Ford gives the electric Mustang Mach-E a proper BATTERING to prove its durability

Ford sets out to prove that the electric Mustang Mach E is every bit as durable as any ICE car they produce with a range of tough tests.

Ford has been bust promoting the electric Mustang Mach E as a perfect alternative to a regular ICE SUV, including cleverly using the UK’s smallest town – Fordham – to show the Mach E works just as well for owners in rural areas as it does for those who only prowl urban streets in their EVs.

Now Ford is on a mission to prove that EVs are every bit as durable in the real world as ICE cars, despite daft ideas floating around about EV drawbacks, including that you can’t take an EV out in the rain safely (some 13 per cent of Europeans think that way apparently).

To dispel the ‘not safe in the rain’ myth, Ford subjected the Mach E to 60 passes through a ‘brutal, suds-free automatic conveyor wash complete with sprayers, brushes, and dryers’, and blasted everything from the cowling to the badges with a 1,700PSI jet wash from a foot away at 60C.

They then went on to a robotic arse to simulate a person getting in and out of the Mach E 25,000 times, subjected the ActiveX seating material to product like hand sanitiser, flexed the seating 100,000 times to test its durability and subjected it to the equivalent of 10 years of abrasion.

The 15.5″ touchscreen also came in for abuse, but its Dragontrail glass proved up to withstanding bashes from children playing with it, bags hitting it and pets bumping into it, and the paintwork survived some severe testing with different grades of gravel on some fairly rough surfaces.

Donna Dickson, chief programme engineer, Mustang Mach-E, said:

We have gone to great lengths to subject Mustang Mach-E to extreme tests – stressing it much more than a typical consumer would – to help ensure it is ready to face the rigour of the open road.

Electric vehicles shouldn’t be limited to nicely paved city streets and suburbia. We tested Mustang Mach-E so that customers can confidently live on or adventure down gravel roads and not worry about their paint easily chipping.

You can check out the Mustang Mach E’s durability in the video below.