The electric Ford Explorer is one of the most anticipated SUVs in Europe. Its conception and development, executed for the Old Continent, make it one of the most promising vehicles. Ford has announced a significant delay in the arrival of the electric Explorer. Presented at the end of last March, the zero-emission SUV promised to start its mass production at the end of this summer. Specifically, there was talk of a start at the beginning of September, to execute the first deliveries to customers at the beginning of next 2024. However, the dates will not finally be these and the delay will be several months.
Specifically, as published by the German media Kölnische Rundschau, the delay will be around six months. In their report, they say that on August 10, Ford announced this delay to the workers at the Cologne, Germany plant, where the electric SUV will be manufactured. This plant was inaugurated last June 2023 as the Colonia Electric Vehicle Center and was presented as one of the most sustainable plants in the automotive sector, due to the clean obtaining and use of energy.
The initial plan was to start construction and assembly work in Cologne after the workers enjoyed their summer vacation. However, this important change in dates will delay the entire process by half a year, so its production start will presumably take place at the beginning of 2024 and deliveries will be delayed until next summer. That is, there would still be almost a year to see the first units of the Ford Explorer on the streets.
According to the aforementioned German media, Ford has reported the reason without going into detail. He talks about having to make relevant modifications in terms of security, due to the new regulations that will soon come into force at the international level. However, in the statement, they do not mention more details about what specific modifications or explicit regulations are involved.
From Kölnische Rundschau they affirm that the European Union will make some additional security and assistance systems mandatory for all newly homologated vehicles from 2024. But, the announcement of this regulation was made on July 6, 2022, so Ford You would already be aware of these requirements, so this reason does not quite add up.
Until now, the North American brand had been collecting non-binding requests and reservations for the electric Explorer since last April, just after the car’s international launch. That is, the people who had signed the acquisition of this vehicle at that time will have to wait almost a year and a half to obtain their model. An expectation that many have already classified as “exaggerated”.
Let’s remember that the electric Ford Explorer takes its base from the well-known MEB platform of the Volkswagen Group, as well as some of its mechanical elements, such as motors and batteries, although the brand has not yet given specific details or specifications for them. They did affirm that it will have fast charging and will be able to go from 10 to 80% after just 25 minutes of plugging in. According to indications, the North American company would have set an access price of around 45,000 euros, although this will not be official until its start of production, already in 2024.
