Explorer's New Look Under Wraps

Ford unveiled this concept in 2008, but the automaker says the design has changed since then. The new Ford Explorer is to launch in January. (FORD)

The most important vehicle Ford hasn't been talking about is the next generation of its once-dominant Ford Explorer SUV.

Ford plans to launch its new Explorer in January -- about the same time as its all-new, highly publicized Focus compact car, a vehicle Ford unveiled last month.

But it has been more than two years since Ford revealed an early concept called Explorer America, and Ford says the design has changed since then, raising questions about what the new model will look like.

Ford didn't show the new Explorer to employees in January, when the company announced it would be built at the Chicago Assembly Plant, and the Dearborn automaker barely talked about it during the Chicago Auto Show last week.

"They just want to keep people concentrating on the Focus and Fiesta" -- two small, fuel-efficient cars -- said Haig Stoddard, automotive analyst for IHS Global Insight.

Sales of the Explorer, and midsize SUVs on the whole, are a shadow of what they were 10 years ago, but Ford is still banking on the Explorer to boost sales. "It's another piece of the puzzle for our company to get back to profitably growing," said Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas.

Excited about Explorer

Ford hopes its all-new Explorer can repeat history and again redefine how a midsize SUV looks and drives.

Ford says the next-generation Explorer, set to go on sale by year's end or early next year, will still be an SUV -- even though it will be built on a car structure rather than on a rigid truck structure. It also will have a driving performance that matches today's crossover vehicles.

"What we are trying to do with the new Explorer is turn the midsize SUV segment on its head," Fields told the Free Press after Ford announced it will build the Explorer at its Chicago Assembly Plant.

There, Ford will build the Explorer on the same structure as the Ford Taurus and Lincoln MKS sedans.

Fields said the new Explorer will have enough towing capacity to satisfy traditional SUV buyers -- perhaps 5,000 pounds or more -- and will get gas mileage that is 25% better than the outgoing Explorer, which gets a combined 17 m.p.g., according to the U.S. EPA.

"We've got a lot of brand equity with Explorer, and it is up to us to live up to brand expectations," Fields said.



Explorer's burden
When Ford launched the Explorer in the 1990s, the company redefined the midsize SUV segment.

The Explorer was the best-selling midsize SUV from 1995 to 2004 in the U.S., according to J.D. Power and Associates, with sales peaking at 431,488 in 1998. But a Firestone tire recall on the Explorer in 2000, volatile gas prices and the introduction of a new type of vehicle -- the crossover -- took their toll on SUVs.

Explorer sales fell to 52,190 last year, and the entire midsize SUV segment barely topped 280,000, according to J.D. Power and Associates.

Meanwhile, crossovers like GMC Acadia, Toyota Highlander and the Ford Edge have emerged, topping sales of 690,000 in 2009.

Still, Stoddard expects annual sales of the next-generation Explorer to top 130,000 annually.

"It won't sell like the Explorer used to, but it should still be a profitable vehicle for them," Stoddard said.

Is 5,000 pounds enough?
Devin Lindsay, analyst for IHS Global Insight, expects the new Explorer to have a smaller engine and lower towing capacity than the current model.

Gone, Lindsay said, will be the optional V8 engine with a towing capacity of 8,500 pounds. Instead, Lindsay expects the Explorer will come with a 3.5-liter V6 or a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder EcoBoost engine.

During the Chicago Auto Show, Fields confirmed that Ford plans to offer a fuel-efficient turbocharged four-cylinder engine when the Explorer goes on sale. Fields said the engine should improve fuel economy 15%.

Derrick Kuzak, Ford's group vice president of global product development, said Ford can produce an SUV on a car frame with more than adequate towing capacity.

"When you start getting over 5,000 pounds ..., you have covered almost 80% of the needs of the U.S. customer," said Kuzak, who added that he wasn't confirming the Explorer's actual towing capacity.

Ford has said little about the next Explorer. The last time Ford showed what the next Explorer might look like was in 2008 when the Explorer America concept was shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

But J Mays, Ford's vice president of design, said during an interview at this year's Detroit auto show that the new Explorer "doesn't look exactly like that."

"Don't expect the Explorer America concept," he said.

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