In unveiling the new Mustang Mach-E, Ford has booked a seat in the same electric car club that’s nowadays frequented by the leading big-name automakers: Tesla, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Jaguar, and Porsche. Admittedly, the Blue Oval did arrive a tad late to the party. Now, threatened by the risk of falling behind its rivals that were already building and selling electric cars, Ford needed to come up with a quick and cost-effective solution that would allow it to launch it’s first serious electric car as soon as possible. The savior was none other than Ford’s iconic Mustang nameplate and, as exciting as that might sound, it will hold no weight in the model’s success (or failure).

What Does the Mach Name Mean to You?

Ford brought back the old Mach nameplate and associated it once again with the still-marching-on Mustang badge for its first mean-business electric car and that’s how we get to talk about the Mustang Mach-E. But before we get to the gist of it, close your eyes and think of Ford. What are the first three cars that spring to mind? For us, one of them is the Mustang and we’re pretty sure that same applies to the gearhead community as well. Perhaps our kids will have a different perception of the word now that Ford has decided to slap it on its all-electric crossover, but we must not get ahead of ourselves - the general appeal and interest generated by the moniker are not enough to guarantee that the Mustang Mach-E will have a profitable career.

The Mustang Mach-E project was rushed to its birth

There’s not much to say about Ford’s decision to morph the Mustang body into a crossover shape. That’s the sort of body type that sells these days, so there’s nothing to debate here. . But in reality, the Mustang Mach-E was brought to life in a relatively short timeframe. Now, what company was criticized in the past for churning out EVs that had obvious build quality issues? Oh, right, that’s Tesla.

As you can imagine, everything at Ford was go, go, go. Wired reports that the Blue Oval managed to streamline every process, including design, to the extreme. In doing that, Ford almost dropped the customary clay models to rely heavily on CAD (computer-assisted design) and according to design manager Chris Walter, “we would pop in sketches on Monday, choose the one we wanted on Tuesday, built the CAD model on Wednesday, mill it on Thursday, then present it on Friday.”

What’s more, according to Electrek, the “new” Ford led by James Patrick Hackett also stands for “reduced meetings, approval times, and general bureaucracy, something that would have taken twice as long.” Cutting down on those productivity-killing habits is one thing, but rushing every other aspect of a car’s development process is another.

We definitely don’t want it to happen now that Ford’s bringing the big guns to the electric battle (and is pointing them at Tesla), but it’s something we’ll have to keep tabs on. After all, a recall is not what Ford wants or needs because it will not only slow down the burst we’re witnessing now but also damage the company’s credibility. That of the Mustang name, too.

How will Ford market the Mustang Mach-E?

And of those carmakers that are already out there with at least one EV on the market, Tesla (who else, after all?) has been Ford’s benchmark for the Mach-E. And even if Ford has been battling Elon Musk on other fronts, directly or indirectly - by pouring money into Rivian and working hard to create the first-ever F-150 truck powered solely by electricity -

There’s even a lot of Tesla influence baked in the Ford Mach-E. The OTA updates, the portrait-oriented multimedia screen, the way you'll pay for recharging, and even the price tag. So far, the Mach-E looks like the most practical of the EV bunch according to the cold numbers, but that’s not a paramount requirement these days. Not when Tesla has taught fans and customers that you can get blitzing acceleration from an EV and still use it to take your kids to school without them throwing up. This and the fact that Ford is aiming for the stars (the stars being Tesla) speaks a lot about the latter and how it has managed to set the pace and singlehandedly pull the whole industry towards its electric future. OK, maybe pull is too big of a word, but it certainly provided the needed jolt to get things moving.

Coming back to the initial point, Ford needed an EV solution and it needed it fast, so it got inspired by one of the top dogs. If the recipe will work (or not) is something we’ll have to wait and see in the coming years. The Ford Mustang Mach-E won’t go on sale earlier than 2020, and it will need at least one year to stretch its legs and start generating an income.