Ford has pulled a move that’s bound to irritate EV shoppers. The 2026 Mustang Mach-E’s front trunk — the frunk, that handy cargo space under the hood that’s been standard since the electric SUV launched in 2021 — is now a $495 option. Check the box or stare into an empty void every time you pop the hood.
The change, first reported by Ford Authority and confirmed by multiple outlets, applies across all four Mach-E trims. Ford’s reasoning? Its planning team discovered that many owners simply weren’t using the frunk. So rather than keep giving it away, the automaker decided to strip it out and charge for it.
Here’s where the math gets irritating. Ford dropped the 2026 Mach-E’s base price to $39,850, down from $39,990 last year. That’s a $140 reduction.
But if you want the frunk back, you’re paying $495 on top of that new price, bringing the total to $40,335 — which is $345 more than the 2025 model with its standard frunk. That’s not a savings. That’s a price hike wearing a disguise.
The Mach-E Rally trim got hit even harder. Its once-standard rear wing and decal package are also gone. The raised rear spoiler is now a separate $995 option, and the Rally decals have vanished entirely with no way to add them back.
The Rally’s base price dropped to $59,735 from $60,485, but once you re-add the spoiler and frunk, you’re paying $740 more than before and getting less.
This stings because the Mach-E’s frunk was genuinely one of its selling points. When Ford launched the electric SUV, it marketed the nearly five-cubic-foot front trunk heavily. It had a drain plug, making it perfect for tailgating with ice and drinks or hauling a carry-on bag.
A 2024 update with a new heat pump cut the frunk’s size roughly in half, but even the smaller version remained more practical than the tiny cubbyholes found in competitors like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Kia EV6.
Ford isn’t alone in this kind of nickel-and-diming. BMW infamously tried charging monthly subscriptions for heated seats through its “Functions on Demand” program, drawing widespread backlash. The Dodge Charger EV buries its 1.5-cubic-foot frunk inside a $5,000 R/T package.
But there’s something uniquely grating about an automaker removing a useful feature that already exists on the vehicle and then asking customers to pay for its return.
The broader question is whether frunks even matter to most buyers. Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 dominate EV sales charts and both have frunks, but the Chevrolet Equinox EV and Volkswagen ID.4 sell perfectly well without them. Most GM and Volkswagen Group EVs skip the frunk entirely. It hasn’t hurt their numbers.
Still, the optics are terrible. Without the frunk insert, there’s just dead space sitting under the Mach-E’s hood. Ford is asking customers to pay for permission to use real estate that’s already there. It’s the automotive equivalent of your airline charging for the empty overhead bin space above your seat.
Maybe Ford’s data is right and most Mach-E owners never cracked the frunk open. But for those who did — or those who would have — this feels like yet another example of automakers finding creative ways to extract more money while pretending to offer a deal.
The base price went down. The actual cost went up. And somewhere in Dearborn, someone is hoping you won’t do the arithmetic.
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