A New Breed of Rally Hero

Once upon a time, automakers like Audi, Mitsubishi, and Subaru sold road-going sports cars inspired by rally racing. Sadly, vehicles like the Audi Quattro, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and Subaru WRX STI are long gone with no confirmed successors in the works. Rally enthusiasts are orphaned in today’s car market – but there’s an unlikely savior waiting in the wings. The Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally is the electric vehicle no one expected; it’s a four-door crossover, like many others, but this one was made to go sliding through dirt at high speed.

Ford is no stranger to rallying, having built legendary cars like the Escort RS Cosworth, Focus/Fiesta WRC, and RS200. More recently, the company built and sold the Focus RS, a road-going hot hatchback with rally-inspired DNA. It may not share much in common with those cars, but the Mustang Mach-E Rally was built with them as inspiration. This is the first and only rally-focused EV on the market, making it a competitor in a segment of one.

To truly experience what the new Mach-E Rally can do, Ford flew us to Washington state to hoon around at DirtFish, a rally school where you can learn to slide a car on loose surfaces. What we uncovered is unlike any other EV you can purchase today – and possibly the best Mach-E that Ford has built to date.

Exterior: Focus RS DNA

The Mach-E has been wrapped up in controversy since its introduction from the Mustang diehards who refused to acknowledge an electric crossover as a proper ‘Stang. Though we’ve enjoyed the Mach-E’s styling from day one, there’s no doubt that this new Rally version takes things to new and exciting levels. This car was developed under the secret code name “Mongoose,” named after the all-terrain vehicle from Halo.

You can easily spot a Mach-E Rally by its 19-inch white wheels, which look like they came straight out of the 1980s. Those wheels come wrapped in Michelin CrossClimate2 tires, the first ones ever installed on a production car. Buyers can opt for one of six colors, including Shadow Black, Glacier Gray Metallic Tri-Coat, Star White Metallic Tri-Coat, Grabber Blue, Grabber Yellow, and Eruption Green Metallic. This is a rare instance where we think every color looks good combined with the retro white wheels. We’d probably skip the racing stripes and the side decals though, both of which are no-cost options to delete.

Other noticeable differences that set the Rally apart include:

• Rear spoiler inspired by the Focus RS
• Model-specific grille with integrated fog-lights
• Underbody shielding front and rear
• Clear paint protection on lower body
• Dark carbonized front splitter, and door and bumper trim
• One inch suspension lift

There are optional mud flaps that add to the rally-inspired style. We can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t add the mud flaps, though.

Interior: Mach-E GT Luxury

The Rally shares its interior with the Mach-E, albeit with some minor changes. The GT trim’s sports seats now have the word ‘Rally’ embossed on them, and they get cool white accents on the seat backs to match the wheels. There’s a bit more white accent on the steering wheel, but the rest of the cabin is identical to the Mach-E GT. You get a 15.5-inch portrait-oriented touchscreen infotainment system with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay along with a 10.2-inch horizontal gauge cluster in front of the steering wheel.

Feature content on the Rally is full-loaded, except for a panoramic moonroof which is not available on this model to save weight. It still gets niceties, such as heated front seats, a 360-degree camera system, Blue Cruise hands-free driving, and a 10-speaker B&O Sound System from Bang & Olufsen.

Performance: What Is The Rally?

To maximize fun, Ford based the Mach-E Rally off the GT trim, which is the quickest variant. Propulsion comes from dual electric motors (all-wheel drive), combining to produce 480 horsepower and 700 lb-ft of torque, thanks to the Performance Upgrade that comes standard on the Rally. Ford also improved the rear electric motor to make it lighter and produce more torque than last year’s Mach-E. Due to the off-road-focused tires, the Rally is a bit slower to 60 mph than the GT when equipped with the Performance Upgrade – but not by much. It will complete the 0-60 sprint in 3.4 seconds compared to 3.3 seconds in the GT Performance. Regular GT trims are slower, needing 3.8 seconds for the sprint. Most importantly, Ford eliminated the five-second full throttle limitation from the GT powertrain, letting owners get maximum power for longer.

Range takes a more substantial hit, though, dropping from 280 miles in the GT to 265 in the Rally. A 91 kWh battery pack comes standard and can be recharged at a 150 kW peak on a DC charger. Ford made some changes to the thermal management for the 2024 Mach-E lineup, decreasing the 10-80% charge time to just over 36 minutes (an eight-minute reduction). Mach-E owners can even use the Tesla Supercharger network to juice up using an adapter.

