The Ford Capri is back, but not in a form you’ll immediately recognise.
When it first appeared in 1969, the original Capri was dubbed “the car you always promised yourself”, and it was a handsomely striking sports coupe designed to bring affordable style and performance to European car-buyers. It was produced across three generations, and by the time the nameplate was finally put out to pasture in 1986, the Capri had become a British automotive icon.
Update: Since this article was first published, we've had the opportunity to drive the new Ford Capri. Read our full review of the new Ford Capri here.
It could be seen as slightly controversial, then, that the company has decided to reprise the nameplate for an all-new electric SUV. Such sacrilege is sure to have the purists percolating, you can guarantee. You’re unlikely to see Bodie and Doyle tearing down an alleyway in one, knocking over dustbins willy-nilly as they go, then, but could the new Capri be the electric SUV your family has been waiting for? Here’s what we know so far…
2024 Ford Capri: Price, specs and release date
- 2024 Ford Capri: styling and dimensions
- 2024 Ford Capri: interior design and practicality
- 2024 Ford Capri: batteries, motors and drive
- 2024 Ford Capri: specifications
- 2024 Ford Capri: price and release date
2024 Ford Capri: styling and dimensions
Ford states that the idea behind the new all-electric Ford Capri is for it to be ‘a sports car for the family’. So, while that meant that the original Capri’s coupe body had to be traded for a roomier crossover-type one, the steeply angled windscreen and a roofline that slopes down towards the rear of the car do make it look a little more rakish than your average SUV.
You might notice a nod to the original in the design of the LED headlights, too, each of which gets a two-element light signature. There’s no grille on the front end - there often isn’t with electric vehicles - with a glossy black panel running between the headlights instead.
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Down the side of the new car, there’s a strong shoulder line that runs dead straight almost from nose to tail, with another more subtle crease beneath, running through the front and rear door handles. At the rear end, you’ll find more gloss black panelling running between the narrow LED rear light strips, sitting below that tapering roofline. To our eye, the notchback-like shape of the rear end is rather reminiscent of the Polestar 2, another electric coupe-SUV.
Frozen White is the only paint colour provided as standard; you’ll pay an extra £800 for Agate Black, Magnetic Grey, Lucid Red, the Vivid Yellow seen in our pictures, and cringingly named Blue My Mind.
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In terms of dimensions, the new Capri is 4,634mm long, 2,016 mm wide (1,946mm with door mirrors folded) and 1,626mm tall. The wheelbase is given at 2,767mm.
2024 Ford Capri: interior design and practicality
Much of what you’ll find inside the Capri has already been seen in the new Ford Explorer, another all-electric midsize SUV recently introduced by the company, albeit a rather boxier one.
You get the same huge storage area in the central partition between the front seats that Ford has chosen to call the ‘MegaConsole’. Terrible name, but it does give you a whopping 17 litres of covered storage.
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You’ll also find the same 14.6-inch SYNC Move central infotainment touchscreen, which has connected navigation, a soundbar speaker system, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and wireless phone charging. It looks fab, but in the Explorer, we found certain annoyances about the way it works, so we’ll have to see if these get ironed out for the Capri. And like with the Explorer, the screen in the Capri can be slid up and down to reveal ‘My Private Locker’, a small storage area concealed behind the screen.
Behind the (heated) steering wheel sits a 5.0-inch digital instrument cluster, and the (heated) front seats are similar one-piece affairs to those in the Explorer, so they should be just as supportive.
As we’ve not got up-close-and-personal with the Capri yet, we can’t tell you how roomy it is inside. However, we do know that there’s plenty of space inside the Explorer, and the Capri is a slightly longer car with a very similar wheelbase, so we’d expect it to be fine. It remains to be seen what effect that roofline has on rear headroom, though.
The 572-litre boot you get in the Capri is bigger than the 470-litre luggage bay in the Explorer. The high-end Capri Premium model gets five litres less, though, presumably due to the additional stereo subwoofer in the boot.
2024 Ford Capri: batteries, motors and drive
Unsurprisingly, the platform and powertrain tech that underpins the Capri is exactly the same as that found underneath the Explorer. What you might find more surprising if you’re not already in the know, though, is that these are the same MEB underpinnings upon which most of the VW Group’s EV offerings are built, so cars like the Volkswagen ID.3, Cupra Born, Skoda Enyaq, Audi Q4 E-Tron and many, many others. That’s due to a deal struck by the two companies to share platforms and parts.
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There are two all-electric powertrain options offered from the outset, and these are known as Extended Range RWD (standing for rear-wheel drive) and Extended Range AWD (all-wheel drive).
As the name suggests, the Extended Range RWD has a single motor delivering 282bhp to the rear wheels. Official figures put the 0-62mph sprint time at 6.4 seconds. The motor is fed by a 77kWh battery (that’s usable capacity) and at a powerful enough DC public rapid charger, it can be charged at a maximum speed of 135kW. This should give a 10-80% charge in 28 minutes, according to Ford.
