Ford has confirmed that there won’t be a 2024 Explorer Hybrid—however the mannequin hasn’t precisely been canceled both.
Ford product communications director Mike Levine, in a response to Inexperienced Automobile Experiences, confirmed that the Explorer Hybrid isn’t occurring for 2024. The choice will liberate hybrid capability for a really specialised market: police responsibility.
“To satisfy continued sturdy demand for the Ford Police Interceptor Utility hybrid and different Ford hybrid automobiles, the 2024 mannequin 12 months Explorer will solely be supplied with the gas environment friendly 2.3-liter four-cylinder EcoBoost, which gives as much as an EPA-estimated 24 mpg mixed gas economic system, and the three.0-liter EcoBoost V6,” wrote Levine. “These two engines account for almost all of Explorer gross sales.”
2020 Ford Interceptor Utility Hybrid
Ford had already dropped some clues that the electrified Explorer may drop out of the combo. The Hybrid had been omitted from consumer-side 2024 data, in addition to in Ford’s car construct instrument, the place it had been included in earlier mannequin years.
The Ford Explorer Hybrid was launched for the 2020 mannequin 12 months and packaged a 44-hp electrical motor system on the enter shaft of a 10-speed automated transmission, with a 3.3-liter V-6 engine and a disconnect clutch between engine and motor/transmission, altogether making 318 hp. Within the Hybrid, there’s a 1.5-kwh liquid-cooled battery packaged underneath the rear seat.
Even earlier than the unique launch of the Explorer Hybrid, it was confirmed for Interceptor police responsibility—wherein the hybrid system can assist energy all the additional gear legislation enforcement depends on.
2021 Lincoln Aviator Grand Touring
For civilians, the Explorer isn’t the one one to lose a hybrid possibility. The 2024 Lincoln Aviator additionally isn’t returning with its Grand Touring plug-in hybrid grade, the Ford luxurious model confirmed final week. The Aviator Grand Touring paired a model of the identical powertrain, producing a mixed 494 hp delivered to all 4 wheels and providing simply 21 miles of EPA-rated electrical vary from its 13.6-kwh battery pack. After operating by its cost, it supplied an EPA mixed 23 mpg.
2020 Ford Explorer Hybrid – First Drive – Portland OR, June 2019
The Ford Explorer Hybrid has at all times been a bit underwhelming if mileage was a precedence. Ford made clear from the beginning that the Explorer Hybrid was positioned extra for hauling and towing—and a substitute for a much bigger engine—than as an possibility aiming for top mpg, just like the 36-mpg Toyota Highlander. In a Ford Explorer Hybrid overview, Inexperienced Automobile Experiences discovered it to typically be tough in its transitions when pushed frivolously and at low velocity however a lot smoother underneath load and when pushed rapidly. At the moment, Ford engineers defined to Inexperienced Automobile Experiences that they labored backwards from buyer expectations for the gasoline Explorer and the necessity to tow 5,000 kilos and keep off-road skill.
2021 Ford F-150 Hybrid
A model of the system is used within the Ford F-150 hybrid. There, badged Powerboost, it makes 430 hp altogether, together with a extra highly effective 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 and, from what Inexperienced Automobile Experiences has famous, higher drivability and smoothness.
Whereas the Explorer is a five-passenger, two-row SUV, with no three-row possibility, there are different choices coming. Between the Explorer and bigger Navigator, Ford has hinted that an upcoming electrical seven-passenger SUV is about to reach in 2025, with a spread of 300 miles at 70 mph achieved with a battery of round 100 kwh.