Ford Explorer

FIRST DRIVE SUV has been reinvented as an all-electric model does it give the Blue Oval a front runner in the EV class?

- Paul Barker

AE FORD is finally getting serious about electric vehicles, but it has plenty of catching up to do with the new Explorer.

The detractors would say revamping a Volkswagen ID.4 - not the most inspiring of electric cars to start with - and resurrecting another old brand name previously seen on a larger SUV (and predominantly in the United States) doesn't exactly scream of a new beginning.

And that's before you mention the delays to a car that has finally emerged around nine months later than initially hoped, as Ford held off until battery tech was where it wanted it to be.

Anyway, some basic facts: the Explorer is Ford's second proper production EV, joining the Mustang Mach-E. It comes with a choice of two trim levels; the higher Premium trim is either rear or four-wheel drive, while the Select is rear-drive only. There will be a £40k smaller-battery model coming in late 2024, but from launch you're looking at nearly £46,000 for a basic Select car, topping out at just under £54,000 for the AWD Premium. That's pricier than a Skoda Enyaq, while the admittedly less powerful and less efficient Renault Scenic is several thousand pounds cheaper.

Until the 168bhp/239-mile range entry car with a 52kWh battery arrives, the choices are the 77kWh battery on the rear-driven model or a slightly larger 79kWh battery for the all-wheel-drive range-topper. Top of the official range figures is the Select car with 374 miles, which drops by 20 miles when you go for the higher trim level, and down to 329 miles for the all-wheel-drive car.

On our test of the base model we achieved a decent 3.6 miles per kWh, which equates to a real-world range of nearly 280 miles. The all-wheel-drive car's bigger battery charges at an impressive 185kW maximum rate, but that drops to a more modest 135kW for the rear-drive car.

According to Ford, that fall in peak speed only adds two minutes to the 10-80 per cent charging time.