The name Capri has appeared in a number of different ways ford products over the years. It was mainly used for several decades of sports coupes developed by Ford of Europebut it also ended on a Mercury version of the Fox Body Mustang in the USlike a small convertible developed jointly with Mazda and sold in Australia as the Ford, and again in America as the Mercury. But one thing was consistent: they were all two-door sports cars. That changes with the new Ford Capri EV.
Ford has basically played exactly the same game as it did with the Mustang Mach-EIt took the old name and put it on a fastback four-door intersection with some vague styling cues. But we don’t think it’s been that successful here. On the Mach-E, the wide, curved fenders and striking taillights are hard to mistake for anything other than Mustang. If you put the Capri next to an original coupe, you can see some familiar features, like the horseshoe-shaped rear window and styling treatment, and the shoulder line along the side. But without that, well, it looks like a Polestar 2 that’s a bit melted. Everything is soft and lacks definition, which is at odds with its distinct and bright namesake.
The interior also follows the Mach-E in Ford’s take on minimalism. It all looks a little more integrated and conventional than the Mach-E’s tablet-like screens. There’s a small screen in front of the driver, nestled beneath a wide sound bar, and the 14.6-inch infotainment screen can adjust its angle for better visibility, and can also slide out of the way to reveal a secret storage compartment. It’s well-appointed, with standard heated steering wheel and seats, massage and memory driver’s seats, dual-zone climate control, and your typical suite of driver-assist features (blind-spot warning, automatic emergency braking brakesadaptive cruise control, parking sensors). And thankfully, all the infotainment features seem to be Ford’s own, and not VW.
Why are we bringing up VW? Well, that’s because the Capri is built on VW’s MEB platform, just like the European Ford Explorer EV and all kinds of VW products, especially the ID.4 And ID.5 crossovers. And while the Capri is a little bit longer than the VW ID.5 fastback, it’s basically the same mechanically. The rear-wheel drive model gets a single 282-hp engine and a useful battery package. It can reach 62 mph in 6.4 seconds and has a maximum WLTP range of 390 miles (which would undoubtedly be shorter on the Environmental Protection Authority The all-wheel-drive version gets dual motors producing 335 horsepower from a usable 79 kWh battery pack. It’ll do the 62 mph sprint in 5.3 seconds with a maximum range of 368 miles (again, on the very optimistic WLTP test). And those specs all match the VW ID models closely, though the VWs offer smaller optional battery packs.
Pricing and availability haven’t been set yet, but we expect it to go on sale in Europe within the year. We don’t expect the Capri to make its way to U.S. shores, but it certainly wouldn’t be impossible. After all, we’ve already got the ID.4 here on the MEB platform. But the Capri has never been as well known here as it is in Europe. And not only that, the Mach-E is already priced competitively with the aforementioned ID.4, and we doubt the Capri can be priced below the Mach-E in the US