Claiming the Mustang Name - 2024 Could be the year the Mach-E Surpasses Mustang In Deliveries

When Ford first announced that its four-door, sort of an SUV Mustang Mach-E would pull in buyers by leveraging the Mustang name many fans were horrified. We thought it was genius. No true fan of the gasser Mustang would stop buying Mustangs because Ford leveraged its name to stay in business. That makes no sense. The upside was brilliant, and even the controversy helped to generate buzz around the new Mustang Mach-E battery-electric vehicle.

The controversy has sort of slowed, and with every passing year, the number of gearheads who buy $50K Mustang GTs has started to slow. In time, their era will pass, and my prediction is that almost every performance car will be battery-electric. Heck, the best muscle car you can buy in 2025 in America is already battery-electric. 

For a while, the Mustang Mach-E had a slow rollout and then settled in under 3,000 units per month. That wasn’t enough volume to claim the name. But this past quarterly delivery report from Ford was a fun wake-up call. Year to date, Ford has delivered 35,626 Mustang Mach-Es and the trend is sharply UP. Like 30% up over last year to date. The gasser Mustang, by contrast, is about flat, and Ford has delivered 36,485. It’s now a virtual tie. 

If this trend continues, the Mustang Mach-E will outsell the gasser Mustang in 2024. Last year, the final result was that the Mustang Mach-E fell short of the gasser Mustang’s delivery numbers by about 41K units to about 49K units. Our prediction is that the battery-electric Mach-E will top the Mustang this year. We will know one way or the other in the first week of January.

So, if the Mach-E surpasses the gasser Mustang by becoming the “customer choice,” will this validate Ford’s idea of using the Mustang name on a battery-powered, four-door sort of SUV? That’s not a fact-based question but more of an opinion. There are about 348 million Americans and all of their opinions count equally - normally. But not many Americans really care about Mustangs one way or the other. I’m in the other camp. I care a lot about Mustangs. In truth, I’m in a weird camp. I am a lifelong fan of the Ford Mustang, and I am also a big fan of the Ford Mustang Mach-E.

My opinions are as follows:

• Ford was wise to leverage the Mustang name for Mach-E. It showed the world just how important Ford considered the new battery-electric vehicle. 
• Ford has not tarnished the Mustang name by applying it to the Mach-E. Many Mach-Es can dust many gas-powered Mustangs. If performance and the Mustang name are linked, the Mach-E is far from being the “worst” Mustang in history. Trust me, I was in high school and drove a V8 coupe in the 1980s. My pal had a 4-banger thing built by Ford in the late ‘70s that was embarrassing to call a “Mustang.” I think it had a “II” after the name. Blah. Even he made fun of it.
• I hope the time is far off in the distance, but cars are going all-electric. We are a couple of election cycles away from them being mandated out of existence by one of the two political parties in the US. When that day comes, the Mustang will live on in name, having been one of the longest-running nameplates in performance car history because Ford used it on Mach-E.
• I think it is great that these two are both still pulling in about 50K customers a piece. 

If the Ford Mustang Mach-E “outsells” the Ford Mustang gasser this year, it must mean something. Tell us what you think in our comments section. 
 

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John Goreham is a credentialed New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers. In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John's by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ Grammarly grammar and punctuation software when proofreading.