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2025 Ford Explorer Uses S650 Mustang’s All-New 2.3L EcoBoost

When it debuted in early February, we learned just about everything there is to know about the refreshed 2025 Ford Explorer, which features quite a few notable changes. Those include the typical mid-cycle actions such as a mild exterior makeover, some interior tweaks – and, perhaps most notably, the deletion of the outgoing model’s hybrid powertrain for retail customers. That leaves the 2025 Ford Explorer with just two engine options, but one of them is actually newer than one may think.

The base engine option for the 2025 Ford Explorer is once again the turbocharged 2.3L I-4 EcoBoost, but it’s the new version of that particular powerplant that made its debut in the 2024 Ford Mustang, a nifty factoid the Ford Explorer team revealed to Ford Authority during a recent media drive event.

This revised engine utilizes Ford’s Modular Power Cylinder (MPC) Engine Architecture, with features including a dual fuel system, port fuel injection, and a 350 bar direct injection setup designed to optimize performance, fuel efficiency, and reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, the revamped 2.3L I-4 EcoBoost gets a new, twin scroll, low-inertia turbocharger with a high speed electronic wastegate, compact variable cam timing (VCT), an integrated air induction system, and an integrated hot side exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system.

With The Blue Oval having completed its quality checks on the refreshed 2025 Ford Explorer, the updated model has already begun populating dealer lots. In addition to the typical exterior styling revisions, an interior redo, and the addition of the brand new Ford Digital Experience software, the 2025 Ford Explorer also contains four very cool little Easter eggs worth hunting for, as Ford Authority previously reported. On top of that, much of the 2025 Explorer lineup is also cheaper than the outgoing model, with a couple of exceptions, and it has added a new exterior color to its palette – Vapor Blue Metallic.

We’ll have more on the 2025 Ford Explorer soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford Explorer news and comprehensive Ford news updates.

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.

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Comments

  1. The 2025 Explorer cheaper than the 2024 is a numbers game untruth

    Reply
  2. Would be very interested in a ’26 Explorer assuming that the Hybrid option would be offered next year. I do, however, like the upgrades to the ’25 model.

    Reply
    1. Any guess as to MPG of 2025 Hybrid Explorer?

      Reply
  3. What transmission does the Ford 2025 Explorer utilize?

    Reply
  4. Like it..but should have got rid of problemated direct injection…..and went standard with port injection….not the complicated port and direction to keep intake valves clean…by going all port…you elimate a consistent problem…and a few recalls…….and after reading Fords lastest profit numbers that were hampered by all the warranty problems….they need to work fast..

    Reply

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