Brand’s second EV has excellent all-round electric performance and frugality, but it lacks a sense of fun
Latecomers to parties are supposed to barge in dramatically, giving it the full Norma Desmond. Raising a hand to their brow, they should loudly acclaim: “Oh my! Is that what time it is?” The full attention-getting routine.
It raises the odd prospect that Ford – once the bestselling brand in Ireland, a position it held for decades – is now buying in technology from a rival, at a time when it’s slipping badly in the sales charts. With no Fiesta, and shortly no Focus, the Explorer is going to have to do some heavy sales lifting for Ford in Europe.Used car imports surge as EV sales continue to declineIs the Explorer up to the task? Well, not in terms of its looks.
It’s a realistic range too. In fairly mild conditions, we were easily able to get 500km out of one charge, including quite a lot of motorway cruising, and the Explorer burned through the electrons in its battery at a frugal rate of 16.7kWh/100km. Both those figures are impressive.It’s a shame then that Ford didn’t do as good a job with the Explorer’s chassis and steering.
Perhaps Ford is leaving a bit of philosophical space in its line-up for the controversially-named new Capri to be more dynamically satisfying. At least performance from the single rear-mounted 286hp electric motor is not in doubt. There’s plenty of shove, so the Explorer doesn’t lack for speed. The big 14.6-inch touchscreen has a Ford skin over VW software, and so unsurprisingly can be confusing and awkward to use. Ford’s own SYNC4 software, used in the Mustang Mach-E, is vastly superior. The screen does have one neat trick though – it can slide from a reclined to a A fully vertical position, and in doing so reveals a neat secure storage area behind. That combines with lots of other storage spaces to make the Explorer very practical in the cabin.
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