Photo: KDesign AG/Behance
The second largest Detroit automaker is doing great when considering the first-quarter U.S. auto sales for 2023 and not the $3 billion loss of its dedicated EV division for the entire year.
For example, during the first three months of the year, the namesake Ford brand accelerated right to the top and became the highest-selling marque in America – all thanks to various increases in truck, van, SUV, and EV deliveries. More to the point, even the lonely Mustang passenger car moved past the Dodge Challenger after losing the sports car crown in 2022 – in turn, of course, the Camaro was dead last, all over again.
Anyway, the heavy lifting was done by the pickup trucks – not just the eternal F-Series but also the little Maverick, which retained its popularity crown in the unibody compact space despite everyone (Hyundai Santa Cruz and Honda Ridgeline) posting improvements over the same period last year. But that is in the United States. Moving across the pond (aka the Atlantic Ocean), we find the European unit ready to embrace electrification as if the $3 billion projected losses are just a trifle matter. Alas, they do have a secret.
That would be their ongoing partnership with Volkswagen, which allowed the Blue Oval company to create an all-new, first-ever fully electric Ford Explorer SUV on the backbones of the dedicated Volkswagen Group MEB architecture. And it’s promised to be cheaper than the popular Mustang Mach-E, so it should sell a lot better. Anyway, that certainly attracted a lot of attention towards the new Explorer EV commodity – both in the real world as well as across the imaginative realm of digital car content creators.
A good case in point about the latter parallel universe could be made by Kleber Silva, the Brazil-based virtual artist known as KDesign AG on social media, who has decided to have a CGI go at imagining the Ford-VW collaboration for MEB-inspired EVs could take more forms than it already has. He started with the Explorer EV and turned it into a compact unibody compact truck – a wonderful way to blend the Maverick success with the MEB platform, if ever real.
Now there are two new hypothetical members of the Ford-MEB family, though, and they are both quite enticing. Seeing how the European Ford Explorer EV is a kindred spirit with the Volkswagen ID.4, it would not be hard to assume that Blue Oval aficionados might want an Americanized VW ID.5 coupe-SUV, as well, so the pixel master quickly imagined the unofficial arrival of the Ford Explorer EV Coupe. And it does not even look too bad, at all. But wait, as there is more digital MEB love.
As such, the CGI expert quickly retconned the recent Volkswagen ID. 2all concept into something that could make the Cologne, Germany factory employees happy again – an MEB-based Ford Fiesta ST with a fully electric powertrain. Interestingly, it could probably bode well for the brooding EV family as the new Explorer EV is also made at the same plant that in the past was manufacturing the supermini hatchback. So, do we give them our CGI hall pass – both individually and as a whole – or should Ford take its VW-MEB partnership a little slower?
Anyway, the heavy lifting was done by the pickup trucks – not just the eternal F-Series but also the little Maverick, which retained its popularity crown in the unibody compact space despite everyone (Hyundai Santa Cruz and Honda Ridgeline) posting improvements over the same period last year. But that is in the United States. Moving across the pond (aka the Atlantic Ocean), we find the European unit ready to embrace electrification as if the $3 billion projected losses are just a trifle matter. Alas, they do have a secret.
That would be their ongoing partnership with Volkswagen, which allowed the Blue Oval company to create an all-new, first-ever fully electric Ford Explorer SUV on the backbones of the dedicated Volkswagen Group MEB architecture. And it’s promised to be cheaper than the popular Mustang Mach-E, so it should sell a lot better. Anyway, that certainly attracted a lot of attention towards the new Explorer EV commodity – both in the real world as well as across the imaginative realm of digital car content creators.
A good case in point about the latter parallel universe could be made by Kleber Silva, the Brazil-based virtual artist known as KDesign AG on social media, who has decided to have a CGI go at imagining the Ford-VW collaboration for MEB-inspired EVs could take more forms than it already has. He started with the Explorer EV and turned it into a compact unibody compact truck – a wonderful way to blend the Maverick success with the MEB platform, if ever real.
Now there are two new hypothetical members of the Ford-MEB family, though, and they are both quite enticing. Seeing how the European Ford Explorer EV is a kindred spirit with the Volkswagen ID.4, it would not be hard to assume that Blue Oval aficionados might want an Americanized VW ID.5 coupe-SUV, as well, so the pixel master quickly imagined the unofficial arrival of the Ford Explorer EV Coupe. And it does not even look too bad, at all. But wait, as there is more digital MEB love.
As such, the CGI expert quickly retconned the recent Volkswagen ID. 2all concept into something that could make the Cologne, Germany factory employees happy again – an MEB-based Ford Fiesta ST with a fully electric powertrain. Interestingly, it could probably bode well for the brooding EV family as the new Explorer EV is also made at the same plant that in the past was manufacturing the supermini hatchback. So, do we give them our CGI hall pass – both individually and as a whole – or should Ford take its VW-MEB partnership a little slower?
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