Along Los Angeles' sprawling city highways, the faces of Matt Damon and Christian Bale are showing up from time to time to get Californians to see on the big screen Ford versus Ferrari (Le Mans 66, in French cinemas). At the same time a story of friendship between pilots and the story of a legendary rivalry between builders, the film echoes another duel, very contemporary this one, which could be summarized in one title: Ford versus Tesla.
Futurist show versus futuristic show, it's in the City of Angels, California – American eldorado zero emission vehicles – that everything was played, a few days apart and less than five hundred meters away. In Hawthorne, half an hour from downtown buildings, Sunday, November 17, forty-eight hours before the opening of the Los Angeles Auto Show, Ford kicked off the challenge, unveiling the first car 100% electric in its history: the Mustang Mach-E (pronounced "maki"), which will be marketed at the end of 2020-early 2021.
The place was not chosen by chance: a shed located a few tens of meters from the Tesla design center, the firm co-founded by Elon Musk and domineering in battery vehicles in California (more than 80% of the market for pure electric). Like to better taunt her.
That evening, hundreds of Ford journalists and guests were able to admire the giant electric sculpture of a wild horse galloping, hear a chorus full of young Detroit enthusiasm and meet the star's guest star. event, Idris Elba, British actor son of a worker at the Ford-Dagenham factory in London. The venerable Michigan automobile company wanted to make it known that Hollywood and Silicon Valley did not have the monopoly of glamor and creative energy.
"Strategic choice"
As for the Mustang Mach-E, with its giant screen, its range of 400 to 600 kilometers, its unusual Internet sales channel for Ford, its GT version overpowered (from 0 to 100 km / h in less than three seconds), its silhouette of SUV (4 × 4 urban) up to date and its competitive entry price for the category (49 000 euros before buying aids), it has the means to come and tease the racing cars of Elon Musk .
It could in particular overshadow the future Model Y, the SUV version of the Model 3, the best-selling California brand. "For the first time, an electric car is able to compete with the Tesla"says Donald Buffamanti, founder and chief executive of the California AutoSpies.com specialized website and automotive social network.
