A GIF of a Moveable Front-End Screen and Implications for the Product Characteristics of the European Ford EV Push
Though the Explorer majors much more on practicality, somehow Ford has managed to turn a fairly bluff front-end styling and generally boxy silhouette familiar to properly sensible family SUV into an attractive design. Ford, it turns out, was keen to avoid being boring—something that it was accused of by customer focus groups when the brand started to put plans for the Explorer together.
The company thinks the new electric Explorer may be better for dealing with outside glare because it has a 15-inch center touchscreen. The screen, which can move up and down, also conceals a built-in lockable storage space for valuables. Here’s a GIF of the movable screen:
It also needs to get a better handle on a number of quality issues that have plagued its EV push. The F-150 was recalled by Ford due to concerns about a battery problem. In 2022, Ford issued more recalls in America than any other automaker.
Those products include three new passenger vehicles, including a sport crossover with a range of 500km (311 miles) and an electric version of the company’s Ford Puma, a compact crossover that will go into production at the company’s plant in Craiova, Romania, in 2024.
Amko Leenarts, design director for Ford of Europe told WIRED that the boring bit from customers hurt them. Explorer is all about adventure. We decided that Explorer was not aggressive as we were a bit shy in celebrating that we are American. There’s a certain simplicity to the design, as we took away some lines that are distracting, and we really worked on the purity. Our feedback has suggested that the Explorer looks very gender-neutral to customers, too, which is hard to do—and we’re very pleased about.”
Despite the Explorers bold stance, the model is not intended to be brought to the USA.
“My American colleagues love it,” says Leenarts, “I wouldn’t design a car that the mothership doesn’t like. But it is very much a European product. We wanted it to be small and parkable for our customers. It is only a few centimeters longer than a Focus but it has more luggage space.
Practicality is a big thing with the Explorer. There’s a roomy three-person rear bench with through-loading, of course, and a boot with over 400 liters of space, but there’s also a big center storage area up front that’s large enough for a laptop. There’s also what the company describes as “a private locker” hidden behind the adjustable, 14.6-inch touchscreen.
The Motion of a Screen in the Ford Explorer EV and Its Effects on its Audio: A Proposal for a Tuned Audio System
Leenarts said the screen has a well-damped movement similar to the switches on an old hi-fi. We didn’t want it to be electric. We wanted it mechanical, with great resistance and damping to the movement. The feel of that screen movement is a visceral message that we wanted to send about the entire car.”
The Ford Explorer EV will get the company’s latest Sync Move software which will include voice recognition, intelligent charging, and over-the-air software updates. There’s also a soundbar that sits on top of the dash and has been designed “to look like a spaceship that’s landed on the dash.” But the actual audio, for now, will be supplied by Ford’s own speaker systems rather than any third-party companies.