There are few cars as American as a Shelby Mustang so it’s interesting that the first electric Shelby is a European exclusive. The 2023 Shelby Mach-E GT will be their first EV arriving with a slew of upgrades aimed at keeping V8 purists happy.
The Shelby is a performance package based on the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT. The Ford 480hp electric powertrain hasn’t been touched, but they’ve lowered the car by an inch, cut weight off the top, reduced the rotating mass, and added a BORLA Active Performance sound system. That sound system will assist to deliver an engineered soundtrack replicating the V8 of the supercharged Shelby GT500 complete with transmission shifts.
The car looks lower and meaner with a wider track. They put carbon fibre everywhere they could feasibly do so including the hood, grille, front splitter, and mirror caps. Additionally you’ve got forged aluminium rims, custom vinyl striping, Shelby floor mats, and a serialised CSM dash plaque.
Why isn’t this available in the U.S? It’s actually quite simple; there’s more demand in Europe.
As Shelby American President, Gary Patterson, said: “If you listen to the people, and what people want, Europeans have a much higher percentage of people that are interested in electric vehicles, purchasing electric vehicles. I think their tax structure over there is set up in such a way that there’s a lot of advantages for people to invest in electric vehicle powertrains; there are real tax incentives and so forth. So why not go to the area of the world where the iron is most hot?”
Shelby are releasing this car to commemorate the 100th birthday of their founder, Caroll Shelby. Only 100 will be offered, but these Shelby kits can be retrofitted to 2021-2023 model year Mustang Mach-E GT SUVs. The package starts at €24,900, not including the base car.
