Ford to show off VW based BEV March 21st, the Explorer EV

[Chrisgb]

29 minutes ago, LSchicago said:

"Galaxie"

Good catch. One of my mental conundrums is I confuse the spelling of the Ford version with the astronomical one!

When I read the word, "mature" I will sometimes mentally pronounce it as rhyming with "nature."

 

[Chrisgb]

35 minutes ago, silvrsvt said:

Nissan went to court over the Skyline name with Ford. 

https://www.thedrive.com/news/how-ford-and-nissan-battled-over-the-skyline-trademark-and-why-its-not-over-yet

 

GM used the Citation name back in the 1980s for their X car-so no idea of the status of that. 

The Cesna Division of Textron Aviation uses it.

[LSchicago]

40 minutes ago, silvrsvt said:

Nissan went to court over the Skyline name with Ford. 

https://www.thedrive.com/news/how-ford-and-nissan-battled-over-the-skyline-trademark-and-why-its-not-over-yet

 

GM used the Citation name back in the 1980s for their X car-so no idea of the status of that. 

Trademarks expire in 10 years if not renewed. 

[ice-capades]

European-Spec 2023 Explorer is an EV with Volkswagon Bones

It won't be sold in the United States

https://www.autoblog.com/2023/03/21/ford-explorer-electric-europe-official/

 

 

Ford enlisted the help of Volkswagen and repurposed a familiar nameplate to plant its stake in Europe's electric crossover segment. Built on the MEB platform, the European-market Explorer is an electric, city-friendly model that shares nothing but a name with the SUV sold here.

 

Let's address the elephant in the room: the model pictured in our gallery is not a replacement for the American-market Explorer, and Ford confirmed to Autoblog that it will not be sold in the United States. "The new electric Explorer is the European interpretation of an electric Explorer — made in Europe for Europe," a spokesperson told us. That's not a "maybe," a "we'll see," or a "who knows?" It's a "no."

 

Visually, the Explorer's front end is characterized by a grille-less design and an "EXPLORER"-branded piece of trim flanked by thin lights. It rides on a relatively long wheelbase, while its rear bumper features a piece of trim shaped like the one embedded into the front bumper. Full technical specifications haven't been released but Ford notes the crossover stretches roughly 177 inches from bumper to bumper. In comparison, the American-market Explorer (which is available in some European nations) measures approximately 199 inches long.

Edited March 21, 2023 by ice-capades
Additional Content

[AM222]

1 hour ago, LSchicago said:

"Galaxie"

It's interesting that Ford used both the "Galaxie" name (full-size car for North America) and the "Galaxy" name (3-row MPV in Europe).

Edited March 21, 2023 by AM222

[LSchicago]

29 minutes ago, AM222 said:

It's interesting that Ford used both the "Galaxie" name (full-size car for North America) and the "Galaxy" name (3-row MPV in Europe).

Ford probably couldn't get the Galaxy name when originally trademarked in the US.

 

[LSchicago]

35 minutes ago, ice-capades said:

European-Spec 2023 Explorer is an EV with Volkswagon Bones

It won't be sold in the United States

https://www.autoblog.com/2023/03/21/ford-explorer-electric-europe-official/

 

 

Ford enlisted the help of Volkswagen and repurposed a familiar nameplate to plant its stake in Europe's electric crossover segment. Built on the MEB platform, the European-market Explorer is an electric, city-friendly model that shares nothing but a name with the SUV sold here.

 

Let's address the elephant in the room: the model pictured in our gallery is not a replacement for the American-market Explorer, and Ford confirmed to Autoblog that it will not be sold in the United States. "The new electric Explorer is the European interpretation of an electric Explorer — made in Europe for Europe," a spokesperson told us. That's not a "maybe," a "we'll see," or a "who knows?" It's a "no."

 

Visually, the Explorer's front end is characterized by a grille-less design and an "EXPLORER"-branded piece of trim flanked by thin lights. It rides on a relatively long wheelbase, while its rear bumper features a piece of trim shaped like the one embedded into the front bumper. Full technical specifications haven't been released but Ford notes the crossover stretches roughly 177 inches from bumper to bumper. In comparison, the American-market Explorer (which is available in some European nations) measures approximately 199 inches long.

