Ford’s new era has begun: the Explorer is a European-focused, European-designed and European-built electric SUV channelling the Blue Oval’s American spirit and conceived to do battle in one of the market’s fiercest emerging segments.
Due to start rolling down the production line at Ford’s revamped Cologne factory (where it currently builds the Ford Fiesta) from mid-2023, the squat new crossover measures 4460mm long. This pitches it roughly between the highly competitive small and midsized SUV markets and means it will compete with everything from the Jeep Avenger and Mini Aceman to the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Skoda Enyaq iV.
In this respect and many others, it is the most important new Ford product in decades and will be crucial in paving the way for a totally overhauled – and downsized – range of passenger EVs designed around the concept of ‘American-ness’, far removed from the likes of the Fiesta, Focus and Mondeo that have gone before.
The company’s Europe boss and head of its Model E EV arm, Martin Sander, told Autocar: “If we concentrate a little bit more on the real DNA of this company, really going back to our roots as an American icon, we are the only American, iconic car company still doing business in Europe. I think this is a huge opportunity for us to reposition the brand, and to create a new world of experiences around this DNA.”
The Explorer is the first Ford EV – of two so far confirmed – to use Volkswagen’s MEB electric vehicle platform as part of a partnership in which the US firm reciprocates by building VW-badged commercial vehicles in Turkey and South Africa. Choosing dimensions that put it halfway between the VW ID 3 and ID 4 was a conscious decision to avoid directly competing with those two cars, bosses told Autocar, but it was not a condition of Ford using the platform.
In its most potent form, the Explorer will feature a motor on each axle for a combined 335bhp and 402lb ft – more than any other MEB-based production car currently on sale and sufficient for a sub-6.0sec 0-62mph time. Ford has not yet said if this range-topper will bear the hallowed ST (or even RS) badge but it has confirmed that a dedicated Sport mode will be one of five available on all-wheel-drive cars.
There are also two rear-driven options, one with 168bhp and the other with 282bhp. Battery options have not yet been detailed but Ford is targeting a maximum range of 311 miles from the longest legged ‘Max’ variant. The Explorer is expected to offer an entry-level 52kWh battery and the 77kWh unit that nets a claimed 316 miles per charge in the slightly larger Audi Q4 E-tron – both of which can charge at speeds of 170kW.
But other than the VW Group-supplied fundamentals, the Explorer is a Ford product through and through. “We’re American and we really want to underline that. That’s something that we’re drawing from: our heritage, our past,” Ford exterior design manager Jordan Demkiw told Autocar. In this respect, most obviously, the Explorer is the flag-bearer for a bold new era of Ford styling led by Amko Leenarts, head of the firm’s European design studio.