Video: Ford Mustang Mach-E: GT Performance Edition Vs. Premium Performance Comparison

It had an all electric powertrain, four doors, and an SUV like profile, but putting the Mustang name on it brought certain performance expectations, and to test those out, we have two Mustang Mach-E here. Now, these are 2021 versions of the Mach-E, but if you were to order a 2023 today, you'd be getting largely the same vehicles that we're testing, but with more expensive price tags. The premium all-wheel drive, extended range model costs around $68,000, and a Mach-E GT Performance goes for around $78,000. So, we wanna answer the $10,000 question, and is the GT Performance's performance worth the extra money? So, we're starting out in the Mach-E Premium all-wheel drive, and for our first round, we're gonna put it in the Unbridled mode, the performance version of it. We're gonna keep one pedal driving off, and take it down the track to see how this first run goes. (upbeat music) (timer beeping) All right, that was our first run in the Premium. The all-wheel drive really gets off the line easily. It just goes. You get shoved, mildly, back into your seat, not too dramatically. So, we had both of these Mustang Mach-Es pretty much at full battery power, 96% state of charge, and that's what's recommended if you're gonna be getting the maximum performance out of these, a pretty full battery. Let's do this again. (upbeat music) (timer beeping) I gave it a little bit more break pressure to hold it before the launch, but still getting really similar results, and all three runs, were right around that mark, so I think we're getting what we're gonna get out of the Mach-E Premium. All right, so we're out of the Mach-E Premium and into the Mach-E GT Performance. The GT Performance has a different secondary motor and that results in significantly more power and torque. So, we're gonna take it down the track now to see what that translates to on the drag strip. Again, I'm gonna choose, we're in the Unbridled mode now, and so, let's take it down and see what it does. (upbeat music) (timer beeping) All right, well that felt a bit quicker off the line. Definitely a lot more augmented engine sound to kind of replicate the V8 rumble you might get in a traditional Mustang GT. That was a little interesting. With the GT Performance, we were at a similar state of charge by the time we got up to do our first run, we were at 95% battery charge, so, close to what the premium was at. That was our first try. We'll see if we can improve on that. (upbeat music) (timer beeping) And we're definitely getting that quicker off the line power that pushes you back more than we were seeing with the Mach-E Premium, but further down the track, it just loses steam, more than I was expecting. I was expecting it to have a little bit more left later on in the run, but it doesn't really feel like that. So, we just wrapped up our testing of the Mustang Mach-Es, and we have some numbers to share. We were able to do zero to 60 in the GT Performance in 3.95 seconds, and in the Premium, we did zero to 60 in 5.4 seconds, and that's a pretty big difference, and it's really thanks to the GT Performance's abundant torque. It was torque we could feel when starting off on our drag strip runs, and it was also beneficial both on the handling course we had, and also in the 50 to 70 mile per hour acceleration runs. That said, the top end speeds between the two at the end of the quarter mile was roughly the same, right around 100 miles per hour. So, the GT Performance plateaued, and didn't really continue on with the momentum that it had early on. One of the other benefits though, of the GT Performance was its wheel and tire package, and it really benefited the car on our handling course where it just navigated it much better than the Premium on its all-season tires, but back to the question of, is the GT Performance worth an extra $10,000? Well, after our testing, it's clear that the Premium version is no slouch, but the things that make the GT Performance better are some things that you could give to the premium model for less than $10,000, if you wanted to, like different wheels and tires. So, for my money, that's probably the route I would take rather than spending that extra $10,000 for a GT Performance trim level. If you wanna learn more about this test and see all the data that came out of it, you can read our story on cars.com/news.