The launch of the new Ford Explorer has been delayed until summer 2024 due to an onset of new battery regulations
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 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.
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.
“That’s the goal. You can expand those nameplates in a much more creative way, taking account of the needs of the customer. “And frankly, the Mustang can do it, we proved that the Explorer can do it, and there are a couple of other nameplates that are coming up that we feel that can expand on…” However, he stopped short of naming any specific nameplates for revival.
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