It will also have brilliant range.
Ford has shed some more light on its upcoming three-row electric SUV at the company's latest Investor Day, and it looks like the vehicle could set new benchmarks for performance when it arrives. That's the conclusion that can be drawn from CEO Jim Farley and chief officer of EVs and digital systems, Doug Field.
According to Fox News, the two men described the SUV as a "personal bullet train," and they even went as far as showing a picture of a three-row SUV's cabin inside the shape of an actual bullet train to drive home the message.
Ford will need to do more than just deliver a quick electric SUV. Almost every new EV can claim to have snappy performance.
Although it will be about the size of the Ford Expedition, the company clarified that the new three-row EV will not replace this vehicle.
Ford will aim the new three-row electric SUV at a different clientele, which is why it will be sold alongside the Expedition.
"We could've converted an Expedition into an EV, but it wouldn't have made for a very good EV and it wouldn't have made for a very good Expedition," explained Field. He said that the electric SUV will be "beautiful and [unlike] anything in the segment so far. It'll be a longer, sleeker, quieter vehicle with amazing size and features [in the] interior space."
Field said that a range of 350 miles per charge in a mix of city and highway driving will be achievable with the 100 kilowatt-hour battery. On the highway where EVs typically take a dive in efficiency, the electric Ford will be able to cover 300 miles at 70 mph.
This leaves the gas-powered Expedition to continue providing customers the option of a large SUV that can manage a large family and towing over long distances. If it had been converted to an EV, it simply would've required a battery that would have made it too big and heavy.
Of course, this doesn't mean that a competent EV can't be built on the same basic platform as a gas car. The BMW i4 and nearly identical-looking 4 Series Gran Coupe both share the same Cluster Architecture, for instance. But pulling off the same trick with a large SUV is more challenging, which explains why three-row SUVs are still so rare.
Kia's EV9 is on the way, but the Korean marque has emphasized interior versatility and spaciousness over outright performance in this vehicle.
The three-row electric Ford SUV will be capable of adding 150 miles of range in just 10 minutes at a compatible fast-charging station. As for its official name, that is still a mystery, but Ford said it would go on sale in 2025. That same year, Ford plans to begin production of its next-generation electric pickup that forms part of the so-called Project T3.
Both Project T3 and the new electric three-row SUV will see significant shifts in how Ford produces and sells its EVs. Ford needs to simplify production processes to lower costs as its EV division struggles to attain profitability. In the USA, the Blue Oval could also adopt the fixed-price sales model that it introduced in Europe, a change that was made because EV buyers have an entirely new approach to the car-buying process.
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