Fancy a full-sized five-seater for just $45k? Ford NZ’s ‘ultimate test drive’ process is a full-out pitch to clear out 2023 stock.

BIG price cuts atop healthy reductions announced in June has added zest to Ford NZ’s intent to clear remnant Mustang Mach-E stock held for at least a year.

A campaign that proposes road-ready availability of the base rear-drive, mid-level all-wheel-drive and range-topping GT for $45,000, $55,000 and $65,000 respectively is low key and Ford New Zealand has been cautious about discussing it.

However, all feedback suggests the distributor-initiated scheme to clear Ford’s holding compounds ASAP has revived the car and has been keeping dealers busy since it kicked in at the start of October.

The pitch also has the online EV owner sector abuzz.

For the proposed spend, the cars are basically all availing for half Ford New Zealand was asking when it released the model line just over a year ago.

They are between $29,990 and $32,800 from RRPs announced in June that, at time, represented as radical reductions in their own right.

The rear-drive’s positioning is particularly seismic as it places, if just for a short time, a full-sized five-seater family choice in a pricing zone occupied by much smaller, less potent electric cars.

At full special pricing, the base Mach-E is $10,010 above the most affordable electric here, the teensy Fiat 500e Pop, which also repositioned as result of a radical repricing.

Its ticket is less than $5000 above a special pricing, set to discontinue imminently, for the cheapest MG4 compact hatch.

It also sites $10k below the Omoda E5, which is China’s largest battery-themed five-chair family car for budget buyers - yet is physically smaller than the Ford, has a lower range and less oomph.

Ford’s latest action reflects how many distributors have had to resort to price-cutting in face of the new car market having fallen into doldrum this year.

The electric sector has been hardest hit; consumer interest has all but dried up.

That has left industry involvers in a massive bind. Before the change of Government, EVs were hot choices and product planners had ordered up large with every expectation of 2024 being another good year.

The National-led coalition prompt’s curtailment of rebates and relaxation of emissions regulations, the introduction of Road User Charges for EVs and a general chilling of the economic climate changed all that.

New car sales have slowed considerably in 2024, but electrics have almost completely depowered. Models that were of high interest in 2022 and 2023 lack impetus now.

Are thousands of such cars now gathering dust in compounds? Industry speculation about warehouses, mainly around Auckland, being packed with product has been rife for months.

No-one wants to talk numbers but there has always been agreement that keeping unwanted stock in storage and in road-worthy condition has become a huge cost.

Mach-E’s promise was high at launch. Yes, there were some irked by the car being called a Mustang, but in respect to technical, engineering and design promise, it hit its marks and remains the largest five-seater family EV from a mainstream make.

But, like many new EVs at that time, it was not inexpensive. When type released just over a year ago, only the base car could be achieved for less than $100,000, though that changed within months.

Having launched for $124,990, the GT flagship reconfigured to $116,990 at the start of this year and since June has held a recommended retail of $97,800.

At that time, the mid-spec, also all wheel-drive, repositioned to $87,600, having released for $109,990.

The base rear-drive edition has held a RRP of $74,990 since the start of the year, having first come into the market at $79,990 to achieve a Clean Car rebate incentive removed last December.

Those RRPs still apply to 2024 stock; only cars older than that are eligible for the very sharpest price.

Also, it is understood that once this clearance action has completed, Ford plans to establish a new pricing structure.

There still seems to be potential that future product could deliver visual refresh and specification changes, given that Ford US recently signalled a mid-life facelift for Mach-E.

The cars subject to the incentive are to all intents and purposes brand-new in condition, to extent some have zero mileages.

How to tap into the special special pricing?

It’s the cherry that comes with an initiative called the ‘ultimate test drive’, a Ford NZ-orchestrated campaign that introduced with no fanfare a month ago but has kept dealers busy chasing up potential leads since.

This allows potential customers to trial their choice of Mach-E for up to two weeks, no strings attached.

The cars are supplied straight from the Ford NZ compound in Auckland and have been registered by the distributor, so are effectively coming into the market via the dealer network with an ownership history.

The test drive is not mandatory; this writer has been told about cars being bought sight unseen. The deal includes a modest amount of free charging, too. The term of how it works means the prices cannot be called RRPs.

That in turn is why Ford New Zealand is cautious about how it speaks to ‘ultimate test drive.’

Spokesman Tom Clancy said he could not directly comment on he describes as “dealer pricing.”

“I can only provide the RRPs. What I can say is customers are loving their test drives through our ultimate test drive programme and more often than not, buying at the end - or actually well before the two weeks is up.”

Ford has not said how many cars it has to shift or how many have been secured under the programme.

As of last night, this writer understood that the best opportunities are with the GT, with close to 60 of those still to be snapped up, though some examples of the base car are in inventory. The AWD models appear to have all gone.

Another distributor with awareness of the scheme believes it might well have found homes for 100 Mach-Es last month, going by cursory registrations data for the period.

Clancy said he could not discuss volumes but has offered that “if people are interested they should get in quick.

“There may be some new vehicles with zero kilometres and again, transaction pricing is up to the dealer.”

When the June pricing announced, Ford also offered free five year or 100,000 kilometre service plans and $1000 Road User Charges for the GT.