Ford announced this morning that it was slashing prices of all trims of its Ford Mustang Mach-E, while dramatically increasing production.
Tesla’s aggressive price cut at the beginning of this month has caused massive waves within the automotive industry and the car market, as competitors and car sellers alike are forced to battle with the aggressive new pricing. Now, Ford has done just that by rapidly increasing production of its popular Mustang Mach-E EV SUV and subsequently slashing prices.
According to Ford’s press release this morning, the Ford Mustang Mach-E’s price will be cut by as much as $5,900 on the top trim model and $900 off the base model vehicle. Ford did not specify the scale of the upcoming production increase. However, the company noted that it “has secured the batteries and raw material to scale production of [electric vehicles] in 2023.”
| 2023 Mustang Mach-E
|
Former MSRP
|
Updated MSRP
|
Delta
|
||
| Select RWD Standard Range
Select eAWD Standard Range California Route 1 eAWD Extended Range Premium RWD Standard Range Premium eAWD Standard Range GT Extended Range |
$ 46,895
$ 49,595 $ 63,575 $ 54,975 $ 57,675 $ 69,895 |
$45,995
$48,995 $57,995 $50,995 $53,995 $63,995 |
$ 900
$ 600 $5,580 $3,980 $3,680 $5,900 |
||
| Extended Range Battery
Nite Pony Appearance Package GT Performance Package |
$ 8,600
$ 800 $ 6,000 |
$7,000
$ 800 $6,000 |
$1,600
$ 0 $ 0 |
Ford did not specify if a price cut would come to the company’s other incredibly popular EV offerings, including the Ford F-150 Lightning and the E Transit. Still, with production increases already underway for both models, a similar price cut could be possible in the near future. This is only compounded by the fact that Ford is closer than ever to securing its own battery supply through its partnership with SK ON. This partnership could result in reduced battery and (ultimately) vehicle costs.
“We are not going to cede ground to anyone. We are producing more EVs to reduce customer wait times, offering competitive pricing, and working to create an ownership experience that is second to none,” said Marin Gjaja, Chief Customer Officer of Ford Model e. “Our customers are at the center of everything we do – as we continue to build thrilling and exciting electric vehicles, we will continue to push the boundaries to make EVs more accessible for everybody.”
Ford CEO Jim Farley had similarly positive comments on the price cut, noting the goal of making EVs “more accessible.”
At @Ford, we want to make EVs more accessible, so we’re increasing #MustangMachE production & reducing prices across the Mach-E lineup. Scaling will shorten customer wait times. And with higher production, we’re reducing costs, which allows us share these savings with customers.
— Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) January 30, 2023
While this aggressive price cut is great news for consumers and fantastic news for the EV market that looks to overtake gas vehicle sales as soon as possible, perhaps current owners will be most affected by the price cut.
The best example of this externality is already on display in the used Tesla market, where current sellers have found their vehicles undercut by cheaper new offerings from Tesla. This price bubble was bound to burst sometime or another, and sellers have been caught unprepared and may be forced to take a rare loss on their Tesla vehicle.
Looking at Ford Mustang Mach-Es currently on the market, sellers are in for a similarly rude awakening. Some Mach-Es are currently on the used market for as much as $10,000 over sticker, with the average used Mach-E only price equivalent to the new price set by Ford.
As EVs continue to decrease in price over the next couple of months and years, no doubt used EVs will follow as competitive manufacturer prices force the market downward. Hopefully, these combined factors will mean that more and more people can get into electric vehicles sooner than previously anticipated.
What do you think of the article? Do you have any comments, questions, or concerns? Shoot me an email at william@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @WilliamWritin. If you have news tips, email us at tips@teslarati.com!
Elon Musk
Elon Musk and Tesla AI Director share insights after empty driver seat Robotaxi rides
The executives’ unoccupied tests hint at the rapid progress of Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi efforts.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and AI Director Ashok Elluswamy celebrated Christmas Eve by sharing personal experiences with Robotaxi vehicles that had no safety monitor or occupant in the driver’s seat. Musk described the system’s “perfect driving” around Austin, while Elluswamy posted video from the back seat, calling it “an amazing experience.”
The executives’ unoccupied tests hint at the rapid progress of Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi efforts.
Elon and Ashok’s firsthand Robotaxi insights
Prior to Musk and the Tesla AI Director’s posts, sightings of unmanned Teslas navigating public roads were widely shared on social media. One such vehicle was spotted in Austin, Texas, which Elon Musk acknowleged by stating that “Testing is underway with no occupants in the car.”
