- Ford Mustang Mach-E GT vs Ford Mustang GT
- Galloping head-to-head to celebrate Chinese New Year - year of the horse
- Electric vs petrol power
- Mach-E GT blitzes V8 when it comes to pace
- Petrol Mustang stirs the soul every time you start it
- You can lease them both with Select Car Leasing
It’s a classic case of heart vs head: should you lease the V8-engined Ford Mustang, or will the electric Mustang Mach-E GT still satisfy your performance cravings?
According to the Chinese lunar calendar, 2026 is the year of the ‘Fire Horse’, a heavenly sign that symbolises passion, intensity and boldness.
We know another couple of fire horses - Ford’s inimitable and fierce ‘Pony’ cars.
So, with the Chinese New Year being celebrated this week, what better time to sample the Blue Oval brand's two distinct Mustang variants?
One is fully electric, the other is packing a full-blooded 5.0-litre petrol engine.
It’s the V8 petrol that has the advantage when it comes to outright cost but you’ll become best mates with the person behind the till at your local petrol station.
Here’s our galloping head-to-head:
(Ford Mustang Mach-E GT with Rally pack, above)
Ford Mustang Mach-E GT
Pros:
- Ballistic missile of a vehicle
- Agile handling belies car’s weight
- Looks sensational with ‘Rally’ pack added
Cons:
- More expensive than V8 Mustang
- Boot isn’t the biggest in class
- Won’t stir the soul like the 5.0-litre Mustang can
(Petrol-powered Ford Mustang GT convertible, above)
Ford Mustang V8 GT
Pros:
That iconic V8 rumble
Tactile, human-centric cabin with proper bucket seats
Handling is on point (be careful with that rear end in the wet)
Cons:
Smaller than you might think
Noticeably slower than Mustang Mach-E GT
Rear seats won’t make sense for families
Ford Mustang models: fast facts
V8 GT (petrol):
Power: 446 PS | Torque: 540 Nm | 0-62mph: 4.9 seconds (fastback, auto) | Layout: Rear-wheel drive
Mach-E GT (electric)
Power: 487 PS | Torque: 950 Nm | 0-62mph: 3.6 seconds (fastback, auto) | Layout: All-wheel drive
Ford Mustang V8 vs Ford Mustang Mach-E GT: How we tested them, and how much they cost.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E comes in a variety of flavours, most of them with a mild-mannered, family-friendly blend. Think Tesla Model Y alternative with power of at least 268 PS.
Our car, however, was the range-topping ‘GT’ model - the one with the large 91 kWh battery, power of 487 PS, and a range of around 315 miles between charges.
To sweeten the deal, our Mach-E GT was also equipped with the eye-catching Rally pack - a £2,250 option that raises the ride height by 20mm and adds a massive rear spoiler, rally-inspired wheels, rallycross tuned MagneRide suspension (an adaptive suspension system that uses magnetically controlled shock absorbers instead of traditional fixed-valve dampers), go-faster stripes and ‘Grabber Yellow’ paint.
All of that tips the scales at £76,800 - BUT, at the time of writing, Ford has a promotional offer which brings the outright purchase cost down to £68,300.
The 5.0-litre V8 petrol-powered Mustang is cheaper.
Ours was a regular GT model (as opposed to the range-topping Dark Horse variant, which has slightly more power and more aggressive styling) with an automatic gearbox instead of a manual (more on that later).
Despite it being delivered in one of the wettest winters in living memory, our Mustang was a convertible rather than a hard-roofed coupe (we still managed to get the roof down for an hour when it eventually stopped tipping down).
Our shouty, fire-breathing Mustang was also packing the optional MagneRide suspension (£1,750, not standard with the regular GT) and red painted brake callipers.
All in, Ford gives us a price of £66,120 - a cool couple of grand cheaper than the Mach-E GT (and remember the Mach-E will cost considerably more if that dedicated Ford promotion disappears).
Ford Mustang V8 GT vs Ford Mustang Mach-E GT: Which one is quicker?
If you’re buying a Ford Mustang GT, the very first thing you’ll want to know is what they go like. And it’s safe to say you wouldn’t be disappointed with either of them.
They are, however, horses of a different colour.
