The latest video from Sandy Munro’s teardown process for the Ford Mustang Mach-E reached the heart of any electric car: the battery pack. One of the most exciting discoveries made by the Munro & Associates team has to do with the role this component has in the electric crossover. Apart from giving the Mach-E the energy it needs, the battery pack is also structural.
That is something Tesla would be willing to do for the Model Y that will be built in Germany, as well as for the Cybertruck. In both cases, Tesla still needs the 4680 cells to be production-ready. According to Elon Musk’s predictions, that can happen by May 2022 in the best-case scenario or by November 2022 in the worst. Musk already confessed he is not that good at predicting anything.
In that sense, the Ford Mustang Mach-E is ahead of its main competitor. Being a structural member, the battery pack allows the vehicle’s body to weigh less – even if that makes the component a bit heavier.
Munro’s team weighed all battery packs they have come across so far and the Mach-E’s was no exception. The result for the electric crossover’s battery pack was 485 kg. In the video, Munro and Ben Lindamood compared the info with that of other battery packs.
The one in the Model Y weighs 437 kg, or 48 kg less. What seems to be an advantage to the Tesla vehicle vanishes when we remember that the Mach-E’s battery pack is structural. A better comparison will be when the Model Y gets there as well.
Although Munro and Lindamood said Ford’s battery pack is just 68 kWh, that refers just to the usable capacity. Like the ID.4, the Mach-E has a physical buffer of 7.7 kWh, making the total capacity 75.7 kWh. In other words, both battery packs can store the same amount of energy, but Ford decided not to use it entirely to preserve the battery pack.
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