Ford Explorer review
This 2020 model year Explorer is the sixth generation of the storied SUV. Without wanting to ruin the punchline, it’s also the best Explorer Ford has made. Along with the Jeep Grand Cherokee it helped kickstart the whole SUV craze back in 1991, when it replaced the Bronco II. It sold upwards of 400,000 units a year at its peak in 1994 as the US dumped wagons and sedans in favor of the hi-rise lifestyle truck. As competition from all sides has increased, those heady numbers have declined substantially, but still more than 250,000 are sold each year, including more than 30,000 police interceptor units. So it’s still one of the most important and profitable vehicles in the Ford line-up. But it was not one of the best. Based on a stretched version of the Volvo S80’s ageing front-wheel drive platform, its performance and interior were fast becoming sub par.
This sixth gen vehicle seeks to address all of those shortcomings and add a whole new level of all-round comfort, flexibility and performance. Central to this is an all-new rear-drive unibody platform using the engine longitudinally. One that features the first use of its Modular Hybrid transmission driveline. This simple sounding but no doubt fiendishly complicated set-up sandwiches a 44bhp electric motor between the 335bhp V6 gas-powered engine and the automatic 10-speed transmission. Its mission is more to add performance, adding bottom end torque and throttle response, than aiding economy. Expect to see a version of it in the upcoming Bronco and hybrid F-150 pick-up too, before long.
Other engines in the range include a 300bhp in-line four, plus two versions of the 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6. A 365bhp unit fitted in the Platinum variant. And the full-house 400bhp version in the Explorer ST. This is the second time Ford has used the hallowed ST tag on an SUV. We expect it to be a lot better than the last time the company used it to spice up the end-of-life Edge. Even though the platform is all new, the 2020 Explorer’s design is still instantly recognisable, with the steeply forward-raked C-pillar and trademark trapezoidal Ford company grille. The interior has been completely rethought with varying degrees of success depending on which seat you are occupying.
Ford Explorer review
This 2020 model year Explorer is the sixth generation of the storied SUV. Without wanting to ruin the punchline, it’s also the best Explorer Ford has made. Along with the Jeep Grand Cherokee it helped kickstart the whole SUV craze back in 1991, when it replaced the Bronco II. It sold upwards of 400,000 units a year at its peak in 1994 as the US dumped wagons and sedans in favor of the hi-rise lifestyle truck. As competition from all sides has increased, those heady numbers have declined substantially, but still more than 250,000 are sold each year, including more than 30,000 police interceptor units. So it’s still one of the most important and profitable vehicles in the Ford line-up. But it was not one of the best. Based on a stretched version of the Volvo S80’s ageing front-wheel drive platform, its performance and interior were fast becoming sub par.
This sixth gen vehicle seeks to address all of those shortcomings and add a whole new level of all-round comfort, flexibility and performance. Central to this is an all-new rear-drive unibody platform using the engine longitudinally. One that features the first use of its Modular Hybrid transmission driveline. This simple sounding but no doubt fiendishly complicated set-up sandwiches a 44bhp electric motor between the 335bhp V6 gas-powered engine and the automatic 10-speed transmission. Its mission is more to add performance, adding bottom end torque and throttle response, than aiding economy. Expect to see a version of it in the upcoming Bronco and hybrid F-150 pick-up too, before long.
Other engines in the range include a 300bhp in-line four, plus two versions of the 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6. A 365bhp unit fitted in the Platinum variant. And the full-house 400bhp version in the Explorer ST. This is the second time Ford has used the hallowed ST tag on an SUV. We expect it to be a lot better than the last time the company used it to spice up the end-of-life Edge. Even though the platform is all new, the 2020 Explorer’s design is still instantly recognisable, with the steeply forward-raked C-pillar and trademark trapezoidal Ford company grille. The interior has been completely rethought with varying degrees of success depending on which seat you are occupying.
Ford Explorer review
Right off the bat, the new Explorer steers, brakes and accelerates way better than the model it replaces. The steering has more feel, body roll is better checked and as a result you feel far more confident throwing it around. Off-road, the Explorer is more than capable enough to handle even quite unreasonably savage grades, rocks, water and mud. Those observations are true of all the models tested. Where the real differences lie is in the drivetrains. Even though this is the first time we have driven the hybrid version, and it was a pre-production model, we came away disappointed with it. In normal driving it doesn’t offer any benefit over the base-engined car. It’s noisier, spends more time hunting for gears and is generally less smooth in action.
Over the test route it didn’t appear any more economical and the brake pedal lacked feel to boot. Which makes it currently nigh on impossible to justify the $4,150 extra cost of selecting the hybrid over the 2.3-litre four. The 3.0-litre twin turbo engine in the Platinum is a much easier sell. Feeling perfectly tuned to move the Explorer with confidence, reliability and civility, it is absolutely the engine to choose if your budget can run to it. It gives the whole package a more effortless, luxurious feel.
