The Ford Mach-E is the most exciting electric car for Australia in 2023

Ford Australia pulled a solid surprise on the Australian public last week, revealing the Mach-E electric car in Right-Hand drive at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Using Daniel Ricciardo, the new pseudo face of Ford thanks to the Red Bull F1 powertrain deal the reveal attracted huge interest on then opening day at Albert Park – and as someone standing in the front-row for the reveal, I had no idea what to expect.

Ford’s Mach-E has been in production for two years in the United States, and was the third best selling Electric Car in the USA last year, behind the Model 3 and Model Y.

With availability at the end of 2023, Ford Australia has the potential to put off many buyers from selecting another brand, with the desirable Mach-E sure to be in high demand.

The company appears to be hell-bent on a multi-stage announcement process, with the reveal happening last week, with pricing the next bet and orders opening after that, all before the cars start hitting the docks for customer delivery.

There will be three variants offered, the Select, Premium and GT models, with two battery capacities between them.

Mach-E Select will have the 71kWh battery, and a single motor with 430Nm of torque at the rear wheels from 198kW of power.

You should get 470 odd km of range from that one.

Step it up to the Mach-E Premium for the larger 91kWh battery pushing 216kW/430nM into the rear wheels and 600km of driving – the most of the range.

For performance, the Mach-E GT also uses the 91kWh battery, but into Dual motors delivering 358kW/68Nm to all four wheels.

That will make this 3.7 second 0-100 the fastest Ford in Aussie showrooms.

Inside is a 15.5 inch centre infotainment screen with Sync4 installed and a 10.2 inch digital driver instrument cluster.

The biggest question for Ford Australia is – just how many of these will you be able to get into the country.

Ford has two years of production experience on this EV behind them, selling just shy of 40,000 in the USA. Ford Australia sells around 2,000 petrol Mustangs per year, and while that would be a good number to sell in the Mach-E, their goal should be Tesla’s Model Y (8,000) and Model 3 (10,000) sales.

If priced well, and it should be closer to Model 3 not Model Y based on US figures, if Ford can make this a $70,000 starting point vehicle, they should be able to easily achieve 5,000 sales, if not 10,000 in the first full year.

Price aggressively, and sell hard. That’s what we’re hoping for.

There’s no more exciting electric car on the market under $100,000 – Ford has a great opportunity here. Personally, I want one!