Hybrids’ missing performance found in Mustang Mach-E

For years, Al Kammerer has had both gasoline and electrons coursing through his veins. His pride and joy is a gorgeous yellow home-built 1932 V-8-powered Ford convertible hot rod. In the summer months it shares garage space with a dark-red Jaguar convertible, one of the last cars he worked on before retiring as Jaguar Land Rover's product development chief in 2008. Kammerer has owned a succession of gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, including some plug-in models.

Early last month Kammerer, whose career spanned 34 years at Ford Motor Co., replaced a Lincoln Corsair with a Mustang Mach-E. Now, he says, he's not going back to piston-engine vehicles for daily driving.

There was zero chance Kammerer would ever buy a Tesla — or any electric vehicle that is not connected to Ford. He visited Tesla stores and has looked over the vehicles. "They're interesting. I'd really like to drive one and see what they are all about. But Elon Musk, being a non-car guy, did an admirable job of putting it all together," he says.

The hybrids Kammerer has owned were, perhaps, the bridge to his first electric car. He got a taste for electric drive through his hybrids, and he liked it. "For daily drivers," he says, "they were just fine."

Running out of energy wasn't a concern. If the vehicle depleted the charge in the battery, the gasoline engine took over. What was missing, though, was performance. That has been addressed in the Mach-E.

"It's the first lease car I've had since my Focus ST that I am inclined to drive on twisty roads just for the fun of driving it. It's not as agile and fun to drive as a Mustang, but for an SUV I find it quite competent," he added.

One minor factor that helped sway Kammerer to the Mach-E is that he believes greater demand for electricity from EVs will help kick-start much-needed upgrades to the nation's power grid. He also was attracted to the Mach-E because of its technology and Ford's dealership network.

"The fact that you can program it for a departure time and that it will use the electricity from your house to warm it up so you don't deplete the battery is a nice touch. I spent a couple of hours going through every button and I can't remember them all," he says with a laugh.

The Mach-E is the first vehicle he's owned that will get its software updates over the air.

"Do I want a dealer network? Absolutely. Do I want to go to the dealer? Not if I don't have to. Doing it over the air is great. EVs inherently require less service than internal combustion vehicles. But other things happen. You scrape a pole in the parking lot, so it's good to have someone close by who sells original equipment parts," he said.

So far, the Mustang's driving range has not been an issue. "I haven't been on a long enough trip to charge elsewhere, but I am actually looking forward to it. Our son and his family live in Peoria. I am really looking forward to a post-COVID drive down to Peoria. I went online and looked at all the charging stations between here and there, so I am not particularly concerned about it. But for normal everyday life — short of visiting the kids — there isn't any place I go that gets me in trouble from a range perspective. For my drive to Ann Arbor and back to visit friends, I still have 50 percent charge."

So far, he hasn't noticed any major changes to his electric bill. Kammerer did a back-of-the-envelope calculation and figures he'll pay about 6.5 cents per mile to drive the Mach-E compared with about 8 cents per mile for gasoline priced at $2.50 per gallon.

"EVs have been overhyped, but we need to do it," he says. "We need clean electricity and we need our power grid to get rehabbed quickly. At the end of the day, we are going to need electricity as an alternative to burning fossil fuels. And we need to figure out how to generate electricity without burning fossil fuels."