Better looking than the Capri and built for family life, the AWD Explorer is a fast, premium EV. But in a market flooded with cheaper rivals, does Ford’s solid all-rounder still do enough to justify its price tag? Our man takes a look.

Ford Explorer Premium AWD

List price (BiK): £53,920 (4%)  Economy: 323 miles  Test efficiency: 260 miles

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Monday

After revisiting the Ford Capri EV the other week, it’s another week of refamiliarising myself with another of Ford’s electric range – this time the Explorer. The last Explorer I drove was a RWD model, whereas this one is the AWD version with four-wheel drive and 340hp to deliver 0-62mph in 5.3 seconds – we’ll come to this figure later in this look at the Ford.

Tuesday

Personal preference means I am much more drawn to the looks of the Explorer than its closely related Capri sister. I’m just not a fan of the Capri’s fastback rear-end, whereas the Explorer is a more practical and traditional SUV shape, which certainly helped today when picking up a new office chair for company boss and chief tea-maker (me). It fitted easily in the Ford’s boot with one side of the rear seat folded.

Wednesday

The Explorer arrived with around 85% charge, which equated to around 260 miles with a full battery. Having covered around 120 miles so far this week, the charge level is now down to just over 30%, so 200 miles seems realistic for driving between 20 and 80% charge. Hooking up the Explorer at the local park-and-ride chargers this evening was a pain as I got to the fifth charger before one worked.

Thursday

Ford has done its best to plaster over the Volkswagen bits that its Explorer is based on, but the infotainment screen and its controls give the game away. It’s not as slick as the one in the Ford Puma Gen-E that I tested recently and, please, just give us physical buttons for the heating and stereo. Also, I’m not a huge fan of the gear selector, which is a criticism aimed at many EVs, not just this Ford.

Friday

I mentioned performance earlier in the week and this Explorer claims 0-62mph in 5.3 seconds. Honestly, why does a family SUV have to be that rapid? Three times now my wife has made an involuntary noise as I’ve gone to pull out onto a busy roundabout or from a junction. The power take-up is smooth, but driving a Changan Deepal S07 this week, which takes 7.5 seconds for the same metric, felt more in tune with this type of vehicle.

Saturday

The Explorer has a solidly built and comfortable cabin, with plenty of room for those in the front and back seats, so it works well as a family car. From just the driver’s perspective, I’m still completely unconvinced by the ‘squircle’ steering wheel dictated by the rectangular dash display. A proper circular steering wheel is just much more natural and pleasant to work with.

Sunday

The Ford Explorer is a thoroughly decent electric SUV with one glaring hurdle to overcome nowadays. Since it was launched, there has been an influx of much lower-cost rivals, notably from Chinese brands, that are as good to drive and offer similar or better battery range. In isolation, the Explorer is good, but in comparison it is now little more than an also-ran.