Based on his Christmas Eve post, Musk seemed to have tested an unmanned Tesla himself. “A Tesla with no safety monitor in the car and me sitting in the passenger seat took me all around Austin on Sunday with perfect driving,” Musk wrote in his post.
Elluswamy responded with a 2-minute video showing himself in the rear of an unmanned Tesla. The video featured the vehicle’s empty front seats, as well as its smooth handling through real-world traffic. He captioned his video with the words, “It’s an amazing experience!”
Towards Unsupervised operations
During an xAI Hackathon earlier this month, Elon Musk mentioned that Tesla owed be removing Safety Monitors from its Robotaxis in Austin in just three weeks. “Unsupervised is pretty much solved at this point. So there will be Tesla Robotaxis operating in Austin with no one in them. Not even anyone in the passenger seat in about three weeks,” he said. Musk echoed similar estimates at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting and the Q3 2025 earnings call.
Considering the insights that were posted Musk and Elluswamy, it does appear that Tesla is working hard towards operating its Robotaxis with no safety monitors. This is quite impressive considering that the service was launched just earlier this year.
Elon Musk
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has continued its rapid global expansion, surpassing 9 million active customers just weeks after crossing the 8 million mark.
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
9 million customers
In a post on X, SpaceX stated that Starlink now serves over 9 million active users across 155 countries, territories, and markets. The company reached 8 million customers in early November, meaning it added roughly 1 million subscribers in under seven weeks, or about 21,275 new users on average per day.
“Starlink is connecting more than 9M active customers with high-speed internet across 155 countries, territories, and many other markets,” Starlink wrote in a post on its official X account. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell also celebrated the milestone on X. “A huge thank you to all of our customers and congrats to the Starlink team for such an incredible product,” she wrote.
That growth rate reflects both rising demand for broadband in underserved regions and Starlink’s expanding satellite constellation, which now includes more than 9,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet worldwide.
Starlink’s momentum
Starlink’s momentum has been building up. SpaceX reported 4.6 million Starlink customers in December 2024, followed by 7 million by August 2025, and 8 million customers in November. Independent data also suggests Starlink usage is rising sharply, with Cloudflare reporting that global web traffic from Starlink users more than doubled in 2025, as noted in an Insider report.
Starlink’s momentum is increasingly tied to SpaceX’s broader financial outlook. Elon Musk has said the satellite network is “by far” the company’s largest revenue driver, and reports suggest SpaceX may be positioning itself for an initial public offering as soon as next year, with valuations estimated as high as $1.5 trillion. Musk has also suggested in the past that Starlink could have its own IPO in the future.
News
NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine.
NVIDIA Director of Robotics Jim Fan has praised Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14 as the first AI to pass what he described as a “Physical Turing Test.”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine. And just like smartphones today, removing it now would “actively hurt.”
Jim Fan’s hands-on FSD v14 impressions
Fan, a leading researcher in embodied AI who is currently solving Physical AI at NVIDIA and spearheading the company’s Project GR00T initiative, noted that he actually was late to the Tesla game. He was, however, one of the first to try out FSD v14.
“I was very late to own a Tesla but among the earliest to try out FSD v14. It’s perhaps the first time I experience an AI that passes the Physical Turing Test: after a long day at work, you press a button, lay back, and couldn’t tell if a neural net or a human drove you home,” Fan wrote in a post on X.
Fan added: “Despite knowing exactly how robot learning works, I still find it magical watching the steering wheel turn by itself. First it feels surreal, next it becomes routine. Then, like the smartphone, taking it away actively hurts. This is how humanity gets rewired and glued to god-like technologies.”
The Physical Turing Test
The original Turing Test was conceived by Alan Turing in 1950, and it was aimed at determining if a machine could exhibit behavior that is equivalent to or indistinguishable from a human. By focusing on text-based conversations, the original Turing Test set a high bar for natural language processing and machine learning.
This test has been passed by today’s large language models. However, the capability to converse in a humanlike manner is a completely different challenge from performing real-world problem-solving or physical interactions. Thus, Fan introduced the Physical Turing Test, which challenges AI systems to demonstrate intelligence through physical actions.
Based on Fan’s comments, Tesla has demonstrated these intelligent physical actions with FSD v14. Elon Musk agreed with the NVIDIA executive, stating in a post on X that with FSD v14, “you can sense the sentience maturing.” Musk also praised Tesla AI, calling it the best “real-world AI” today.