Miss the Smell of Fossil Fuels? Ford Has a Fragrance for You

Sure it's bad for the environment but there's a familiar smell of gasoline that stirs up fond childhood memories of gas cars and a new survey by Ford has found that one in five electric car drivers miss that smell. 

"In a Ford-commissioned survey, one in five drivers said the smell of petrol is what they’d miss most when swapping to an electric vehicle, with almost 70 per cent claiming they would miss the smell of petrol to some degree. Petrol also ranked as a more popular scent than both wine and cheese, and almost identically to the smell of new books, " stated a press release on the subject.

So Ford decided to do something about it and the solution came in a cologne inspired by the smell of gasoline called Mach-Eau. But the new scent does not only smell like fossil fuels it also "fuses smoky accords, aspects of rubber and even an ‘animal’ element to give a nod to the Mustang heritage" as the perfume specifically targets customers of the new all-electric Mustang Mach-E GT.

“Judging by our survey findings, the sensory appeal of petrol cars is still something drivers are reluctant to give up. The Mach Eau fragrance is designed to give them a hint of that fuel-fragrance they still crave. It should linger long enough for the GT’s performance to make any other doubts vaporize too," said Jay Ward, director, Ford of Europe Product Communications.

Ford revealed the fragrance this weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed but specifically stated it is not actually for sale. The Mach-Eau fragrance was developed by renowned fragrance consultancy Olfiction with the input of Pia Long, an Associate Perfumer in the British Society of Perfumers who is responsible for some of the most famous perfume brands in the world.

The question now becomes: would you actually buy the perfume if it were for sale? I guess that all depends on how much you miss gas-guzzling cars. It's not the strangest perfume we have seen thus far though. NASA's Eau de Space was created to make you smell like space while standing firmly on Earth.