While the V8 Mustang and the electric Mustang Mach-E have fairly similar power outputs (487 PS for the EV and 446 PS for the V8), the Mach-E has almost double the amount of torque (950 Nm compared with 540 Nm) and when you put your foot down, boy do you feel it.
Our all-wheel drive Mach-E GT Rally accelerated from 0-62 mph in 3.6 seconds. You access that torque instantaneously for a sprint experience that’s genuinely capable of straining neck muscles.
To put that acceleration figure into context, it’s as quick as a Porsche Taycan 4S, a car that would set you back almost £30,000 more than the Mach-E GT.
But it falls short of the pace of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, which costs similar dosh to the Mustang Mach-E GT and which can hit 62 mph in 3.4 seconds.
The rear-wheel drive V8 Mustang, on the other hand, is still quick but slightly more sluggish.
Power of 446 PS and our convertible body shape led to a 0-62mph sprint time of 5.0 seconds flat. The 10-speed automatic gearbox fitted to our 5.0-litre Mustang is capable of propelling you down the road faster than the 6-speed manual, but there’s a slight lag between putting your foot down and the Mustang snorting into life, as the car’s brains attempt to stop the rear wheels from spinning with abandon.
Flappy paddles behind the steering wheel will let you change gears manually, but we’d argue there’s no substitute for a gear stick, especially with a car like the Mustang.
You’re talking about 0.4 of a second difference in acceleration time between manual and auto, and the auto box will add £2,000 to the asking price. In our opinion, it’s worth sticking with the manual.
(Petrol Mustang's interior and shifter, above)
Ford Mustang V8 GT vs Ford Mustang Mach-E GT: What do they sound like?
Ford Mustang V8 GT
Under the bonnet of the V8 GT sits a 5.0-litre ‘Coyote’ petrol engine that’s naturally-aspirated and which doesn’t rely on superchargers or turbo chargers.
What you get is a visceral experience that offers an authentic muscle-car feel and sound.
Put the pedal to the metal and there’s an uproarious din that’s simply tough to find in any other vehicle on UK roads (unless you’re behind the wheel of an Aston Martin Vantage or Porsche 911 GT3, both of which are considerably more expensive).
So, big question: Does the noise of the V8 Mustang become tiresome and slightly annoying when you’re living with it on a day-to-day basis?
Not in our experience, no. We only enjoyed it for a week but from the cacophony of the engine first firing up to the explosion of aural poetry when you depress your right foot, it’s a car that wrings the emotion on every trip.
(How to alter the exhaust note on a V8 Mustang, above)
You can also dial-down to the sound to avoid upsetting the neighbours. The Ford Active Valve Exhaust lets you adjust the valves in the exhaust piping to offer a ‘Quiet’ mode - perfect for when you’re arriving home late as the kids are being tucked up in bed or for when you’re pulling up at your sleepy village cricket club.
At the other end of the spectrum, ‘Track’ mode amplifies the decibels close to legal limits and should only be used on closed circuits.
Ford Mustang Mach-E GT
Underpinning the Mach-E GT is a 91 kWh battery and two electric motors - one on each axle.
As you can imagine, that set up offers a quiet, serene motoring when compared with the chattering V8 GT, albeit while still hurtling forwards at an adrenaline-inducing pace.
To help create a little more theatre, the Mach-E GT gets a synthetic sound that’s piped into the cabin.
The level of artificial noise increases as you toggle through the three main drive modes; Whisper, Active and Untamed. However, if synthetic audio doesn’t agree with you (and it’s a bone of contention among some aficionados) you can turn off the ‘Propulsion Sound’ completely via a simple toggle on the car’s infotainment screen.
(Ford Mustang Mach-E GT, drive modes and Propulsion Sound menu, above)
Ford Mustang Mach-E GT vs Ford Mustang GT: What’s the ride and handling like?
Think of it like this. The V8 Mustang is the lover your parents warned you about, the Mach-E GT is the ex your mum and dad secretly wish you’d married.
The rear-wheel drive V8 is flighty and has the power to give you a squeaky bum. Give it too many beans at a junction on wet roads and the back end will attempt to meet you. You have been warned.
It happened to us at low speeds and we were grateful that the car was clever enough to correct our rookie errors. A Torsen limited-slip differential helps reduce wheelspin, thankfully.
