Everything you need at your fingertips.
That’s the future of all automotive tech, and it is available in abundance on the 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E. In a recent test for a week, I kept coming back to the size of the monster screen and how it makes driving an electric car even easier.
Because, honestly — ease of driving is a big selling point. There’s no exhaust, no worries about breakdowns from some complicated combustion engine problem. It’s just get in and go. One of the things I’ve always liked (and possibly complained about) with electric cars is just the simplicity of how it all works, and that the motor is always ready for lift-off.
The 15.5-inch screen has everything you’d ever want in terms of controlling features and then some. Connected to Apple CarPlay, there is plenty of leftover screen real-estate for other settings and options related to the car, even when you have one-click access to your phone, music, texting by voice, maps, and everything else.
With the extra space, there is room at the top of the screen to click Home to see Ford settings for the Mustang and not CarPlay. You can also go directly to the settings screen or check the camera view. On the upper right, you can see the wireless connection, access a button for the Ford nav system (as opposed to Apple Maps), check the weather, see the time, and click to access to your profile for the car.
Below all of the CarPlay settings (which typically run in full-screen on most cars), you can then access radio settings. For example, with one click you can switch over to sat radio or scroll through other options. I tend to switch between music on my phone and Sirius XM quite often, so this one-click access was easy and fast.
Since you have 15.5-inches of screen, there’s even a place for climate control settings, heated seats and steering wheel, and the fan. This was my one minor gripe with the Mustang Mach-E because the fan controls require that you press the button and then turn the large knob for the fan. Not a big deal, but I would have preferred a dedicated fan control knob. I did like being able to quickly raise or lower the temp in the car using the screen.
Speaking of that large volume control knob — it’s easy to find and use, which helps when you listen to as many podcasts and musical artists as I do. Everything in the Mach-E was easy to find on the big screen and exploring all of the settings was a breeze.
Of course, the digital instrument cluster is nice on the Mach-E as well; in fact, everything about this electric screams high-end and next-gen — or the future of all cars if you want to get real. The Mach-E is a step into the future for Ford at least, and it was a joy to drive the entire time. I joked with people that it was like driving around an iPad all day, and I mean that in the best way possible with a hat tip to Apple, Steve Jobs, and all innovative products.
