As a little bit of light relief to the current doom-and-gloom at home and around the world, comes the news that in England, die-hard Ford aficionado Harold Baggott took a Ford Mach-E all electric SUV for a test drive.
You may well ask why is that of the remotest interest to us here in Australia? After all, with the UK reaching 17.1% EV sales in June this year, lots of people there are looking at EVs for the first time.
The reason is that Harold is 101 years old, learnt to drive in 1930 on the family farm in a Model T Ford (91 years ago) and has pretty much remained a rusted-on Ford fan-club member ever since.
In fact his first car purchase was a Ford 8 Popular in 1937, his family has owned over 20 Fords over the years and he used Ford truck bodies in his coach building business.
To him, the EV is the way of the future and was keen to get in and drive one whilst he still could. As a result – he arranged for a test-drive of Ford’s first all-electric vehicle, the Mustang Mach-E. Never one to miss a marketing opportunity, Ford then threw in a special Model T passenger ride and photo shoot to go with his EV test drive.
His strongest impression of the Mach-E during his 5km drive behind the wheel was of just how quiet the Mach-E was. (Mind-you, this is perhaps hardly surprising given the Model T ride preceded his 5km test-drive of the Mach-E!)
To quote Harold –
“Since the age of 10, I’ve retained my interest in motoring and today find myself interested in the switch to electrification following the government phasing out the traditional combustion engines I’m used to. I have reminisced about my driving history with the Model T and seen what the future has in store. It was exciting to get behind the wheel of what I expect to see my great grandchildren will be driving.”
