Mach-e won't transition to the skunkworks platform

[DeluxeStang]

https://electrek.co/2026/06/18/ford-mustang-mach-e-on-borrowed-time-more-affordable-evs-roll-in/

 

I wonder what the plan is. Explorerdude mentioned how mach-e might be replaced with an ICE performance RWD crossover. So maybe something with mach-e size and styling, but a modified cd6 chassis or something. 

[morgan20]

42 minutes ago, DeluxeStang said:

Explorerdude mentioned how mach-e might be replaced with an ICE performance RWD crossover. So maybe something with mach-e size and styling, but a modified cd6 chassis or something. 

 

That would be a step backward! Are there no performance oriented CE1/Universal EV platform models planned (whether pickup truck or other form factors)?

[jpd80]

Ford has essentially halted production of the Mustang Mach-E in China due to extremely low demand.
Following a year where the joint venture sold just 35 units, Changan Ford listed its 40% stake in the EV

subsidiary for sale.

 

Through the first half of 2026, Ford has sold just over 10,000 Mach Es  in the UK and Western

Europe combined. Sales for the electric SUV have slowed significantly—dropping around

50% year-over-year—as buyers gravitate toward newer, fresher EV competitors and Ford

shifts more focus to its newer European-built models like the Explorer EV and Capri

 

Mach E is a nice enough vehicle, owners love them but there just doesn't seem to be much demand.

Edited June 19 by jpd80

[JTL2017]

That’s a shame. I really like the Mach-E. I do wish it were in the plans and see what an improved Mach-E would look like. 

[morgan20]

1 hour ago, jpd80 said:

Mach E is a nice enough vehicle, owners love them but there just doesn't seem to be much demand.

That seeming lack of demand arises entirely from what you mentioned:

buyers gravitate toward newer, fresher EV competitors

 

Ford “rot on the vine disease” sadly didn’t spare MME

[akirby]

19 minutes ago, morgan20 said:

That seeming lack of demand arises entirely from what you mentioned:

buyers gravitate toward newer, fresher EV competitors

 

Ford “rot on the vine disease” sadly didn’t spare MME

MME was always a stopgap like Lightning.  Then the focus changed to keep ICE and target lower priced EVs.

 

We'll see a new one but not until they flesh out the lower priced points.

[DeluxeStang]

10 hours ago, morgan20 said:

 

That would be a step backward! Are there no performance oriented CE1/Universal EV platform models planned (whether pickup truck or other form factors)?

Honestly, IDK. Because the truck seems somewhat performance oriented, RWD with mustang Ecoboost levels of acceleration, and a lot of downforce. That sounds pretty sporty. We also know Farley has talked about using the platform for a RWD sporty sedan. 

 

I had a though, and I hope I'm wrong, but maybe the design is the hangup. The mach-e looks great, but it does certain things that prioritize looks over aero efficiency, like having a longer hood, and more upright front end. Maybe it was a case that to make it fit with this new aero efficient mentality that's a guiding force for skunkworks, they were gonna have to give it completely different proportions and shapes, and at that point, the product loses a lot of its appeal. 

 

I hope that's not the case, because I don't want everything on this platform to be a stub nose thing. But it's one of the only reasons I can think of. 

[DeluxeStang]

3 hours ago, jpd80 said:

Ford has essentially halted production of the Mustang Mach-E in China due to extremely low demand.
Following a year where the joint venture sold just 35 units, Changan Ford listed its 40% stake in the EV

subsidiary for sale.

 

Through the first half of 2026, Ford has sold just over 10,000 Mach Es  in the UK and Western

Europe combined. Sales for the electric SUV have slowed significantly—dropping around

50% year-over-year—as buyers gravitate toward newer, fresher EV competitors and Ford

shifts more focus to its newer European-built models like the Explorer EV and Capri

 

Mach E is a nice enough vehicle, owners love them but there just doesn't seem to be much demand.

To be fair, for awhile, the mach-e sold very well for an EV, and was one of the most popular non Tesla EVs. Where I live, it's mostly Tesla's, mach-es, and Rivians. You'll see another EV every so often like a ID buzz in orange, which looked really neat for a van, but they're a lot less common. 

 

The lack of refreshes and major changes really hurt the mach-e. I remember when it came out, we were told there were high performance trims for instance that would slot above the gt, and it just never happened. We should have gotten the second gen by name if Ford was sticking to their original timeline. They do this over and over, release a compelling product, and then let it die. 

[twintornados]

1 hour ago, DeluxeStang said:

To be fair, for awhile, the mach-e sold very well for an EV, and was one of the most popular non Tesla EVs. Where I live, it's mostly Tesla's, mach-es, and Rivians. You'll see another EV every so often like a ID buzz in orange, which looked really neat for a van, but they're a lot less common. 

