Tesla Model Y Design Flaw Seems To Plague Ford Mustang Mach-E Too

What if all other modern SUVs also follow this design just because it may be allowed.

Tesla advocates usually get mad when our articles point to issues in the company’s cars. Apart from the usual bashing, a few arguments are worth consideration, such as one related to the Ford Mustang Mach-E. One of these guys said it had the same design flaw we pointed out for the Model Y. And he was right, as the pictures in this article clearly show.

Only a few members in our team had the chance to check the Mach-E in person as it is still not for sale, which makes confirming that more difficult. Despite that, what we can see is a car that has the rear extreme of its tailgate at the same distance of the extreme of the rear bumper – hopefully. The worst-case scenario is if the tailgate extends rearwards beyond the bumper, as the Fiat Palio did.

If things are not that bad – as they don’t seem to – and the car reversed on a wall (or a pole), both surfaces would touch it at the same time. The plastic bumper would bend. The metal tailgate would deform, creating a dent that would demand a costly repair.

Checking the FMVSS 581, it states the following:

“§ 581.3 Application.

This standard applies to passenger motor vehicles other than multipurpose passenger vehicles and low-speed vehicles as defined in 49 CFR part 571.3(b).”