Want outrage? Well, here it is. The reborn Ford Capri is the latest product of Ford and Volkswagen’s partnership for the European market, and it’s a controversial one. However, once we take a step back and clear our eyes of nostalgia’s mist, things are still a little bit odd. See, the new Capri is perfectly cromulent in a vacuum, but it has the potential to cannibalize another model in Ford’s range. Let me explain.
First, let’s take care of the elephant in the room — Ford is using an iconic coupe nameplate on a fastback crossover. Well, if we zoom out, what’s wrong with that? The original Capri was a rebodied Cortina family car with swoopier styling, and since the family car of 2024 is a crossover utility vehicle instead of a sedan, a fastback crossover bodystyle fits the original mission of giving everyday people a more rakish roofline. If the original Capri was the European equivalent to the Mustang, the new Capri is sort-of like the European equivalent to the Mustang Mach-E.
Unfortunately, that’s where it starts to fall down, because not only is the Mustang Mach-E on-sale in Europe, it also starts at a lower price than the Volkswagen ID.5-based Capri. Granted, the Capri has substantially more range than the standard-range Mustang Mach-E, but in the UK, the price gap between the Capri Premium with its panoramic roof and 20-inch wheels and the long-range Mustang Mach-E Premium is £295 in the Mach-E’s favor, so how does the Capri distinguish itself?
Well, let’s start with the styling. The reborn Ford Capri cuts a more fastbacked figure than the Mustang Mach-E, although from the rear three-quarters, doesn’t it remind you of the Polestar 2? Well, Ford had to work around the hard points of Volkswagen’s MEB platform, so that imbues the Capri with a short dash-to-axle ratio, a fixed cowl height, and immovable suspension hard points, so Ford did what it had to do. Compared to the ID.5 the Capri shares an architecture with, Ford’s stylists pulled the beltline up, added chamfered surfaces above the wheel arch trims to grow the arches and visually shrink the amount of sheetmetal on the side of the vehicle, added some thick black cladding to detract from visual bulk, and went with a defined, filled-in step on the hatch to emulate a deck lid. The result is definitely more svelte than the ID.5, but it also makes you wonder how Polestar is feeling right now.
Moving to the interior of the new Capri, you’ll likely be displeased to know that many of the ergonomic SNAFUs of the Volkswagen ID.5 haven’t been removed by Ford. There are still two window switches on the driver’s door panel to control four power windows, still capacitive touch buttons on the steering wheel, and still touch-sensitive sliders on the center stack. It’s all well-disguised thanks to a vertical touchscreen, a new steering wheel, and rich interior panel surfacing that eschews Volkswagen’s somewhat uninspired brand of minimalism, but if the tech annoyed you on models like the ID.4 and ID.5, it’ll annoy you on the Capri as well.
Right, let’s talk high-voltage. The Capri comes standard with a 77 kWh NMC battery pack, a single electric motor in the rear, peak output of 282 horsepower, and a peak DC fast charging speed of 135 kW. Ford claims zero-to-62 mph in 6.4 seconds and a range of 389 miles on the optimistic WLTP cycle. Step up to the dual-motor extended range AWD model, and battery pack capacity jumps to 79 kWh, peak DC fast charging speed gets a significant boost to 185 kW, output jumps to 335 horsepower thanks to a second motor on the front axle, and the claimed zero-to-62 mph time falls to 5.3 seconds. Opting for all-wheel-drive also tips the scale on pricing back in the Capri’s favor, as a dual-motor Capri Premium retails for £730 less than a dual-motor Mustang Mach-E Premium. However, the Mach-E is still quicker, and £730 for a Mustang badge isn’t a bad price at all.
With the introduction of the newborn Capri, Ford now has two products fighting for essentially the same segment in Europe. It’s an odd choice, and it makes you wonder what sorts of deals were made to put this thing into production. Either way, one thing’s for certain — the crossover age is here to stay, and we likely won’t be seeing a rebirth of mass-market coupes anytime soon. That’s the way the world goes sometimes, right?
(Photo credits: Ford)
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