Likewise, the 400bhp ST model, distinctly unlike the Edge ST, is a properly sorted sports SUV. While lacking the outright ferocity of some of the competition, it nonetheless moves down the road and around whatever you point it at with style, speed and fine-level control. Just like an ST badged vehicle should. A head-to-head with the Dodge Durango SRT will be an interesting match. Away from the drivetrains and chassis, the optional active safety package works well, only making itself known as and when the need arises. Likewise, road and wind noise is well suppressed in all models, which will make longer journeys less taxing.
Is the new Ford Explorer more than a VW ID.4 in American disguise?
If you’re American, then you know all about Ford. Ford is a pick-up truck and SUV-making phenomenon that also sells the Mustang.
If you’re European, you also know all about Ford. Ford sells bazillions of sensible small hatchbacks like the Fiesta and Focus, plus a smattering of those new-fangled crossover things. Oh, and the Transit van. It sells the van that basically moves Britain.
Well, scratch that. Ford wants you – needs you – to rethink what that Blue Oval badge means, in Europe at least.
Despite building class-leading family cars that are keenly priced and drive brilliantly, Ford’s European profit/loss chart has bounced up and down like a nervous meerkat over recent years. And with customers all too ready to chop in their common Ford for something wearing a posh German badge or a more adventurous Korean contender, there’s a new plan afoot.
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That plan is to build fewer cars, sell them at bigger profits, and to double down on what Ford thinks sets it apart. Chiefly, being American. So future Fords will look more land-of-the-free, and they’ll be themed more around adventurous outdoorsiness than school run buses.
Which brings us to an all-new Ford family hatchback: the Explorer. It’s a medium-sized all electric crossover with five seats, a big square boot, and a chunky-but-friendly look about it. It’ll go on sale later this year with prices starting at less than £40,000, which slots it neatly between the current hybrid Kuga and the all-electric Mustang Mach-E.
The Explorer won’t be sold in America. Not this one. America will get its own Explorer, which is bigger. This is very much a car for Europe. In fact, it’s fully European under the body. German, in fact. Because the Explorer uses exactly the same ‘MEB’ platform that carries the Volkswagen Group’s electric ambitions.
That means the Explorer shares batteries, motors and general underpinnings with the likes of the Volkswagen ID.3, Cupra Born, Audi Q4 e-tron, ID. Buzz, Skoda Enyaq… and other cars too forgettable to mention.
See, Ford and VW have done a deal to share knowledge and components. Awh, bless. As you’d expect, it’s all about cost-saving: Ford’s next Ranger pick-up truck will be gift-wrapped by VW as the new Amarok, and in return Ford saves the bother of engineering its own electric skateboard chassis and gets an oven-ready one from VW. The Explorer’s 2.7-metre wheelbase is identical to that of a VW ID.4.
That means the specs are… not what you’d call ‘mind-blowing’. The entry-level version has a 55kWh battery good for a claimed 218-mile range, and develops 168bhp. You can upgrade to a bigger 82kWh battery meaning 335 miles of range and this also bumps you to 282bhp.
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Topping the range is a fire-spitting V8 Explorer RS. Only joking. It’s a dual-motor version with range down to 305 miles, and power up to 335bhp. The bigger battery Explorer will charge faster too: 170kW plays 130kW.
So, if Ford’s not banking on eye-catching range or power to sell the Explorer, what’s its USP? Well, that’ll be the interior, which shows a whole new direction for Ford’s humdrum cabins.
For a kick-off, the steering wheel is square. It also features touch-sensitive ‘buttons’. Oh dear. Happily, Ford has had the sense not to borrow VW’s tragic infotainment touchscreen, and come up with its own 15-inch portrait display. The whole screen tilts through 30 degrees to help manage reflections on the glass, and there’s a hidden stowage bin behind it. But if you’ve got even more stuff to hide, the centre console conceals a 17-litre chasm Ford reckons is big enough for three large water bottles, or a laptop.
See that huge dead slug on the top of the dashboard? That’s a great big speaker. The cabin’s supposed to be for a younger, cooler customer. The sort of fashionable family that won’t buy a Ford right now.
As you’d expect there’s masses of safety tech crammed in: Ford says the Explorer will be its first European model to execute hands-free lane changes and overtakes. Hmm. Hope it’s better than Tesla’s woefully haphazard system. There’s also warnings to stop you opening a door into the path of a cyclist or a passing car. It’s not a big car, but somehow Ford has stuffed 12 ultrasonic sensors, five cameras and three radars in the Explorer. There are nuclear submarines out there with less surveillance on board.
The Explorer’s got to do some seriously heavy lifting if Fords’s going to be an EV power in Europe. We’re promised nine new EVs from the company in the next couple of years, a suite of carbon-neutral factories and supply logistics, and cars that appeal more to a sense of adventure than, well, common sense.
But in Europe, Ford’s entire reputation is one of stack-em-high, sell-em-cheap. People arriving at dealerships to find there’s no longer a Fiesta, Focus or EcoSport – or indeed anything for under £30,000 – are going to be peeved. So, the question is whether Ford’s bold new unashamedly American-looking strategy will pay off everywhere else.