Automakers have spent the last decade reinventing the wheel, over and over again. From dangerous door handles to confounding shifters, “futuristic” controls have made cars less predictable and more annoying to use. But things are finally headed in the right direction again, as automakers are finally starting to rework their silliest control schemes. First to go: Ford’s annoying rotary-knob shifter.
Long an annoyance on the Ford Mustang Mach-E and other modern Blue Oval products, the rotary shifter is out of the way, hard to use without looking down and takes up valuable center console space. EVs from brands like General Motors, Hyundai, Mercedes and Rivian already offer a better way: An easy-to-reach column shifter, which you can easily operate without looking. For 2025, the Mach-E finally got one, too, fixing a key pain point.
Over a week with a 2025 Mach-E Rally, I found it easier to park, live with and maneuver thanks to the upgraded shifter. It was a thankful respite in a car that remains, to me, among the worst offenders in terms of counterintuitive controls. The Mach-E’s press-to-pop door buttons turn the smoothest possible entrance into a two-motion affair, and its frunk controls live inside a slow-to-load drop-down menu.
In fact, despite the Mach-E heading into its fourth year on sale, the infotainment system is still a laggy mess. The menus are reasonably intuitive and the graphics are clear, but new menu sections took seconds to load, and when scrolling on the screen the movement noticeably lags behind your actual finger. It’s like having an iPad 2 with a ten-year-old processor mounted on a plinth, and it’s the only way to do anything.
It’s the epitome of these modern trends, but far from alone. The last Mercedes EVs I drove also took the touch-and-capacitive control fixation to dizzying heights, and I hate the touch-sensitive buttons that Volkswagen, Hyundai, Kia and others rely on. Yet Ford’s rollback is also part of a broader trend: Companies are reversing these moves.
Volkswagen has announced that it’s bringing physical controls back, with an exasperated executive noting, “it’s a car, not a phone.” Scout and Slate, two new EV companies, have made it a point to bring physical controls back to center stage. Hyundai, too, is reversing course. In Europe, many automakers may have to follow suit, as regulators weigh requiring physical controls for key functions.
The original Mach-E, then, represents a moment in time when automakers took minimalism to its infuriating maximum. But as it has been on sale, Ford has added more range, more technology and more power. The company has also cut its price repeatedly, improving its value proposition while adding quality-of-life upgrades like the column shifter. This represents the true source of this “cost-cutting.” EVs are expensive, and as they have raced to deliver affordable options, many automakers now realize they may have cut one too many corners.
The 2025 Mach-E is proof that things won’t continue that way forever. As automakers scale up EV efforts and battery investments, EVs are getting cheaper every year, paving the way for nicer interiors without exorbitant prices. Until that day comes, the Mach-E persists with a less-than-stellar user interface. But for this year, at least, it got a little bit better.
Gallery: 2026 Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally
Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com.
