GEN Z'S GEN-E (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

The Puma GEN-E could hardly be more crucial to Ford. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 40

So much of Ford's European profitability over the next few years hangs on this car, the Puma GEN-E. It's the Blue Oval brand's first properly car-like small electric model and it certainly looks likely to shake up its market segment.

Backgroundword count: 133

Ford desperately needs an affordable full-electric vehicle that will sell in large numbers. That's if it's to get anywhere near the government's EV mandate that penalises car makers with increasing severity if they don't sell enough electric vehicles. And this at last is it, the Puma GEN-E. Unlike the Blue Oval maker's larger EVs, which borrow Volkswagen technology (the Explorer, the Capri and even - to some extent - the Mustang Mach-E), the Puma GEN-E is entirely Ford's own work. It's produced alongside the combustion Puma at the company's Craiova plant in Romania and, like the company's other small passenger EV the E-Tourneo Courier, sits on a B-car platform primarily designed for combustion models. Ford really ought to have got this full-battery Puma to market sooner; was it worth the wait? Let's see.

Engines and Tech Specword count: 284

Astonishingly, Ford doesn't have a vehicle platform purpose-designed for electric vehicles. Which is why it borrows Volkswagen's MEB chassis for its larger EVs. And is why it's had to modify a combustion-based B-car platform for this Puma GEN-E. The same underpinnings then, that are used for the combustion Puma, but heavily modified to take a floor-mounted battery. It's hardly an optimum approach and it explains why this GEN-E doesn't have as large a battery (and therefore as great an operating range) as Ford and some of its customers might have liked. In the end, the engineers got a 43kWh pack to fit, offering a range of up to 234 miles. To give you some perspective, Stellantis fits a 54kWh battery to its various similarly-sized small EV crossovers (Jeep Avenger/Peugeot E-2008/Vauxhall Mokka Electric etc); in the Avenger, that delivers a 249 mile range. It's worth pointing out that the 234 mile figure we quoted for this Puma falls to 226 miles with the bigger-wheeled 'Premium' spec most will want. But Ford points out that even that is 33 miles more than a comparably priced MINI Aceman E. And the Stellantis models just mentioned won't match this GEN-E for engaging drive dynamics. Ah yes, the drive dynamics; unlike with the Explorer and the Capri, there's no undue VW influence here, which is a good thing in this case. Just a single front-mounted motor (made at Ford's Halewood site) generating 166bhp and capable of propelling this Puma to 62mph in 8.0s (only 0.6s behind the sporty petrol Puma ST) en route to a governed 99mph top speed. That's helped by a reasonable 1,563kg kerb weight and 290Nm of torque, which will punt the car around town nicely.

To see the full road test text contact us on 0330 0020 227