Five years ago, the first Mustang Mach-E customers began adding something important to the Ford electric vehicle battery validation work: real-world ownership at scale.

As part of our quality process, design and validation engineering starts long before a vehicle reaches a customer. We model battery performance, run physical tests, expose packs to heat, cold, and charging profiles, and build in margin for demanding real-world conditions.

These rigorous quality tests are designed to help us understand how battery systems perform across a wide range of climates, charging behaviors, and driving conditions before customers get behind the wheel.

Then David Blenkle drove past 400,000 miles on the original battery in his 2022 Mustang Mach-E. He gave us a real-world example of what is possible — and begged the question of whether he’s an outlier or not.

His battery health has remained strong through unusually high-mileage use. His experience gave our team a chance to compare one exceptional ownership case with what we are seeing across the broader fleet.

The bigger question was if David’s experience reflected a broader pattern. So, we decided to look back at the Mustang Mach-E owners who started it all: The Class of 2021.

Over five years ago, the first Mustang Mach-E vehicles — model year 2021 — reached customers. Those electric SUVs have been on the road, in customers’ hands, ever since.

Here is what the Class of 2021 looks like at the five-year mark:

More than 36,000 vehicles. Two billion all-electric miles, across all 50 states and across Canada.

Source link