With VW Group underpinnings, battery-electric propulsion and an American look, this new crossover embodies Ford’s total reinvention
MARK TISSHAW @mtisshaw
TESTED 13.6.24, LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA ON SALE AUGUST PRICE £49,975
The Explorer is a new Ford like no other. The fact that it’s based on a Volkswagen architecture is remarkable enough, that it takes the place of the Fiesta on its production lines in Cologne perhaps more so. Oh, and it resets the notion of a mainstream, mass-market, family-sized Ford as a car that’s now electric and starts at £40,000.
The Explorer isn’t just a new Ford, then – a significant enough event itself – but the boldest embodiment of an entirely new approach for the Blue Oval in Europe. The strategy has been to replace high-volume, low-margin models like the Fiesta and Focus with more profitable crossovers like the Puma and now the Explorer, ‘legacy’ model names being rebooted in the process.
This isn’t a fringe manufacturer tinkering around the margins of its range; it’s Ford, the UK’s number-one car maker and producer of the UK’s number-one car for as long as anyone can remember. But after the demise of the Fiesta, no more is it on either count, and the brand is clinging onto a place in the top five in the UK’s sales charts.
The Explorer’s development hasn’t been easy. It was delayed by more than a year and re-engineered late on to take advantage of more advanced battery technology, and Martin Sander, who led Ford of Europe throughout its development and has been the spokesperson for this new Ford, including being the face of the Fiesta’s retirement, left the company just a week before the first test drives.
That’s quite a lot to unpick, yet whatever the narrative to date, only one thing really matters now: is it any good to drive? The pretty yet sodden roads around Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital, will reveal all.
Multiple versions of the Explorer are offered at launch or soon after it. The most keenly priced model is a smidge under £40,000 and will arrive at the end of this year with a 239-mile range from its 52kWh battery in entry-level Select trim and 168bhp from a rear-mounted motor.
The model we are focusing on here, though, is the single-motor Extended Range version, with a 282bhp motor and a 77kWh battery that’s good for an impressive 374-mile range – the most yet of any Volkswagen Group MEB-derived car.
This costs from £45,875 in Standard trim but can also be specced in Premium trim, as our test ca
