I had a few friends in high school with 2001-or-so Ford Mustangs. Some had the V6, others were Mustang GTs with Ford’s 4.6 liter V8. The Mustang GTs were faster – with 37 percent more horsepower – but otherwise only had mild upgrades over a “regular” Mustang V6. You had to pick a Mustang Mach 1 or Mustang Cobra to go more wild. Twentyish years later, Ford’s electric crossover is following the same formula. The 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT shares the Mustang brand and badging, as well as the GT formula from decades prior.
What Is It?
This is a 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT, the Mach-E for people who like the car overall but find 346 horsepower and 428 lb-ft of torque just too damn plebian. Ford amps up (pun intended) the Mach-E GT with 39 percent more horsepower for a total of 480. Torque is increased to a staggering 600 lb-ft.
Changes to the Mach-E GT are otherwise minimal. Ford gives the GT a different set of wheels with 20 mm wider tires, for a total of 245 mm on a square setup. Brakes are unchanged, steering is unchanged, suspension is unchanged beyond a slight drop in ride height. Looking inside, you’ll find copper-colored accents and stitching, but no huge changes here either.
There’s a good reason for that, and it’s called the Mach-E GT Performance Edition.
Should you want more performance, you need that “GTPE” – Ford gives the Mach-E GT Performance Edition even more torque (634 lb-ft!) but equips it with other upgrades. The Performance Edition features larger front brake rotors, summer tires instead of all-seasons, different “performance sculpted” front seats, and MagneRide dampers that change what they’re doing based on drive mode.
Both the Mach-E GT and Mach-E GT Performance Edition feature all-wheel drive thanks to one motor per axle, and use the same 91 kWh battery as the “regular” Mach-E Extended Range models. On my Mach-E GT test car, a non-Performance Edition, Ford claimed 270 miles of range. DC Fast Charging, as with every Mach-E, is supported at 150 kW speeds.
Is the 2022 Mach-E GT… Enough?
My overall impressions of the 2022 Mach-E GT were similar to those of the 2021 Mach-E Premium I drove last year. The Mach-E remains a very good EV overall, and picking the GT results in the same basic car, but faster. My few complaints from last year remain with the “regular” GT, in that the suspension is a bit harsh on less-than-perfect roads – though not as punishing as many other outlets would have you believe – and the front seats could really use a bit more bolstering.
Ford putting wider tires on the Mach-E GT was absolutely beneficial, though I noted the car tended to understeer in tight corners despite my best efforts to lightly trail brake and “set the nose” to help pivot the car. That understeer transitioned to gently hilarious oversteer if I had chosen the Unbridled drive mode, which changes how the stability control and motors respond and gives you the tiniest bit of tail-out corner exit assuming you stay on the throttle long enough.
“Long enough” is relative, though, as Ford limits how long the driver can truly have “full” throttle with the pedal fully depressed. Car & Driver noted the Mach-E GT pulls power in certain scenarios, something a Ford spokesperson described as “performing as expected.” As there is approximately nowhere around the DC metro area to legally stay full-throttle long enough to experience this first-hand, I found the Mach-E GT to be plenty quick away from stoplights and down long on-ramps. Then again, were I tracking the GT and using its track-only Unbridled Extend mode (it’s part of the Mustang family, after all) I might have a different opinion.
Driving the Mach-E GT made me think of my high school days, and the few Mustang GTs that lucky (spoiled?) friends parked in the student lot every day. They were, indeed, faster. By virtue of having combustion engines and a few more cylinders, they sounded different – something that doesn’t apply here. But the formula was the same, and both then and now, a good baseline car with more power provides a certain kind of fun.
The Mach-E GT will be an exciting option for many, though I honestly find the regular model plenty fast for daily driving and would like to have the upgrades of the Performance Edition if I’m already spending more money to go faster.
Sampling BlueCruise in the 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT
One exciting feature of the 2022 Mach-E GT was BlueCruise, Ford’s hands-free cruise control system. While there are no self-driving cars on sale today, BlueCruise is one system that inches closer to that notion. By adding pre-mapped highways to the car’s Sync 4 infotainment system, BlueCruise can take over steering on roads it knows. Ford has mapped 130,000 miles of roads in the United States where BlueCruise can be used.
Using BlueCruise is simple – one button press on the steering wheel and the system activates, assuming conditions are met. A pod on top of the steering column monitors your eyes to make sure you keep looking straight ahead – no iMessage or Grindr allowed – and assuming the car knows the road, the instrument cluster turns blue. You can take your hands off the wheel and feet off the pedals as the Mach-E does its thing at whatever speed you’ve set.
Should conditions change, the Mach-E does a nice job of “failing gracefully” as BlueCruise disables. The system first asks you to take over steering. Should that not be enough, it’ll disable itself entirely and request that you take back full control. The warning chimes and messaging were easy to comprehend the few times I had to take over unexpectedly.
While I’m still a fan of, y’know, driving, I did enjoy being able to boop have BlueCruise take over on long, boring stretches of highway where the driver is reduced to a steering-wheel holder for tens of miles at a time.
Final Thoughts
I’m an oddball among some of my automotive media network in that I really don’t care about outright power and straight-line speed past a certain point. The regular Mach-E is plenty fast and while I find a 3.8-second 0-60 run in a crossover to be technically amazing, I tend to want more than just powarrrrr when it comes to the notion of performance.
The 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT is by no means a bad car, though my personal taste leaves me wishing for the extra upgrades of the GT Performance Edition. And in that vein, the Mustang Mach-E GT follows the same formula as those old Mustangs of my youth did – with the exact same effect. Back then? I wanted a Mach 1. Now? I want a GTPE.