Ford Motor Company's decision to cut prices of its Mustang Mach-E electric crossover in the US to compete with Tesla will not be mirrored by its European subsidiaries.
Ford's European business is taking a different path than in the US, where the automaker has slashed prices of the Mustang Mach-E by $600 to $5,900 to avoid losing ground to the Tesla Model Y, which has been made up to 20 percent cheaper in its home market.
Mind you, the Tesla Model Y has also seen significant price cuts in Europe of up to €9,100 in Germany for the RWD version and up to £8,000 in the UK for the Performance variant.
Despite Tesla's aggressive discounting, Ford says it has no imminent plans to cut prices in Europe. A Ford France spokesperson told Automotive News Europe the Mustang Mach-E price cuts are "specific to the North American market," adding that "we have nothing to announce at this time."
The spokesman also said Ford is able to deliver the Mustang Mach-E in France in a shorter time and in the majority of configurations following a period of production constraints. Prices for the Mustang Mach-E also remain unchanged in the UK and Germany, Ford's largest markets in Europe.
Gallery: 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT in European specification
In Germany, the entry-level Ford Mustang Mach-E starts at €62,900, making it much more expensive than the Tesla Model Y RWD, which is priced from €44,890. The price difference between the two electric crossovers is smaller in the UK, where the Mustang Mach-E Select starts at £50,830 while the Tesla Model Y RWD is priced from £44,990.
Ford sold around 25,000 Mustang Mach-E models in Europe last year, according to Dataforce, compared to 39,458 units sold in the United States during the same period.
The comparison with the Tesla Model Y in Europe does not make the Ford Mustang Mach-E look good, as Tesla sold 31,562 Model Ys in Europe in December 2022 alone – full year sales are yet to be announced, but they are significantly above 100,000.
Ford announced on January 30 that it plans to build 130,000 Mustang Mach-Es globally this year, up from 77,959 last year.
Besides Ford, other major EV players in Europe said they don't plan to slash prices of their EVs. Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume said the carmaker is not cutting prices in response to Tesla's move, while Renault CEO Luca de Meo adopted a similar stance.
If Tesla is able to maintain the new prices in the long term, it will be interesting to see how Ford, Volkswagen, Renault and other EV players will be able to hold out without cutting prices seeing as the Model Y and Model 3 already dominated sales in Europe in 2022 before the discounts came.
