If you’re the kind of person that looks upon the all-electric Ford Mustang Mach-E and wishes it could do more, then Ford might be about to answer your prayers. The Blue Oval just premiered a new rally-inspired addition to the Mach-E family with a slick set of wheels and the promise of greater off-road performance.
Called the Mustang Mach-E Rally, the new model debuted at the Goodwood Festival of speed, where it was driven up the event’s hillclimb course by World Rally champion Ott Tänak, who currently drives the M-Sport Ford Puma hybrid rally car.
The new car will take Ford’s learnings from the World Rally stage and make that performance available to regular drivers. As such, the company says the new edition will allow the Mustang to go “where it never has gone before — where the tarmac ends and the dirt road begins.”
Interestingly, Ford already has an off-road performance brand in the form of the Raptor series of vehicles, which includes the Bronco, F-150 and Ranger models. So, why has this new rugged Mach-E taken a focus on the nimble, high speed world of rally rather than the brute force behind the Raptor series?
Sadly, we don’t know the answer to that just yet, like we don’t know much about the new car really either. Ford has remained tightlipped on the specs of the Mustang Mach-E Rally but confirmed that it’s a production-ready model that will hit our shores very soon. In fact, the rally-inspired SUV will go on sale in the U.S. later this year and will also be available to buy across Europe when it launches.
“Mustang Mach-E took the freedom and fun of Mustang and made it free from emissions,” said Darren Palmer, vice president of electric vehicle programs, Ford Model E, in a statement. “Now with Mustang Mach-E Rally, we’re providing our customers the freedom to venture off the asphalt and beyond the beaten path.”
So, what would you like to see from a rally-inspired Mustang? And can it ever live up to the hype that surrounded the glorious Mustang Hoonicorn, which was the last Mustang to show its prowess on the rough stuff in the hands of Ken Block?