Ford Explorer review: The stylish new electric SUV feels every inch a Ford

The Ford Explorer is a great-looking car that immediately has a lot going for it. Part of the firm’s renewed push into EVs, it has a reassuringly long range, a generous list of standard equipment and all the practicality and ease of use you’d hope from a Ford.

It’s based on an architecture Ford sourced from Volkswagen Group – sister cars include the Volkswagen ID.4 and Skoda Enyaq. However, the design is all Ford’s own, and all the better for it. The driving dynamics have that familiar Ford feel too, which will please keen drivers.

At launch, it’s an expensive car, which will give some a bit of sticker shock. This is partly down to the generous battery size though. A version with a smaller battery will follow later in 2024, which should take the entry price down to around £40k, albeit without quite such an impressive range. Overall, with cars arriving in dealers now, we think the Ford Explorer is well worth checking out.

The Ford Explorer international launch took place overseas, and lately the nation’s Ford dealers are getting their first demonstration vehicles so customers and critics can take a test drive too.

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Independent rating: 8/10

The Ford Explorer launches with what’s called an Extended Range battery. In rear-wheel drive models, it has a 77kWh capacity, which increases to 79kWh in all-wheel drive versions. In entry-level Select trim, it delivers a very impressive range of 374 miles. This should immediately put those bothered about range anxiety at ease. RWD models have punchy performance too, with 286PS and 0-62mph taking 6.4 seconds.

The AWD alternative has two electric motors, located front and rear, that combine to produce 340PS. They are even faster, with 0-62mph taking just 5.3 seconds – that’s faster than the Ford Focus ST hot hatch. The range does drop due to the extra motor, but 328 miles is still reasonable.

The 77kWh battery can use DC rapid chargers at a rate of up to 135kW. Interestingly, the 79kWh battery has a higher 185kW peak, which knocks two minutes off a 10-80 per cent charge. The time goes down from 28 minutes to 26 minutes.

Later in the year, a more affordable 52kWh Standard Range battery will be announced. This will have a range of around 235 miles.

Ford cars have long been famous for the driver-pleasing way they drive, and the Explorer electric car is no exception. It builds on those Volkswagen Group underpinnings and adds the famous Ford finesse, meaning it is alert through corners yet still stable and comfortable on smoother roads.

The Ford Explorer may be based on a Volkswagen, but the interior is largely all Ford’s own. The centrepiece is a 14.6-inch portrait-format touchscreen called Sync Move. It really does ‘move’ too – you can set it at different angles, and there’s handy cubby space behind it to store oddments.

The design is clean and modern, and it doesn’t seem to have the tactility issues of early Volkswagen ID.3 models.  We love the partial Sensico trim on Select models, which is upgraded to full Sensico on Premium – and all versions get a heated steering wheel, plus heated front seats with an electric driver’s massage seat.

The Ford Explorer is pretty roomy in the back, with intelligent design boosting its practicality. The only grumble is that the floor is a bit high, as it is in models such as the Volkswagen ID.4. The boot capacity is an okay 445 litres, but the ingenious ‘MegaBox’ in the Ford Puma is absent here.

Instead, Ford has a surprise up front: a huge centre console, or ‘MegaConsole’, that’s big enough to take several 1.5-litre bottles of water, or a laptop. Ford hopes it’s distinctive enough to distract from the fiddly Volkswagen switchgear on the doors.

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All Ford Explorers feature the 14.6-inch Sync Move touchscreen. It’s Ford’s own system, rather than a reskinned VW setup, so will be familiar to the blue oval’s many drivers. It fully links up with the Ford smartphone app, and also cleverly supports you in hunting out charging points as you drive.

A neat piece of technology is the seven-speaker stereo that includes a distinctive sound bar that sits on top of the dashboard. It’s stylish in the way some home audio systems are. On Premium models, it is upgraded further, to a 10-speaker B&O premium system – the sound bar gets a B&O logo to announce this.

All Ford Explorers get front and rear parking sensors with a rear parking camera, with extra tech on the Premium including a powered tailgate and Matrix LED headlights. The alloy wheels also grow from 19-inches to 20-inches.

Ford Explorer prices start from almost £46,000, which will seem steep to Ford traditionalists, although the long range and generous standard equipment helps justify it. You don’t really need the Premium, which is £4,100 more, although some of its extra features are quite nice to have – particularly that B&O sound system.

Those used to filling up a petrol-powered Ford will be delighted by how much they’ll save in terms of overall running costs. If they have a home charge point installed – something the dealer will help with – ‘fuel’ costs could be more than halved. The big battery means less reliance on the expensive public charging network, too.

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The Ford Explorer can charge from 10-80 per cent in as little as 26 minutes, using a suitably powerful DC rapid charger.

By Ford standards, the Explorer is expensive, but it is class-competitive with its key rivals and many will be swayed by its styling and driving dynamics.

Ford guarantees the high voltage battery on its EVs for eight years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.

The Ford Explorer is a very important car for Ford as it accelerates its transition to an electric car company. I think it looks really good, and it’s pleasing to find the traditional Ford spirit is present in the way that it drives, too.