 

The lack of refreshes and major changes really hurt the mach-e. I remember when it came out, we were told there were high performance trims for instance that would slot above the gt, and it just never happened. We should have gotten the second gen by name if Ford was sticking to their original timeline. They do this over and over, release a compelling product, and then let it die. 

 

I contend that one of the biggest drags on Mach E is Ford not updating the charge port from CCS to NACS even though they agreed to utilize NACS going forward since 2023....

[rmc523]

5 hours ago, jpd80 said:

Ford has essentially halted production of the Mustang Mach-E in China due to extremely low demand.
Following a year where the joint venture sold just 35 units, Changan Ford listed its 40% stake in the EV

subsidiary for sale.

 

Through the first half of 2026, Ford has sold just over 10,000 Mach Es  in the UK and Western

Europe combined. Sales for the electric SUV have slowed significantly—dropping around

50% year-over-year—as buyers gravitate toward newer, fresher EV competitors and Ford

shifts more focus to its newer European-built models like the Explorer EV and Capri

 

Mach E is a nice enough vehicle, owners love them but there just doesn't seem to be much demand.

 

Especially in China, fresh product is needed, and Ford's ever extending product cycles, it's no wonder sales have dropped.

 

I know Teslas have had long product cycles, but they're the exception, not the rule.

 

It does also make sense that at a certain point when they knew they were moving to CE1, it didn't make sense to move forward with too much further work on Mach E.

[morgan20]

18 minutes ago, rmc523 said:

 

I know Teslas have had long product cycles, but they're the exception, not the rule.

Even Tesla has run into the inevitable result of that, with sales declines of Model S and Model X.

 

Didn’t some big shot at Tesla make BS claim they were making changes to the vehicles’ software every week or somethin’, so that counted as “refreshing” and improving the products as they aged?

[T-dubz]

Mach e’s problem is it’s been 5.5 years without a refresh and its price. Its basically 40k for its base trim with 260 mile range. There are plenty of models out there like the Tesla model 3, model y, and equinox ev that are similarly priced or cheaper and get 320 miles of range, often also having more options.

 

I’d imagine the new suv built on the uev platform will have a similar size to the mach e but have better range and a cheaper price. If we are talking strictly compact suv ev’s, this vehicle is the mach e’s replacement. If you are talking about a compact performance SUV’s, then who knows what it’s replacement will be.

[rmc523]

1 hour ago, morgan20 said:

Even Tesla has run into the inevitable result of that, with sales declines of Model S and Model X.

 

Didn’t some big shot at Tesla make BS claim they were making changes to the vehicles’ software every week or somethin’, so that counted as “refreshing” and improving the products as they aged?

 

Exactly - they didn't invest in them, then wonder where sales go.

 

Software changes are great, but nah, doesn't count when most people won't even notice.

[Captainp4]

1 hour ago, rmc523 said:

 

Exactly - they didn't invest in them, then wonder where sales go.

 

Software changes are great, but nah, doesn't count when most people won't even notice.

Our model Y gets a software update every few weeks, new features added and updates to the self driving to make it even better. Mach E is failing because they aren't even attempting to match what Tesla does anymore. It was really close when it came out, but as usual, Ford just let it be instead of pushing on.

[Trader 10]

The problem with Mach E is that it loses money and why would Ford invest a lot of money to update it when there isn’t a return on investment. Investments need to go to ICE vehicles and CE1. 

[akirby]

13 minutes ago, Trader 10 said:

The problem with Mach E is that it loses money and why would Ford invest a lot of money to update it when there isn’t a return on investment. Investments need to go to ICE vehicles and CE1. 

So many people don't understand this concept.  9 times out of 10 this is why Ford stops investing in a vehicle.  They leave it to rot on the vine because they could never recoup the investment and updating it might help sales but not profits.  The decision to kill it was made years ago.

[jpd80]

6 hours ago, DeluxeStang said:

To be fair, for awhile, the mach-e sold very well for an EV, and was one of the most popular non Tesla EVs. Where I live, it's mostly Tesla's, mach-es, and Rivians. You'll see another EV every so often like a ID buzz in orange, which looked really neat for a van, but they're a lot less common. 

 

The lack of refreshes and major changes really hurt the mach-e. I remember when it came out, we were told there were high performance trims for instance that would slot above the gt, and it just never happened. We should have gotten the second gen by name if Ford was sticking to their original timeline. They do this over and over, release a compelling product, and then let it die. 

The amount of rework that went into changing E Max into Mach E was astonishing, Ford was on a mission

but as usual, Ford gave it advertising support for the first couple of years but you can see the interest isn’t there.

 

It's becoming like the MKT, Ford will keep it around for a few more years in an attempt to recover some return

but internally, it just feels like Ford has moved on now that UEV is almost here.

