The all-electric Ford Explorer has had a tough time of it. Back in 2022, WIRED was invited to a secret look at the Europe-only, all-electric Explorer which the company had been working on for some time. In March of 2023, the wraps were finally taken off, and it was announced that the US might get a version of the midsize crossover too, such was the enthusiastic response of dealers stateside to the winning design.
A brand-new factory was opened in Germany in June 2023, the Cologne EV Center, Ford’s dedicated “home of a new generation of electric vehicles.” Then, just two months later, it was announced that the sale of the Explorer EV was to be delayed until summer 2024—not ideal when the pace of advancement in EVs these days is rampant, with tech being superseded so quickly that residual values of electric cars are disastrous. By the time Ford’s EV Explorer eventually hit the roads in 2024 perhaps its biggest threat, the Kia EV3, was no longer on the horizon but just about to arrive.
In July, Ford Europe plowed on with the reveal of the Capri, a “relaunch” of the classic 1960s car that is remembered fondly for being Europe’s version of the original Mustang. If fact it was exactly the same car as the Explorer, just with a different exterior design. It seemed half-hearted, somehow, especially as both the Capri and Explorer sit on Volkswagen Group’s MEB platform—the result of a technology-sharing deal that apparently shaved two years off Ford’s development time.
Then, in August, just when Ford Europe thought the birth of its pair of EU EVs couldn’t hit any more snags, Ford announced it is stepping back from electric vehicles, with CEO Jim Farley saying that, for now, hybrids are the future for the company. Mere weeks before this, Farley proclaimed he’d been driving a Xiaomi EV in the US for six months and had been so impressed he didn’t want to give it back.
Finally, in November came the job cuts—4,000 in total in Europe—with Ford citing slowing electric sales and increased competition from China EV makers.
I’m not sure where all this leaves Ford Europe’s electric ambitions. Last month, a Ford announcement stated: “Due to the weak economic situation and lower-than-expected demand for electric cars, we are further adjusting the production program for the new Explorer and Capri. This will result in additional short-time working days at our Cologne plant in the first quarter of 2025.” But later in the announcement, Ford added that it would “offer … customers a range of ICE, hybrid, and fully electric vehicles” going forward.
What I am certain of is that the teams I met at Ford Europe were passionate about pushing toward full EV and had genuinely good ideas—but also were likely unable to avoid some bad ones. A critical look at the Explorer explains this properly.
That technology-sharing deal with VW turns out to be both a blessing and a curse. It means the Explorer has the same underpinnings as some of its rivals: the Volkswagen ID.4, Skoda Enyaq, and Audi Q4 e-tron. But cleverly drawing heavily on Ford’s American heritage, the Explorer has an angular, bold front end to go with its SUV proportions. It’s boxy in a good way. Rugged looking. Despite being on same platform, at less than 4.5 meters long, it’s 10 centimeters shorter than an ID.4, which is odd, and shows that some compromises were made for this design over the VW.
The wheel design even gives the car 12 miles more range, which is thumpingly big anyway for the segment at a claimed max range of 374 miles on a full charge. Ford wanted this EV to “lead in its class” in this respect, so much so part of the delay in production was to ensure the Explorer got a better battery, one not just for that large range but that could also fast charge from 10 to 80 percent in 28 minutes.
On my brand-hosted test drive of the Explorer, I was getting a fine 3.5 miles-per-kWh in efficiency over a couple of hours of driving, and I know of others getting more than 4, though I never reached this. It drives well, too, if not that excitingly, despite its acceleration (a very respectable zero to 60 mph time of 5.8 seconds.)
Inside is where the Explorer’s split personality really starts to show, however. It’s a good-looking cabin, with innovative touches, most notably the powerful 10-speaker B&O sound system with its dashboard soundbar and the moveable 15-inch portrait central touchscreen capable of running full-screen mapping, which can tilt up to 30 degrees being either flush to the dash or lowered to cover a “secret” storage area behind. It’s a gimmick, yes, but that doesn’t stop it from being clever.
The panoramic glass roof is superb, and the rear legroom is good considering the car’s dimensions. The central console has cavernous storage (enough for a laptop). You can replace cup holders with a tray—again, yes a gimmick, but that doesn’t mean it’s not useful.
But then you get to the main issue with the Explorer: the buttons. So universally hated were the VW platform’s buttons and controls that by 2023 the CEO was forced to admit the design “definitely did a lot of damage” to the brand and that the company “had frustrated customers who shouldn’t be frustrated.”
So you’d think Ford would have immediately gotten rid of these infernal haptic touch buttons and incompetent rubber sliders that so plagued the ID cars and damaged VW’s design reputation, right? Nope. Ford, in what only can be described a bout of corporate madness, kept them. It tried to improve them, but you can’t polish a turd—and as these inherited VW controls were so appalling, such fettling was never going to suffice. And it hasn’t.
There are few times I’d ever recommend anyone not buy an EV just because of its volume control, but this is one of them. Think about how many times you change the volume every single trip in your car. Now think about being angered every time you try to do that. Then imagine how you feel about the car in six months time. Exactly.
I asked Amko Leenart, director of design for Ford Europe, about why Ford used VW’s woeful controls in both the Explorer and the Capri, and he told me Ford worked with a partner to better the response on the sliders (but wouldn’t tell me how), then admitted that “we tried to improve it a bit—and I think we did—but at the same time, it is what it is. VW is our supplier on certain parts, and at the time we had to make that choice.”
It’s such a shame, because these decisions, made on balance sheets and in meeting rooms, can kill perfectly fine cars. And in the case of the Explorer this is compounded because its a good EV, is quiet on the road, and has a good range and a distinctive, winning exterior.
I get the delays to the project means that the Explorer and Capri missed their window of opportunity and that potentially better competitor options landed just at the wrong time for Ford—but by focusing on range above all else, and by trying to cut corners in development time, the gamble didn’t quite pay off. And then trying to get away with charging nearly £54,000 (about $68,500) for the top-of-the-range model, things get even more difficult.
Jim Farley is a smart man, and I’m sure he has looked at the Explorer and Capri, and then back at his Xiaomi, and realized there’s a better way for Ford to tackle EVs than by dressing up rivals’ platforms. But then there’s the UK’s Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, which requires that in 2025 at least a quarter of new cars sold by UK manufacturers are emissions-free. Ford needs to sell more EVs and quick. This is a hard circle to square.
I know the focus at Ford is on hybrids right now, but looking at the successes of the F-150 Lightning and the Mach-E, and all the elements to be celebrated in the EU-only Explorer, am hoping we’ll see a lot more full-EV action from the company in 2025. Just make it Ford-made, and accessible to all—then surely it can’t lose.
Source : Wired
