David Blenkle and his 2022 Mustang Mach-E Premium have put in the miles.
Ford
One Ford owner is making the most of his electric vehicle.
David Blenkle has put over 316,000 miles on his 2022 Mustang Mach-E Premium with an extended range battery pack. He bought the car new at the end of June 2022 and launched his private car service in the Santa Cruz, California area soon after. He’s been keeping the odometer going, which caught the attention of Ford when he hit 250,000 miles last year.
While it’s easy to dismiss this next achievement as PR fodder, Blenkle is the real deal, putting in the miles, taking care of his car and tracking its health. Talking to him on a video call from his car at the end of January, he checked off the car’s “accomplishments” which include six sets of tires, seven cabin filters, zero repairs, the original brakes, over 20 routine 10,000-mile checkups, more than 7,000 passengers in the backseat and his most stunning achievement: only 8% battery degradation. His Mach-E has about 300-mile range.
When Blenkle purchased the Mach-E it was the height of the car chip shortage, so there wasn’t much inventory. After buying the car online he was told it would be a nine-month wait. He started calling dealerships along the West Coast and as far as New Mexico. He heard about an available Mach-E in Monterey, California, just south of Santa Cruz, and jumped on it. For 2026, the Mach-E trims available are: Select, Premium, GT, and Rally. The base starts at just below $38,000 before fees.
Blenkle didn’t intend to become a miles monster when he bought the car. He was in between jobs and thought he’d do some rideshare driving before using the Mach-E to commute to a new job. He’d previously owned a Ford Focus Electric (the car was discontinued after the 2018 model year) and put 150,000 miles on that vehicle, so he knew the Ford brand could last. He had an emotional connection to Ford, too, as his mom’s first car was a 1964 Mustang. “I remember being a little guy riding around with my mom,” he said. He’s become known on online forums, mostly as the guy who made it to 200,000 miles on his Mach-E. His reputation needs some updating for 2026.
While Ford’s electric lineup is dwindling with the Ford F-150 Lightning stopping production as a pure electric pickup, last week the company announced the Universal Electric Vehicle Platform.
Ford’s Universal Electric Vehicle platform means a new way to make EVs.
Ford100% Electric, 100% Ford
With Ford’s new electric plan, the Michigan-based company will make its own LFP (lithium-ion phosphate) batteries in the U.S. for the first time. The UEV platform will supply future Ford EVs with 48 volt electric architecture on batteries made at its own facilities. Most Mach-Es use a nickel-cobalt-manganese lithium-ion battery currently.
The new platform will have five zonal modules instead of dozens for the electronic control units, or ECUs, which will make for better efficiency for the power train, infotainment system and general car functions.
For its EVs, Ford claims the new UEV will make for faster charging times and—crucial for drivers like Blenkle—improved battery longevity.
Battery Degradation
EV research and analytics firm Recurrent recently looked at vehicles with over 200,000 miles for an update on battery health trends. Focusing on Tesla vehicles (its API offers more data than other EV brands), the researchers found:
After 100,000-150,000 miles: 86% battery health150,000-200,000: 84%200,000-250,000: 81%250,000+: 80%
For data on 300,000-plus-mile vehicles, Liz Najman, Recurrent’s director of market insights, called it “scant” with only a handful reaching that number in the Recurrent community.
Blenkle’s 92% battery health after more than 300,000 miles is a testament to his care for his car, which he takes to the car wash four times a week and drives on the most efficient drive mode (“Whisper,” in Mustang parlance). He said he charges up to 90% every night and tries to not let it get below 20%. Although he once got it down to 5 miles of range, but luckily an EVgo station was 2 miles away. He has a Level 2 charger at home and mostly uses Electrify America’s public charging network while out, but he has an adapter so he can use Tesla’s Supercharger network if that’s a more convenient option.
Blenkle’s ultimate goal? To the moon and back. That’s 476,000 miles.
