It’s a topic that will have been debated hotly in Ford’s customer focus groups over the past few years, since the firm reused the names Puma for a crossover and Mustang for an electric family SUV.
Ultimately, thinks Leenarts, “the public loves that we’re bringing nameplates to new territories”, because they tap into a “unique perspective that nobody else has”.
While the names may be familiar, though, the designs really won’t be. As the first of a new breed of Fords conceived under the Adventurous Spirit banner, the Explorer sets the tone for every bespoke EV that will follow it over the coming years. Direct references to previous Ford models are few and far between, both inside and out.
Likewise, the new-generation Capri will (as hinted in preview images) be a higher-riding proposition, and will gain a pair of extra doors in line with its family crossover billing. Specifications will no doubt be broadly identical to the Explorer, which offers up to 335bhp and a maximum range of more than 300 miles.
Leenarts explained that the onset of electrification provided an opportunity to cater to evolving customer requirements with what’s arguably the biggest shift in Ford design since the New Edge ethos of the late 1990s: “We started researching first: how do customers look at us? I felt personally that we were looking too positively on our own brand; we needed a health check on where we really were. And that’s whywe did work with the customers.
“What was really hurting me was them saying we were boring. And that was the part I got really engaged in. I said: ‘Okay, we have to come up with unique proposals: car designs that are clearly differentiated, that offer a unique perspective that nobody else has.’”
That the Explorer looks nothing like the Puma or Kuga, for example, is testament to Ford’s commitment to conveying its new American-flavoured image and serves as proof for the enhanced freedom afforded to car designers by flat-floored, engineless EV architectures.
“Electric car [design] language for us automatically came with simplification: cleaning it up, making sure that we get not only the bold proportions and stance, the language much more simplistic, but with that it almost feels more expensive, more premium, more approachable as well. So we’re not doing aggressive cars here. We’re actually doing cars that you can love easily,” summarises Leenarts.