The Ford Mustang Mach-E is a very fun electric car. Is it really a Mustang? No, not especially, but it’s fun on its own terms, even if it does borrow the name for what is really a sporty, electric SUV. Now, months after it launched, Ford Australia is offering a home and public charging deal with the Mustang Mach-E in mind – but you don’t even need to own a Ford EV to take advantage of it.
While this deal is skewed towards Mustang Mach-E and Ford PHEV owners, you don’t necessarily have to be one yourself – you just need to buy it from Ford online or a Ford dealer. For example, you could have bought a BYD Seal for the city, and this deal would still apply to you, and the home charger would still work (as the home charger is for a Type 2 socket, sorry Nissan Leaf drivers).
In collaboration with public charging company Evie, Ford’s new deal has a $2,580 Teltonika Teltocharge home charger with up to 7.4kW charging capacity (single-phase) and a 5-metre length, with that price including installation. On top of this, buyers get $400 of free charging credit on public Evie chargers. Evie offers one of the most fleshed-out networks up the Eastern coast of Australia, along with many city chargers in Melbourne and Sydney.
If you spend an additional $300, you can upgrade your wall box charger to work with a three-phase connection (if you’ve got one) allowing it to achieve capacities of up to 22kW. A separate offer that enables EV charging solely from your solar panels is also available for an additional $300.
“Collaborating with Evie for this package allows Ford customers a stress-free installation process, plus the added benefit of $400 of public charging credit on their massive national public network for when Ford EV owners need to travel interstate in their car,” Ford Australia general manager of electric vehicles Myles Hartley said.
The home charger will also work with the upcoming Puma Gen-E and the Ranger PHEV, as well as the existing E-Transit van and Escape PHEV – though those PHEV models will be incompatible with Evie’s DC chargers, which make up the bulk of its charging network.
Additionally, your home must not be an apartment or a commercial site, and it must be located within 50km of a state capital (with the charger located within 15 metres of the electricity distribution box). The credit for Evie chargers is valid for 12 months from the date of purchase.
Weighing up Ford’s deal, it is perhaps a little more expensive for the box than from a third party, though it is really only for a specific kind of driver. Installation and purchase of a 7kW charger from EVSE, for example, costs $2,007, while installation for a 22kW three-phase charger would cost $2,366 – though obviously, these options don’t have the $400 bonus credit for Evie public chargers.
It goes without saying that you don’t need to install one of these chargers – you can get by fine with the emergency charger that’s included with your purchase of an EV (though obviously some EVs no longer come with included slow chargers, and they really are slow compared to wallbox installs). The Teltonika Teltocharge is quite a sexy-looking charging box – not that this should inform your purchase too much.
We do, obviously, love the Mustang Mach-E though. At the time of writing, it’s our fifth favourite electric car in Australia (of the ones we’ve driven). It’d be a pleasure to road trip in, and spend up that $400 Evie credit.
The offer from Ford will run through to September 17, 2024.
Image: Zachariah Kelly/Gizmodo Australia