2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E Will Get Up 61 Miles In 10 Minutes Of Charging

When automakers made the decision to close up their offices and engineering facilities to protect employees from the pandemic, the work didn’t stop. Engineers including those developing the upcoming Ford Mustang Mach-E packed up their computers and other equipment and continued development from home. Those Ford electric vehicle engineers have clearly been making some progress since we first saw the Mach-E at the Los Angeles Auto Show last November.

At the reveal, we were told that the Mach-E with the long-range battery would be able to get about 47 miles of charge added in 10 minutes while plugged into a 150-kW DC fast charger. That estimate has now been increased to 61 miles for the rear-drive Mach-E and 52 miles for the dual motor all-wheel-drive version. The original estimates were based on computer-aided engineering simulations. The updated figures are based on actual real world testing with Electrify America chargers.

At this point, Ford hasn’t provided details of how they have achieved this 30% improvement from the simulation, but there are several possibilities. The first scenario would be increasing the charging power. Assuming that the original estimates were based on actually charging at the full 150-kW rate, it seems unlikely that they would be going much beyond this unless the battery was initially drawing less than this rate. Charging power is the speed at which electrons are “pumped” into the battery, analogous to gallons per minute at a gas pump. It’s possible that optimizations to the cooling of the battery, power electronics and the chargers themselves, allow higher sustained charging rates rather then slowing down periodically to maintain safe temperatures and avoid damage to the battery.

The other scenario is that as testing has proceeded, the powertrain control and calibration has improved the overall energy efficiency of the Mach-E. If we assume the battery is getting the same amount of “juice” in 10 minutes as before, if the car can go more miles on each kWh of electricity, that 10 minutes will effectively provide more miles of driving.

If that is the case, the range for the standard range Mach-E with the 75-kWh battery would be improved from the projected 230 miles. The long-range version with the 98.8-kWh pack that was estimated at up to 300 miles could also see a significant boost. Changes to how regenerative braking works, power flows to the motors, the battery management software, cooling system and perhaps even improvements to the hardware like the power electronics could all contribute to potential range improvements.

Mach-E drivers will also have access to more charging stations through the embedded Fordpass app in the Sync 4 system. Ford’s Team Edison has worked to make the EV ownership experience more seamless, emulating the approach of Tesla. By aggregating multiple charging network providers through a single interface, drivers can find and pay for charging in more places. At launch, drivers will have access to 40,000 charging ports at 13,500 locations across North America.