Used-EV shoppers keep asking the same blunt question: after five winters and a hundred thousand miles, how much of the battery is left? Ford answered with a fleet-scale number on Nov. 9, 2026, reporting that its Mustang Mach-E packs average better than 91 percent health once an owner passes 100,000 miles.
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The company drew the figure from the Class of 2021, the first model year of its modern electric crossover, and the topline average across that group is higher still. The data set is large enough to be hard to dismiss as one lucky car, though it also comes with limits the early coverage glossed over.
Thirty-six thousand Mach-Es and two billion miles
According to Carscoops, Ford analyzed more than 36,000 of the 2021 Mustang Mach-Es sold in the United States and Canada, a fleet that has covered more than two billion miles. The average battery state of health sits at 92 percent, and 95 percent of the vehicles fall between 87 and 97 percent. Ford published the results through its From the Road newsroom as a five-year look at real-world durability.
The high-mileage tail is where the claim in question lives. More than 2,000 owners have driven past 100,000 miles, and those cars average better than 91 percent health. More than 30 have crossed 200,000 miles at an average of 88 percent. Two vehicles have gone beyond 300,000 miles, and Carscoops reports one owner, David Blenke, has passed 400,000 miles on the original pack, which Ford says has stayed strong without giving a percentage.
Ford collected its health figures from vehicle data rather than from owner surveys, and it reviewed more than five years of ownership. Neither the company’s summary nor the coverage describes how state of health is measured or how the sample was filtered, so the averages are best read as Ford’s own scorecard and not as an audited test.
Ford’s page also profiles individual owners alongside the fleet statistics. One of them, identified only as Keishia J., has put more than 500 public fast-charging sessions on a Mach-E, including annual trips to Sonoma and Napa Valley and frequent runs along the Interstate 15 corridor through California, Nevada and Arizona. The Ford page gives no further battery-health reading for her car. A single driver proves little statistically, but heavy DC fast charging is the usage pattern that skeptics expect to wear a pack out fastest, and Ford chose to feature it.
What Electrek reported, and where the claim stretches
Electrek’s write-up on its Nov. 9 report framed the result as Ford’s full EV lineup retaining more than 90 percent health on average after 100,000 miles. Ford’s own detail is narrower than that sentence suggests. Motor1 reports that the study covered only the 2021 Mach-E and only its nickel-cobalt-manganese chemistry, and that the F-150 Lightning and E-Transit were not part of the sample, even though newer Ford EVs use lithium iron phosphate cells.
So the supportable statement is about the Mach-E. Motor1 also notes that Ford designs its batteries to reach 90 percent health at 100,000 miles over a ten-year life, which makes the new numbers a check against an engineering target rather than a surprise. A Mach-E averaging 91 percent past that mileage clears the bar by a thin margin; the 200,000-mile group, at 88 percent, falls just under it.
The engineer behind the program and what Ford says comes next
Kevin Vander Laan, Ford’s technical leader for high-voltage battery cells and systems, described the study as among the most valuable feedback loops the company has had at this scale, according to Carscoops. He said the findings will shape Ford’s approach to battery systems, software guidance and future EV programs.
That matters for a reason beyond marketing. Battery software decides how much of the pack is usable and how fast it charges, so a fleet with five years of telemetry gives engineers a basis for tuning those limits on newer vehicles. Ford has also posted an infographic page through its media center that summarizes the Class of 2021 results.
For context, a 100,000-mile threshold is roughly where many EV warranties are drawn. Ford’s pitch is that a Mach-E reaching that mileage still holds about nine-tenths of its original usable energy, which in practice means a car rated for a given range when new would still deliver most of it. The company has not published range-loss figures in the material reviewed, so shoppers should treat percent of health and miles of range as related but separate measures.
Questions remain for a shopper weighing a used Mach-E. The 36,000-vehicle average hides the 5 percent of cars outside the 87 to 97 percent band, the data stops at vehicles Ford can see in its own telemetry, and no figure covers fast-charging habits or hot-climate use. Ford’s range of 87 to 97 percent is the most useful number for anyone pricing one car, because a single used example can land at either end.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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