The reassuringly all-wheel drive Mach-E GT, on the other hand, felt as if it was positively glued to the Tarmac, aided by an electronic brake-based torque vectoring system.
Both of our test vehicles were fitted with Ford’s MagneRide suspension, which uses an electromagnet inside the shock to instantly adjust the stiffness. All of that makes for sharper handling when you need it, or a smoother ride when you’re clattering through potholes.
You’ll really struggle to bend the Mach-E GT out of shape, even on the tightest twisties, though there is a degree of body roll - which is to be expected of an SUV and especially one with a slightly higher ride height, as we get with our Rally spec car.
Let's also not forget that the Mach-E GT Rally is built for light off-roading. The 'RallySport' drive mode relaxes the traction control, sharpens the throttle response and firms up the damping, which helps the car slide and be more controllable on gravel or loose surfaces.
The V8 GT, on the other hand, sits lower and squatter than the EV and there’s a greater sense of driver engagement. It’s less refined than the Mach-E GT but still coped admirably with the cratered roads we pointed it at.
Like the Mach-E GT, the V8 also gets various drive modes and they’re instantly available via a toggle on the steering wheel. You can access other functions, including the exhaust note, via the horse-shaped button next to the big, red stop-start plunger.
(The driver-centric cockpit of the petrol Ford Mustang GT, above)
The drive modes include ‘Drag’ and ‘Track’ while our example was also fitted with an electronic ‘Drift’ handbrake. It looks just like a normal, manual handbrake but will bite that little bit harder when you yank it skywards, increasing your abilities to skitter sideways in a cloud of tyre smoke.
The stopping power of both cars is admirable, with the anchors slammed on courtesy of high-end Brembo brakes.
(Drift Brake mode, among other functions for thrill seekers in the petrol Mustang, above)
Ford Mustang Mach-E GT vs Ford Mustang GT: How much will they cost to run?
Let’s start with the electric Mach-E GT - by the far the cheapest of the two to run.
Despite the Mach-E’s pace, it’ll still travel for up to 316 miles between charges on the combined WLTP figure, or 254 motorway miles. That’s with the Rally pack added, though the regular Mach-E GT has a marginally-better 320-mile range.
Rapid charging at 150 kW DC will replenish the energy in the 91 kWh battery from 10-80% in around 36 minutes. That’s not especially quick when compared with rivals but should be ample for most and you’ll get the best savings when charging at home on a low, off-peak energy tariff anyway.
The Mach-E GT’s asking price puts it into realms of the expensive car tax supplement now levied on electric vehicles that cost more £50,000 (applies from April 2026, applied retrospectively to cars sold from April 2025 on, and adds £425 per year for five years, which you’ll pay alongside the standard £195-a-year tax cost).
The Mach-E GT will, however, still make sense as a company car as the Benefit in Kind (BiK) is low (fixed at 3% for the 2025/26 Tax Year and rising by 1% in the years that follow).
We averaged around 22-24 mpg with our V8 Mustang convertible with the auto box, which is roughly in line with the official combined WLTP figure of 22.8 mpg.
That’s obviously a fair bit thirstier than your average family hatchback but you know what you’re letting yourself in for when you buy or lease a 5.0-litre Mustang.
A combined CO2 emissions figure of 282 g/km puts it into the highest car tax category - £5,490 for the first year, £195 thereafter, plus the £425 per year Expensive Car Supplement for five years.
You’d need to have deep pockets to run a V8 Mustang as a company car (37% BiK rate, ouch).
Ford Mustang V8 GT vs Ford Mustang Mach-E GT: What are the interiors like?
Overall, the electric Mach-E GT has a more tech-heavy, minimalist interior with an abundance of soft-touch materials.
The cabin is dominated by a huge 15.5-inch portrait touchscreen that makes you feel like you could be standing in front of a McDonald’s self-serve display and customising your burger.
Helpfully, there’s a big dial at the bottom to aid you in finding the right settings and the infotainment system itself (Ford’s SYNC4A tech) is crisp, clear and free from lag.
(Mustang Mach-E GT cabin and screen)
Heated and ventilated seats, wireless phone charging, panoramic glass roof, and B&O sound system are all par for the course with our Mach-E GT test model.
Another nice feature you get with the Rally pack is white plastic flourishes on the back of the headrest and the bottom spoke of the steering wheel.
