Over the weekend I had a chance to rent the Ford Mustang Mach-E. It is one of the first all-electric SUV available a few years back, which I considered prior to purchasing a Tesla Model Y. Budget recently added this to their EV fleet. I was given a fob and a card with the KEYPAD code was in the center console.
The car that was assigned to me looked like a brand new. Upon checking the odometer it was at 272 miles. Wow!
It is classified under Cool Cars Vehicle Group with a vehicle description of Black Ford Mach E EV AWD. I rented it for 4 days for a total of $203.64 through Costco Travel.
The vehicle was parked in what seem a compact parking in the rental garage. I did a walkthrough and everything looked good. When I approached the car, the Mustang logo puddle light turned on. Pretty cool!
Now entering the vehicle, it is a spacious 5 seater SUV with a decent trunk space. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to check and use the frunk space. It took a good 10 minutes for me to figure out the controls and adjust to my ideal settings.
Comparing it to a Tesla, it felt more like a traditional car compared to an electric. You need to push the power on button in order to drive and power off before exiting the vehicle to lock it.
The gear selector is located by the center console. It has a dash screen in addition to a vertically mounted 15.5-inch touchscreen. You can adjust the drive setting to a one-pedal drive, which I thought was cool.
The trunk is supposed to have a touch-free open and close capability, where you can kick the sensor at the bottom of the trunk area and it will either open and close. Unfortunately, I was not able to figure out how to do this.
When I got the car, it had a 99% charge and returned it with approximately 67% battery charge. I returned the car with mileage reading of 559 miles, so that means I have driven it a total of 287 miles. The night before I was schedule to return the rental car, I was at 22% so I did an ultrafast charging using Electrify America to charge it to 90%.
The total charging cost was $35.84. I think it is a little pricey but it’s the price I have to pay for an ultrafast charger. The hotel I was staying at did not have EV chargers and the closest one was about 8 miles away or 15 minute drive. Here’s the breakdown:
- Total energy delivered: 64.7562 kWh
- Price: $0.56 per kWh
- Total session time: 48 min 48 sec
- Max charging speed 157.00 kWh
Overall, I think it is a cool car. Would I purchase one? Probably I will pass… BUT I do not mind driving it again and for sure I will rent again if it’s given as an option.
Live well. Eat well. Travel well. 
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