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Driving Impressions: Dirt Demon, Road King

Though the Rally is built to thrive on loose surfaces, it is now our favorite Mach-E to drive on the street. It rides on the same MagneRide Damping System as the GT, but the raised ride height, smaller wheels, thicker tires, and softer tuning all add up to a more compliant ride. This is the most comfortable Mach-E you can buy, and we’d honestly consider it as a daily driver even if we never planned to take it off the pavement. Ford says it is “continuously improving the Mach-E” and is “always looking for feedback,” so we hope it decides to expand this MagneRide setup to lesser Mach-E variants for buyers who want all the comfort without the off-road performance.

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We thought the tire and suspension setup might compromise the Mach-E Rally on a paved surface, but it still matches the fun of the GT. In fact, the decreased grip and slightly increased body roll makes the car slightly more entertaining. Performance cars, particularly EVs, can often feel soulless because they take corners too flat and without drama. The Mach-E Rally actually improves by getting slightly worse.

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Though the Mach-E Rally will make you chuckle on the road, the true enjoyment begins where the road ends. On a closed gravel track at DirtFish, we were able to explore the new RallySport drive mode, which allows for bigger slides, provides more linear throttle response to control the car, and adjusts the dampers to improve handling on a loose surface.

RallySport mode isn’t just a gimmick, it provides tangible effects that you can feel from behind the wheel. This car is remarkably easy to slide; just give it a boot full of throttle, swing the steering around to catch the slide, and modulate the pedal to control your angle. There were a few instances where the car started to understeer a bit, but this was easy to rectify by engaging the front motor with a sudden burst of throttle, pulling the car back into the corner. Even a novice can feel like a rally-driving god in this car.

Pricing & Verdict: First But Expensive

The 2024 Mustang Mach-E Rally is the most expensive of the Mach-E variants, starting at $59,995 (excluding destination). Fortunately, almost everything comes standard, save for a few accessories, meaning you won’t have to add thousands of dollars to this price. If you never plan to use the Rally off-road, you might consider saving $6,000 to get the Mach-E GT, which starts at $53,995 (not including the Performance Upgrade at $995). However, since the Rally delivers similar on-road performance, including a softer ride, along with more unique styling, we think it’s worth the price.

• 

  2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT
  

  Premium Pick

  Horsepower

  480 hp

  Torque

  600 lb-ft

  MSRP

  $53,995

  Drivetrain

  All-Wheel Drive

  0-60 MPH

  3.8 seconds (3.3 seconds with Performance Upgrade)

  Range

  280 miles

  Ground Clearance

  5.2 in

  Suspension

  MagneRide Dampers

• 

  2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally
  

  Rally Hero

  Horsepower

  480 hp

  Torque

  700 lb-ft

  MSRP

  $59,995

  Drivetrain

  All-Wheel Drive

  0-60 MPH

  3.4 seconds

  Range

  265 miles

  Ground Clearance

  5.8 in

  Suspension

  Rallycross-tuned MagneRide Damping

While it has no direct competitors that can perform as well on dirt, the Tesla Model Y Performance is less expensive at $51,490, and it comes with a $7,500 tax credit to sweeten the deal. Unfortunately, it lacks all the style and character you get in the Mach-E Rally. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N surpasses the Mach-E in both style and cool-factor, in our opinion, but it has a definitive track-focused design rather than a rally-inspired one. It’s pricier at $66,100, and does not get the tax credit, but it gets a more special powertrain that can mimic a gasoline engine and shift virtual gears. Copying these features from Hyundai is the only way we could envision the Mach-E Rally being any more fun to drive.

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Since this is the first of its kind, it will be interesting to see what appetite exists for a rally-inspired EV. Enthusiasts who currently own a WRX STI or a Lancer Evo but want to embrace electrification will feel right at home in the Rally, though we predict that Venn diagram doesn’t have much overlap. If you don’t have a rally school in your backyard, getting the most out of the Mach-E Rally might be difficult, but the same can be said for Baja trucks like the F-150 Raptor. We’d like to see other automakers learn from Ford here because this is an exciting product that deserves to be explored deeper. The Mach-E Rally is officially our favorite Mach-E variant to date, and our favorite Mustang that is currently on sale.