The interior of the V8 petrol Mustang feels a little more old skool, with the controls oriented towards the driver and with the cabin dominated by the muscle car’s gorgeous flat-bottomed steering wheel.
(Petrol Ford Mustang GT V8 interior, above)
There’s more in the way of hard plastics but there are still swathes of leather and the bucket seats help to make you feel ‘at one’ with the machine. Like the Mach-E GT, the seats of our Mustang V8 were both heated and ventilated.
The touchscreen of the V8 is smaller than that of the Mach-E, at 13.2 inches, and positioned horizontally next to a 12.4-inch digital cockpit.
One thing we did notice is that while you get a rear view camera and rear parking sensors, there are no parking sensors at the front with the petrol Mustang GT. Be careful with that elongated bonnet!
Both Mustangs come with the usual suite of safety tech, including adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance tech, while the Mach-E GT adds more sophisticated Lane Centring skills.
Ford Mustang V8 GT vs Ford Mustang Mach-E GT: How practical are they?
If daily practicality is chief among your concerns, you’ll need to plump for the Mustang Mach-E GT. You get SUV levels of space, a decent 402-litre boot (not the largest in the class but useful enough and you get an additional 100-litre front trunk) and plenty of room in the rear for passengers.
It’ll happily fit four fully grown adults, even for long trips.
(Rear seats of Ford Mustang Mach-E GT)
You can’t necessarily say the same about the V8 Mustang (though the headroom isn’t compromised by going for the convertible, as it has roughly the same figures as for the coupe at 906 mm).
It’s a four-seater only and the rearmost bucket seats will feel cramped unless you’re still in school.
You access those rear seats by flipping the front seats forward via a handy latch and thankfully the doors swing open nice and wide to allow relatively easy access.
(Rear seats of Ford Mustang GT convertible V8)
The V8 fastback coupe has a boot that measures 408 litres - which is more than the luggage capacity of the Mach-E GT, which might surprise you.
That shrinks to around 330 litres with the convertible, but we still managed to wrestle in a full bag of footballs and soccer kit before taking the sprog to training.
(Boot space of Ford Mustang GT convertible)
Ford Mustang V8 GT vs Ford Mustang Mach-E GT: What are the main rivals?
The main rival to the V8 Ford Mustang is the BMW M2.
They cost similar amounts (though the BMW is more expensive) and the M2 is also rear-wheel drive, developing power of 480 hp.
You might also want to consider the Porsche 718 Cayman or Boxster while the BMW Z4 is sadly being phased out.
Leasing alternatives to the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT include the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, Tesla Model Y Performance and Kia EV6 GT.
The Alpine A390 is well worth a look and has sumptuous fastback styling, while the Smart #5 Brabus is properly rapid.
Ford Mustang V8 GT vs Ford Mustang Mach-E GT: Which one should you lease?
It’s ‘horses for courses’, as they say, and which one you choose will depend on whether you crave an immersive, sensory, emotional experience, or one that’s utterly capable without necessarily setting your pants on fire.
On paper, the V8 Mustang makes little sense. It’s loud, brash, isn’t particularly practical, and you’ll pay for the privilege of running it.
But, by God, it’s an experience. You’ll grab the keys and head for a drive just for the sheer thrill of it. Don’t be surprised if you come to your senses and you’re hundreds of miles away from home.
The Mach-E GT doesn’t necessarily inspire those sorts of feelings, even though it’s quicker than the V8, potentially just as thrilling in the bends, and well suited to light off-roading on gravel tracks or forest roads.
The electric GT also makes complete sense as both a performance daily and a practical family runabout. It’s still got the ability to be garish and obnoxious, especially when you tick the ‘Rally pack’ box.
Is the electric Mach-E GT really a proper Mustang? It’s a question we hear a lot and the answer will differ depending on who you’re speaking to.
But we recently chatted with the Mustang Owners Club of Great Britain and asked them that very same question.
They told us: “Anything that Ford nails a horse to the front of is a Mustang. It’s not for us to decide what is or what isn't considered a 'proper' Mustang. If you love the Mach-E and it suits your lifestyle, that’s fine by us, and it’s a car that always generates lots of interest at our meets.”
And you can’t say fairer than that.
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