It would be a good Edge replacement here. 

[AM222]

Looks like Ford made a better looking MEB-based EV than Volkswagen.

-Motor1

I guess the arrival of the All-Electric Explorer compact SUV in Europe means the Kuga (Euro Escape) won't have an EV future.

Edited March 21, 2023 by AM222

[AM222]

47 minutes ago, LSchicago said:

It would be a good Edge replacement here. 

With a compact length of just under 4.5 meters (177.17 inches), it's more Escape-sized though. The Escape is 180.1 to 181.2 inches long.

Edited March 21, 2023 by AM222

[Oac98]

I’m really interested to see what the North American GE2 platform Explorer will look like. We know it will be bigger, will it look similar just 7 seater? Should be interesting. 

[silvrsvt]

57 minutes ago, AM222 said:

I guess the arrival of the All-Electric Explorer compact SUV in Europe means the Kuga (Euro Escape) won't have an EV future.

 

File that under depends-the US will get some sort of C class BEV that isn't the Mach E in 2028 (I think?), but I also see no reason why Ford would support two different C sized BEV platforms either.

 

If the Escape EV replacement comes in 2028...that would give the MEB roughly 5 years of production before its replaced by a Ford platform, which would make more sense. 

[silvrsvt]

48 minutes ago, AM222 said:

With a compact length of just under 4.5 meters (177.17 inches), it's more Escape-sized though. The Escape is 180.1 to 181.2 inches long.

Pretty much the same length as the Bronco Sport. 

[Hugh]

Looks great! I like the interior a lot; clean and functional. I wonder if there's an HUD option?

[fuzzymoomoo]

2 hours ago, silvrsvt said:

 

Escort was only two-North America and Europe. IIRC the Lazer was the equivalent in Asia. 

China had a version of it for a while not that long ago. Not sure if they still do 

[jasonj80]

It looks really nice.

But all the people that must have remembered the disaster in marketing  between EU Fusion and NA Fusion must have been let go. Stupid Stupid Stupid Name choice. People will search Electric Explorer and see this and go they shrunk the Explorer it is too small. Then internet will be flooded with EU Explorer photos when they go to launch the new one. 

[silvrsvt]

32 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

China had a version of it for a while not that long ago. Not sure if they still do 

But we haven't had an Escort here since the late 1990s

 

29 minutes ago, jasonj80 said:

It looks really nice.

But all the people that must have remembered the disaster in marketing  between EU Fusion and NA Fusion must have been let go. Stupid Stupid Stupid Name choice. People will search Electric Explorer and see this and go they shrunk the Explorer it is too small. Then internet will be flooded with EU Explorer photos when they go to launch the new one. 

Eh I don't remember that being much of news back then...it was more about the Futura name with Pep Boys when it launched. 

Plus with the NA Explorer EV most likely being shown off in the next 12 months, I think the impact will be minimized.

[rmc523]

4 hours ago, Harley Lover said:

Need to see more non-PR pics:

 

2 hours ago, LSchicago said:

It would be a good Edge replacement here. 

 

Too small for that.

 

I wouldn't mind seeing something along these lines become our Escape since Ford is splitting things in the US/EU/ROW again, since we obviously won't get this exact product.

 

I know that Bronco Sport went the more blocky route, but this is definitely softer than BS inside and out, and I think the two could co-exist.

 

 

 

I honestly like the design.  It may not be anything crazy, but it's a good looking vehicle, IMO.  I tend to prefer cleaner designs to the origami surfacing everyone else is doing, though.

 

The visual creation of an Explorer cue thick C-pillar with the rectangles on top of the glass is a neat visual trick (you can see it in pictures 2 and 3 above - you can see through the rectangled portions.

