Ford Mustang Mach-E Extended Range AWD – long-term review

Let’s talk about electric car charging, because – unpopular opinion incoming – I don’t know why there’s so much doom and gloom about the UK infrastructure? It’s not perfect, but all around me I see progress. Perhaps I’m just a weirdly optimistic sort of person.

I realise that electric cars just simply don’t work for some people – if you live in a block of flats, or out in the sticks things can get tricky – and buying one with a decent range like the Mustang isn’t cheap, but I’m convinced that for the majority of us using an EV is less hassle than you imagine.

Being able to charge at home is the golden donut. Get that sorted and starting every day with a full battery is half the battle won. If you’ve got off-street parking, get a 7kW charger installed, if you don’t then all’s not lost. I live in a terraced house, but stretch my cord across the pavement and cover it with a mat – works for me and no complaints so far. If you live in a big town or city you’ll notice lamppost chargers popping up all over the place, too, my London-dwelling colleague Paul Horrell swears by them. If you’re back at the office, perhaps there’s a plug you can use in the car park? If not, have a word with your boss.

Yes, but what about longer journeys? Clearly it helps that our Mach-E has the big battery (real-world range of 280 miles in the summer, 210 in the winter) but for me this is where it gets fun. Firstly, I live in South London and travelling to places 100 miles away or less, so no need to charge for the round-trip, covers 95 per cent of my journeys. For the other 10 per cent, I simply spend some time planning ahead, usually on Zap Map because when do you ever take a 200+ mile journey without knowing at least a few days in advance where you’re heading? Rarely, if ever.

Spend five minutes finding a rapid charger near your destination or along the route that actually function – there are certain networks that are not to be trusted, others that work every time – and you’ll be fine. In fact, you’ll be better than fine, expect a warm glow of achievement to follow you around for a bit. Of course, if we’re talking a mega-miles road trip, then the risk of something going wrong increases, but with a bit more planning it’s entirely doable. If I can make it from London to the Scottish Highlands and back without trouble in a VW ID.3, anything’s possible.

I’m not here to push electric cars on those who aren’t interested, but I am a little fed up with this blanket view that the infrastructure isn’t ready. It’s getting there, if you’re prepared to put the effort in.