GEN Z'S GEN-E(some text hidden)

By Jonathan Crouch

Ten Second Review word 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.

Background word 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.

Driving Experience word count: 340

Astonishingly, Ford still 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 53kWh pack to fit (though only 43kWh of that is actually usable), which offers a range of up to 233 miles in the base 'Select' version we tried. Early reports - and our own experience - suggest that unless you're over-enthusiastic with the front-mounted 168PS motor, the EV range figure quoted here is rather closer to everyday reality; though we should point out that the officially rated stat falls to 226 miles with the bigger-wheeled 'Premium' spec most will want. Most small EVs deliver steering with all the feedback of a computer game, but with this Ford, you can actually feel what the front wheels are doing, which gives you the confidence to approach a set of twisting corners at hot hatch-like speed, should you be minded to. At which point you'll also find that body control is excellent, helped by weight distribution that's even better than in the sweet-handling combustion Puma - and impressive grip levels. So you can flow with deceptive rapidness from bend to bend in a seamlessly urgent manner that's just not possible with most rivals. The brakes are good too and Ford has done a decent job in blending the friction and regen elements of stopping power. There are no paddles to vary the regen; just an 'L' button on the shifter stalk and a screen-selectable 'one pedal' setting that off-throttle allows you to bring the car almost to a halt without touching the brake pedal.