[T-dubz]

The interior looks cool and I like that the screen can slide up and down. Exterior is meh. It’s not bad looking, but not very exciting either. It’s much better looking than the VW or the escape/kuga though. A different front end would probably do wonders for it (side and rear look pretty good)

Edited March 21, 2023 by T-dubz

[AM222]

1 hour ago, silvrsvt said:

Pretty much the same length as the Bronco Sport. 

Bronco Sport is 172.7 inches long.

[AM222]

1 hour ago, silvrsvt said:

 

File that under depends-the US will get some sort of C class BEV that isn't the Mach E in 2028 (I think?), but I also see no reason why Ford would support two different C sized BEV platforms either.

 

If the Escape EV replacement comes in 2028...that would give the MEB roughly 5 years of production before its replaced by a Ford platform, which would make more sense. 

Sadly,  it looks like an affordable EV SUV for the North America & Rest of the World is not important for Ford right now. 

[pffan1990]

I like it! It looks nice and fresh and the interior is really impressive! I missed the live reveal but did see the well-edited version of the reveal that's shown in the same YouTube link. I think it will do well in Europe. Surprised about the singular 'Explorer' name though. Looks like Ford is reverting back to the regional basis of sales with the naming, design, and packaging as they did before with Escort, Ranger, Focus, etc. As long as they do good enough marketing for the Explorer sub-branding, confusion should be kept to a minimum.

 

4 hours ago, passis said:

So plain and simple Explorer is how they are calling it. I would have spared such a strong name for a GE2 model and was expecting this to be called Explorer Sport, starting another family as happened to Bronco and Mustag.

 

I enjoyed its design a lot. Looking forward for more technical details and pricing.

 

Agreed about naming, which I think will still be the case with North American GE2 version. I like the design and the interior too. I think they will do good with this.

 

4 hours ago, silvrsvt said:

I agree with that, but you'll still have two different products competing in the same marketplace come 2025.

I don't ever recall Ford having three different products with the same name for sale worldwide. 

 

There were lots of Fords throughout the years that had two products with same names but I can't remember of any with three. I think the Explorer may be the first.

 

3 hours ago, silvrsvt said:

How about Explorer Edge? LOL

 

The Edge name came from the Ranger of all things. 

 

Sounds logical to me especially from marketing standpoint. There was also the F-Series from 1970s that had Explorer and Ranger trim lines before those two were later re-used as separate model names. The same with Ranger Edge, which was a nice sporty truck with monochromatic colors. The new Explorer EV is shorter than the Edge but Explorer Edge, if sold here, would be a good name for it. It likely won't so the singular Explorer name is good enough for Europe.

[GearheadGrrrl]

The Explorer name has a lot of brand equity, would make sense to turn it into a "sub brand" available in several sizes. That said, Ford is stupid to think they can keep the brands separate in US and EU- Too many of us follow the world press and travel for that to work. For example, a lot of immigrant truckers buy Volvos because of favorable experience with the brand in their countries of origin. As for the Fairlane and Galaxy brands, they are in recent or current use and should be easy for Ford to defend. Not that Ford lets any trademarks lapse- They're still licensing toy models of 2N tractors Ford hasn't built in 7 decades!

[silvrsvt]

2 hours ago, AM222 said:

Sadly,  it looks like an affordable EV SUV for the North America & Rest of the World is not important for Ford right now. 

Pricing will come in time-by 2030, there will be enough battery manufacturing capacity for 3/4 of all new car sales in North America. 
 

Not sure when we will see $25k entry level vehicles, but the sweet spot of 30-40k is coming in the next five years IMO. 

[twintornados]

6 hours ago, ice-capades said:

European-Spec 2023 Explorer is an EV with Volkswagon Bones

 

Good to see you @ice-capades....how ya been?

[bzcat]

This should be a very good and successful replacement for Focus. You can see how Ford has really made this its own despite using the MEB platfrom. 

 

Remember last year Farley said more Ford nameplates will become sub-brands? We thought it was a trial balloon to see if Escape EV will be named Explorer Sport (or something like that) but he really actually mean he will use the Explorer name on a bunch of different models.