Ford Explorer
Ford’s second electric SUV is a more affordable option than its first, the Mustang Mach-E On sale August Price from £39,875
NOTHING TO HIDE While the Kia EV6 and Tesla Model Y both have storage space under the bonnet, the Explorer’s close links with the Volkswagen ID 4 mean it misses out on this.
Steve Huntingford steve.huntingford@haymarket.com
WE WATCH AMERICAN movies, are addicted to American social media platforms, and spend around £60 billion a year on American products. But like baseball and root beer, the Ford Explorer has always been one of those things our transatlantic cousins love that has never caught on in the UK. At least until now.
Yes, while the Explorer is Ford’s most popular SUV stateside, with more than eight million sold, its huge size and thirst have traditionally meant it’s not suited to our tastes. However, the latest car to bear the name couldn’t be more different from Explorers of old – not least because it’s about half a metre shorter and swaps petrol engines for electric power.
In fact, it has more in common with modern Volkswagens than it does the all-American Explorer ‘truck’ that Ford continues to sell in its home market. That’s because a lot of the new Explorer’s hidden parts are borrowed from the Volkswagen ID 4.
This is thanks to a deal agreed a few years back that saw Ford secure VW’s electric car tech in exchange for sending commercial vehicle mechanicals the other way.
What’s it like to drive?
The best-selling version of the Explorer is likely to be the 77kWh Extended Range RWD, because this can officially travel up to 374 miles between charges. To put that into perspective, the equivalent Kia EV6 can manage 328 miles and the ID 4 337 miles, although the Renault Scenic beats them all with a 379-mile maximum.