LONDON: Ford Motor Co. unveiled its first Europe-made electric sport utility vehicle, leveraging one of its most prized nameplates and Volkswagen AG underpinnings for a model it’s expecting to deliver a much-needed boost to sales in the region.
The Explorer SUV features a movable 14.6-inch touchscreen that drivers can slide up and down to open and close storage space.
Ford will build it at the EV campus in Cologne, Germany, where it’s invested US$1 billion as part of broader plans to transition its European passenger car lineup entirely to electric models by the end of the decade.
Ford reached a deal with VW in 2019 to license the modular electric architecture the German automaker uses for its ID.4 electric SUV, which went into production the following year. The Explorer will be one of two electric models built off what VW calls the MEB platform, with the US manufacturer expecting volume of 1.2 million vehicles over the next six years.
Ford announced plans last month to dismiss some 11% of its workforce in Europe, with most of the 3,800 job cuts hitting operations in Germany and the UK.
Chief executive officer Jim Farley has set a target to slash US$2.5 billion of costs this year while spending US$50 billion by 2026 to develop and build battery-powered models.
The Explorer was a best-seller during the initial SUV boom of the 1990s and one of Ford’s most profitable vehicles.
It gave way to more fuel-efficient crossovers built with car underpinnings and was eclipsed years ago within the automaker’s own lineup by the smaller and lighter Escape.
