• Driving range of up to 374 miles
• Decent real-world efficiency
• Rivals charge faster

What are the running costs?

Explorers are set to start at just shy of £40,000 when the small battery model comes out, with the 77kWh model costing around £46,000. If you want four-wheel drive, it’ll cost you nearly £54,000 at the time of writing. A Skoda Enyaq or Renault Scenic is a cheaper purchase.

Running costs will at least be exceedingly cheap if you get the right electricity tariff or take advantage of free charging at work. The Explorer should be affordable as a company car thanks to emitting no carbon dioxide.

Range and charging

The most long-legged Explorer is the Extended Range RWD model. It has a maximum WLTP driving range of 374 miles – although we expect that figure will be much closer to 300 miles in the real world. The next most efficient is the Extended Range AWD (329-mile range), followed by the Standard Range (239-mile range).

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In our experience of the Explorer in normal conditions in the UK, you can get near 4.0 miles per kilowatt hour (mpk) in gentle urban driving, with faster roads dropping this to around 3.5. Use all of the performance and this tumbles further, just like in a regular petrol or diesel car.

The two Explorers available to buy now feature new lithium-ion batteries that can accept DC charging speeds of up to 185kW. A 10–80% charge for 77kWh unit takes 28 minutes, while the same charge on the 79kWh model takes 26 minutes. That’s competitive, but Tesla, Kia and Hyundai all boast even faster charging rates.

Servicing and maintenance

Ford still gives a stingy three-year or 60,000 mile warranty with its vehicles. This is disappointing as brands such as Hyundai, Kia and MG offer far longer warranty periods. The Explorer’s high voltage drive battery is at least covered for eight years or 100,000 miles.

Ford offers service plans that offer a discount and allow you to spread the cost out monthly if you wish. Expect costs to be lower than a petrol, diesel or hybrid car because electric cars are simpler.

Reliability

• Too new to comment at this stage
• Although it’s based on tried and tested mechanicals
• Electric cars have fewer things to go wrong

It’s too early to comment on the Explorer’s reliability, so do share your experiences in our owner’s reviews section. We’d hope the proven Volkswagen mechanicals should give the Explorer a good start, and as electric cars are nowhere near as mechanically complex those with engines, there should be less to go wrong. We’d also point out that the Explorer’s interface proved glitch-free unlike some rivals.