Ford Explorer America Concept

The current edition of the Explorer has been a sales disappointment for Ford. It might be the best Explorer ever, but sales volume is no longer with body on frame designs. Riding to the rescue is the Ford Explorer America concept. The concept boasts a powertrain lineup that includes a 4-cylinder 2-liter engine with EcoBoost (formerly known as TwinForce) technology delivering 275 hp and 280 lb.-ft. of torque or, as a premium engine, a 3.5-liter V-6 delivering about 340 hp. Depending on engine selection, fuel-efficiency will improve by 20 to 30 percent versus today's V-6 Explorer.

I like the focus on better efficiency for these models. Certainly every manufacturer is going to be putting forth their best green efforts. I'm especially interesting in Honda's forthcoming diesel option for the next Pilot.

The exterior sort of has a "melting Pathfinder" look to it. Fast forward to when a tamed production version is produced and I don't know how much pop the design will have. That's okay though, no one needs to get crazy with any risky designs for a former heavy hitter like the Explorer. We don't need a repeat of the overly ovoid Taurus redesign from which the Taurus never really recovered.

I don't like this concept's instrument panel. What's with that big, green navigation pod / compass on the top of the dash? Ford describes navigation unit thusly:

"Future state of the art interpretation of a traditional yachting compass, displaying real time global positioning, 3D landscape, 3D weather forecasting from live Dopplers, 3D traffic visualization, destinations, urban and country terrain, by way of projected holographic imagery and "intelligent forecasting", for all the vehicle occupants to view."

Does it pinpoint where you get into a horrific accident after being distracted by all of that nonsense? I get it that it's an "Explorer", but this element looks too cheesy, Star Trekish for my tastes. Normally concepts' interiors make me wish that they'd build it as is, but in this case I hope they come to their senses. As for the clever, stacking seating arrangement, it looks efficient but how comfortable would those seats be?

My concern is what the new unit body construction of the next Explorer will do to the Explorer's towing capacity? It would seem that maintaining a high rating would be important. Ford already has soft roaders like the Escape, Edge, Taurus X and Flex. The Explorer has a lot of brand equity and Ford would be wise not to squander it like they did with the Taurus.