One day, you might want to revive the nostalgia of a petrol car with Ford’s Mach-Eau, a sentimental hijack of our olfactory senses
As the zeitgeist of the motoring industry has shifted to electric vehicles, the good old-fashioned smell of gasoline may soon cease to exist – and that’s an issue for some with a strange affection for this pungent scent. In a recent survey done by Ford, it stated that 70 per cent of car owners will miss the smell of gasoline once they switch to electric.
Ford has thus created a fragrance to help fill that void. Revealed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Mach-Eau can be briefly described as a luxury fragrance that effortlessly combines smoky accords, hints of rubber and even an ‘animal’ element that pays tribute to the Mustang heritage.
However, it goes way deeper than just smelling like petrol. Instead, it brings you back to a simpler time. Apart from the cardinal gasoline scent, the fragrance also contains notes of almond-like benzaldehyde, a smell associated with car interiors, and para-Cresol, which mimics the rubber smell of tyres. It is further blended with customary ingredients like blue ginger, lavender and geranium, but for a smoky and metallic scent, sandalwood can also be included to offer an “impression of horses,” whatever that means.
The Mach-Eau isn’t available for purchase, and if that upsets you, know that there are other ways to make a car smell like gasoline…
