2025 Ford Explorer.
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The Ford Explorer got a pretty heavy refresh for the 2025 model year.
Of course, they couldn’t resist making the front grille even larger than ever. Which is pretty sad and, to me, ruins the whole front end. The previous grille was nice and cohesive with the rest of the design. The new one is just the opposite.
It’s another story inside, where the goofy-looking vertical tablet is gone, and replaced by a more conventional horizontal 13.2-inch screen. Although that screen seems to have a super thick bezel and doesn’t look very modern. Again, this is too bad. The rest of the dashboard seems to be a big improvement over the previous version, and not as crazy as the Chinese version (bottom pic) with its super widescreen.
It’s interesting to see that Ford has just decided to import the new Lincoln Nautilus from China with apparently zero changes to its interior. They designed 2 specific interior versions of the Explorer for the US and Chinese markets. I guess since the Nautilus is only built in China from now on, 2 different designs would have been problematic and costly to produce…
Engine choices are still the 2.3 Liter Turbo or the optional 3.0 Liter V6 Turbo. There will be no Hybrid version for 2025, which is a bit weird these days.
While the current Explorer has been quite popular, with over 183,000 of them sold last year alone, it is quite pricey, now starting at $41 200.
Which is more than most of its completion. The Kia Telluride starts at a lot less, from $36 200. So does the Hyundai Palisade at $36 650. (Both of these will have an all-new design for 2025 as well). The Honda Pilot starts at $ 37,100. The new Mazda CX-90 is at $ 39,600. Only the new Toyota Grand Highlander seems to be more expensive at over $ 43,000 to start, although it is also much roomier.
I am not sure how to explain the eExplorer’s popularity at these prices since it is more expensive than almost all of its competition. And I don’t remember ever reading fantastically glowing reviews of it. Good for Ford, I guess?
I haven’t heard of an all-new next-generation Explorer being developed. Since most new products will be EVs in a few years, it seems the revised Explorer will have to do until a new 3-row Ford EV is ready. This could take a couple of years, and by then it will compete with Toyota’s upcoming larger EV SUV produced in the US starting in 2025 or 2026.
Just scrap it and start over. Enough is enough.
okay the screen is to large in the Chinese one, but other than that, and well the akward looking steering wheel cover thing, it looks more upscale… looks like an attack against the Mazda CX-9/90…. to bad they didn’t use a screen like that, but cut down by a 1/3 and that interior… why does it seem Chinese get better products?
I do like the changes that were made for this refresh. The interior needed some love and got it. The price increases are absolutely ridiculous though. The pre-facelift models started at $36k plus destination charge. Now they are starting at $39k plus destination. As for a next generation model, it’s probably too early for you to have heard anything about it. Explorer models have had long shelf lives, if you can recall, the previous generation lasted 8 years. This one seems to also be going in that direction.
For the interior I feel like they should have just taken the Chinese layout and give it a smaller screen and called it a day. Why do temperature controls need to be buried in a screen, just give a nice silver toggle for the driver and passenger and they did that in the Chinese layout. The North American model just looks cheap like a rental grade interior.