Following its launch in Europe last year, the Ford Explorer EV has found some success on the sales charts, even as demand for electric vehicles, in general, has thus far lingered behind expected levels. In fact, the Ford Explorer EV wound up making the list of the top 25 best-selling electric vehicles in Europe in February, ranking 22nd in that particular month, and it followed that up by moving up to 19th among the top 25 choices in that same region in March. Now, with April in the proverbial rear-view mirror, we’re learning that the all-electric Explorer continues to rank among the top sellers.
According to new data from JATO Dynamics, the Ford Explorer continued its climb up the European EV sales charts by ranking 15th this time around after recording 3,526 sales in April. It’s a strong result for the Explorer EV, even as overall EV sales increased by 17 percent year-over-year to 184,213 units, though the overall market remained largely stable. European consumers purchased a total of 1,078,521 new vehicles last month – a mere 1,399 more than a year prior. Year-to-date, European new car sales totalled 4,467,681 units, or just 6,560 more than the the first four months of 2024.
Interestingly, tariffs imposed by Europe on Chinese EVs earlier this year didn’t have much of an impact on those models in April, as sales increased by a whopping 59 percent year-over-year, growing to 15,300 units.
“While the electric vehicle segment was a bright spot for Europe’s new passenger car market last month, these gains were offset by significant declines among ICE vehicles. EV sales need to grow much faster to have a genuine impact on the wider European car market,” said Felipe Munoz, Global Analyst at JATO Dynamics. “China is not only the world leader in BEVs; its automakers are global leaders in plug-in hybrid vehicles too. To gain traction in Europe, its carmakers have responded to the threat posed by tariffs by focusing on other powertrains, such as plug-in hybrids, to maintain the momentum behind their global expansion plans.”
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Jim Farley has really screwed the pooch. How many Fusion, Focus, Fiesta and Edge sales have been lost to other OEMs because of their cancelations? What “entry” level vehicles does Ford have? Once a young buyer purchases a KIA, Hyundai, Suburu, Honda or Toyota, they won’t be back to try a Ford. I can’t believe Bill Ford has gone along with these idiotic decisions, but Bill has shown us over the years that he’s not the brightest bulb on the tree. Most salesmen at my Ford store are upset about that and the fact that Farley has gotten rid of the Keypad on the door. Ford’s biggest product differentiator and they dump it. So shortsided or should I say, stupid?