Ford's all-electric Explorer passenger car has had a surprising refresh as a commercial vehicle. The new Ford Explorer Van will be available in the Ford Pro commercial vehicle range after a customer request has seen their in-house specialists produce a bespoke conversion of the electric SUV.
One of Ford's customers approached them with a request for the commercial van version of the Explorer as the Ford E-Transit Courier wasn't quite hitting the mark for them with its total range. They also weren't fully using the E-Transit Courier's dimensions which gave them nearly 3m3 of cargo volume.
With 1460 litres of loadspace (1.46m3) for the SUV when the rear seats are folded, the Ford Explorer Van dimensions means that it will instead give them roughly half the loadspace of the Courier van, but with an estimated 650kg payload. That's just fractionally less than the carrying capacity of the battery electric Courier van.
More importantly, though, for the customer was the range, with the Ford Explorer capable of up to 375 miles according to the WLTP test cycle, compared to the claimed 181-mile range of the electric Courier.
The Explorer commercial van is made in-house by Ford Pro's specialist commercial vehicle converters in Dagenham, who have done all the necessary modifications to allow the vehicle to meet the N1 criteria for being classed as a true commercial van.
That means removing the rear seats, permanently disabling the mounting points, and creating opaque rear windows.
Like the passenger car, the Ford Explorer Van will also be available as both rear-wheel-drive and an all-wheel-drive model, increasing the potential audience for the new Explorer commercial by attracting 4x4 customers who have previously had only limited choice from other manufacturers like the similar Skoda Enyaq Cargo conversion, or had to buy a pick-up truck like the Ford Ranger. Although, Ford has also just added four-wheel-drive to the E-Transit Custom range.
Read the Ford E-Transit Custom AWD review
Orders have so far been only on a fleet basis, but the new Ford Explorer Van will be on display at the CV Show in Birmingham next month, where Ford will be closely monitoring interest. We can expect it to officially hit the price list later in the year, assuming there's interest to carry it on.
