Shelby American is Now Selling an Electric Mustang

The Shelby name is synonymous with American V8 engines. Carroll Shelby, the late Texas racing legend who was depicted by Matt Damon in Ford v Ferrari, parlayed his success on the track into Shelby American, a performance vehicle manufacturer still churning out supercharged Mustangs to this day. Now, just like most of the automotive industry, they’ve gone electric.

This week, Shelby American unveiled the Shelby Mustang Mach-E GT, the company’s first production electric vehicle, of which only 100 units will be made. It’s a customized version of Ford’s top-tier Mach-E crossover, a vehicle that many in the car world preemptively decried for its use of the Mustang name on not just an SUV, but an electric SUV, but which has won over many since its release. Shelby adding the model to its stable of tuned speed demons is one of the most significant stamps of approval to date.

The big caveat for American buyers? This limited-edition model will only be available in Europe. While that sounds ridiculous, especially from a company called Shelby American, it makes complete sense. As Car and Driver writes, “Shelby American says the decision was based on rapidly rising EV sales and a greater number of public chargers.” So in essence, this is really just a test run in a continent that has been much friendlier to electrification. If it’s successful, you can bet we’ll see a similar offering in the U.S. hot on its heels.

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For its Shelby-fied version of the Mach-E GT, the company doused the model in its signature graphic stylings as well as carbon fiber, swapping out the hood, front lower splitter, grille, mirror covers and lower door trim for the lightweight material. Further weight savings came in the wheels, which were exchanged for one-piece forged aluminum models. Additionally, performance springs were added that lower the crossover over an inch.

Notably, Shelby didn’t mess with the electric powertrain at all. But they did add some potentially contentious V8 flavor to this in a different way. On the features list you’ll see an item called the BORLA Active Performance Sound System, which is basically a speaker setup that’ll add fake engine noises to the Mach-E to make it sound like an internal combustion engine car (not just for you inside the vehicle, but for onlookers as well). Dodge has been working on their own version of this technology for their upcoming electric muscle car. You can hear a version of the system added to a Mach-E on YouTube.

According to Shelby, they’re still fine-tuning the tech, as the BORLA option is currently labeled as having “late availability.”

Those interested in the Shelby trappings will be able to add this package to a brand new Mustang Mach-E GT or have it retrofitted to their current one if they’re already an owner, with prices starting at €24,900, or about $27,400.