journeys for longer than it takes to charge their vehicles.

Ford says this record attempt was about demonstrating that electric cars are now genuinely viable for everyone. Commuting around a city may be where you're used to seeing them, but for real-world use on long cross-country journeys an EV is just as practical as your diesel or petrol car.

Ford might have just demonstrated the tipping-point has been reached. Let's face it, you're highly unlikely to tackle that particular route, but if you know an EV can do it you can no longer use range anxiety as an excuse to get out of the annual Christmas trip to the in-laws.

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