TESTED: 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E Standard Range RWD Beats EPA Estimate by 34 Miles

• The Mustang Mach-E with the standard-range battery and rear-wheel drive has an EPA range of 230 miles, but we drove ours 264 miles on a single charge.
• That's right on top of the 263 miles we recorded in a Tesla Model Y Performance, which has an EPA range of 291 miles.
• The Mustang Mach-E has exceeded its EPA-estimated range in every real-world test we've conducted.
• Edmunds' EV range leaderboard is embeddable and dynamic, meaning it will update in real time whenever we add a new electric vehicle.

The Ford Mustang Mach-E won our hearts when it debuted last year, taking home our Top Rated Luxury EV award for 2021. Previously, we had tested the Mach-E on two occasions with its bigger, extended-range battery. But what about the standard-range battery, which is less expensive? The EPA estimates a Mach-E with the standard battery and rear-wheel drive can provide 230 miles of range on a full charge.

We regularly see EVs exceed their EPA estimates in our real-world EV range testing, including both Mach-E variants we'd tested before. Could the Mustang Mach-E with the standard-range battery maintain that overachieving tradition? We hit the road in a rear-wheel-drive Mach-E Premium fitted with this battery to find out.

Testing the Mustang Mach-E Standard Range RWD in the Real World

We test every new EV on a standardized drive route in Southern California, driving the vehicles until they have zero miles of range remaining. With the notable exception of every Tesla we've tested as of this writing, most EVs match or exceed their EPA targets during our drives.

The Mustang Mach-E offers a variety of range specifications. The lowest provides an EPA-estimated 211 miles with the standard-range battery and all-wheel drive, while the California Route 1 variant tops the charts at an EPA-rated 305 miles with its extended-range battery and rear-wheel drive.

So how did our rear-wheel-drive Mustang Mach-E Premium with its standard-range battery perform? We recorded a 264-mile jaunt on our testing loop, which is 34 miles more than the EPA's 230-mile projection. That makes the Mustang Mach-E three for three in our testing in terms of outpacing the EPA range estimate by a significant margin.

In fact, this standard-range Mach-E did the best of the three, exceeding its EPA rating by 14.8 percent versus the California Route 1's 12.8 percent and the extended-range AWD's 12.6 percent.

But How Much Did Those 264 Miles Cost?

Although total range is at the top of most people's minds when it comes to EVs, energy consumption is an important factor as well. This determines how much your miles will cost you. The unit of measurement for consumption, the kilowatt-hour, can be thought of as the EV equivalent of a gallon of gasoline. Just like gas, the price of electricity varies depending where you live. For example, you'll pay about 8.9 cents per kilowatt-hour in Oklahoma as of this writing, whereas in Hawaii it'll run you about 33 cents.

So, how did this Mustang Mach-E stack up? After charging the battery back to full, we calculated an Edmunds consumption rate of 29.2 kWh/100 miles, which is 14.1 percent better than the EPA's estimate of 34 kWh/100 mi. If we lived in Hawaii, our 264-mile run in the Mustang would have cost us $25.44, whereas if we lived in Oklahoma, that same charge would have cost just $6.86.

How does that compare to other EVs? Consider the 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 First Edition, which we measured at 28.8 kWh/100 mi. in our testing. If you traveled the same 264 miles in the VW, it would have cost $6.77 in Oklahoma and $25.09 in Hawaii. We'll call this one a wash.

Either way, a gasoline-powered rival would have cost significantly more. Running a 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLC 300 for 317 miles on premium fuel would have set us back roughly $47 in Hawaii and $34 in Oklahoma at current prices, assuming we got the GLC 300's EPA-estimated 25 mpg combined.

Edmunds Says

Our top-ranked luxury EV continues to shine the more we drive it. With 264 miles of real-world range, the Mach-E with the standard-range battery and rear-wheel drive offers a lot at a very compelling price. For more information on how we test EV range and how each vehicle performed, we invite you to visit our Real World vs. EPA testing page, which includes both our EV range leaderboard and a table with detailed test results. Our EV range leaderboard is embeddable and will automatically update every time we add a new vehicle.