04 WHAT’S NEW
Ford Mustang
Mach-E
Any new car development is challenging, but the combination of
developing the fi rst EV from one of the world’s biggest carmakers and
adapting muscle car sportiness for an SUV ramps up the pressure. Craig
Thomas spoke to Ford’s vehicle dynamics manager, Geert van Noyen,
about the development of the Mustang Mach-E
ABOVE: A front
independent
Macpherson
strut and rear
independent
multilink setup,
with MagneRide
damping, ensures
ride comfort
›A popular myth among many carbuying
consumers is that electric
cars aren’t engaging or exciting
to drive. This is a myth of course, as
anyone who has driven many of the EVs
currently on sale, let alone performance
models such as the Porsche Taycan,
can testify.
Ford is attempting to dispel this myth
by using the Mustang name – with all its
muscle car connotations harking back
to the classic pony car immortalised
in Bullitt – for its fi rst all-electric car.
Iconic name aside, Ford is also aiming to
emphasise the sports credentials of the
Mustang Mach-E electric SUV through
its dynamics set up, as Geert van Noyen,
manager of vehicle dynamics at Ford
of Europe explained to us as he drove
the car through London traffi c at the
European launch of the car in February.
The Mustang Mach-E, the fi rst
product based on Ford’s scalable electric
vehicle architecture, will be sold in
US and Europe – two markets where
consumers have signifi cantly different
expectations of vehicle dynamics. As
such, development engineers have to
work to a common blueprint, but also
diverge in places.
Work started on the Mustang Mach-E’s
dynamic setup in late 2017, initially in
the USA. “The early phase is when you
defi ne the hardware – and most of that
work has been done by our colleagues in
North America,” van Noyen explains. “We
work very closely together and we gave
our input on what we wanted. We have
been involved in defi ning what we want,
to ensure that the architecture is right,
and have also worked on the dynamics
VehicleDynamicsInternational.com •May/June 2020
/VehicleDynamicsInternational.com