[DeluxeStang]

1 hour ago, akirby said:

So many people don't understand this concept.  9 times out of 10 this is why Ford stops investing in a vehicle.  They leave it to rot on the vine because they could never recoup the investment and updating it might help sales but not profits.  The decision to kill it was made years ago.

I think most of us understand that concept, even if it disappoints us. But it doesn't explain why Ford isn't doing a next gen on the far more cost efficient CE1 platform. The mach-e lost money, but the customer facing portion was great. It sold well relative to most other comparable EVs from established brands, and the people who own them love them, it has a cult following. 

 

I just feel like doing a second gen that retains all the things current mach-e owners love, but on the CE1 platform that's actually profitable to build makes a lot of sense. But maybe Ford sees something I don't. 

[morgan20]

1 hour ago, akirby said:

They leave it to rot on the vine because they could never recoup the investment and updating it might help sales but not profits.

 

The causality is in the other direction: they could never recoup the investment because they leave it to rot on the vine.

[DeluxeStang]

21 minutes ago, jpd80 said:

The amount of rework that went into changing E Max into Mach E was astonishing, Ford was on a mission

but as usual, Ford gave it advertising support for the first couple of years but you can see the interest isn’t there.

 

It's becoming like the MKT, Ford will keep it around for a few more years in an attempt to recover some return

but internally, it just feels like Ford has moved on now that UEV is almost here.

I agree on a lot of this, but I feel like there are concepts within Ford that are worth evolving because they show promise even if their initial execution was flawed. The mach-e falls under that umbrella. 

 

It can't match something like the edge sales numbers, but it sold well relative to most other comparable EVs from established brands for quite some time. It's fallen off recently, but that's because newer, more compelling products have come out. 

 

Things like the driving dynamics and styling were very well received. I just wish Ford applied those positive attributes to a gen 2 variant that overcame the negative qualities of the first gen mach-e by using the far superior CE1 platform as a base. It just feels like a sexy coupe styled EV from Ford that was even more affordable for consumers, yet profitable for Ford, makes a lot of sense. Like the concept surrounding the mach-e is a good one, and Ford should give it another go with a cost efficient platform before throwing in the towel. 

[morgan20]

2 hours ago, Captainp4 said:

It was really close when it came out, but as usual, Ford just let it be instead of pushing on.

 

Yea, exactly. So much for the startup spirit that Model e division supposedly espoused with MME and F-150 Lightning, and of achieving their goal of building the future as Ford's center of innovation and growth. 🙄

 

Hopefully the launch of CE1/UEV products will finally mark a turn away from this defeatist attitude that's infected Ford for decades (the source of the company's "rot on the vine disease") 

 

Edited June 19 by morgan20

[Zestyg]

I feel like the design isn’t aging that great. It was a great car for Ford to make, and it had to happen but its ultimately limited (like the F-150 Lightning). 
 

It’s irrelevant but I’m still baffled by that one guy on the Mach E forum who said Ford focusing on affordability was a “big miss” for UEV. 

[DeluxeStang]

1 hour ago, Zestyg said:

It’s irrelevant but I’m still baffled by that one guy on the Mach E forum who said Ford focusing on affordability was a “big miss” for UEV. 

It blows my mind that he said that. 

[Sherminator98]

I was poking around on Ford.com the other day looking at MME GTs-I live in an area that has pretty good EV penetration and MMEs where very scare in any dealership-they where lucky to have one or two in stock. 

 

The MME is a good car but Ford can't make money on it and can't fix that and I'm not sure what they can do change that, even moving it to the CE1 platform.

 

I think Ford is looking at the CE1 not possibly performing as well as they hoped, due to the way the market is. Best case is the market accepts it, but I have this nagging feeling that people (at least in the US) aren't going to unless they are forced to, either through regulations or gas pricing. 

 

There is just so much uncertainty in the automotive market in the near future and affordability, even for ICE products, isn't helping either. 

[akirby]

14 hours ago, morgan20 said:

 

The causality is in the other direction: they could never recoup the investment because they leave it to rot on the vine.

I don't think they do that with profitable products.  Certainly not F series.

 

I think there is a difference between rot on the vine and longer refresh cycles.   They do tend to stretch refresh cycles on everything except F series but that's not rot on the vine.  Take Focus.  Even when brand new it wasn't profitable so why would a refresh change that?  Why spend time and money just to break even?

 

15 hours ago, DeluxeStang said:

But it doesn't explain why Ford isn't doing a next gen on the far more cost efficient CE1 platform.

They don't have the resources to do that and the other 3-4 vehicles at the same time, and those cheaper vehicles will sell better than a more expensive performance EV.   The ICE mustang crossover should sell better and should be more profitable and they can add an EV down the road.  It's just timing and priorities.