DETROIT — Ford Motor on Tuesday unveiled its first all-new electrical car completely for the European market and mentioned it plans to leverage the well-known Explorer nameplate to achieve traction.

The EV crossover is a part of Ford’s plans to transition its European lineup to be completely electrical by 2030.

Apart from the Explorer title and a few design attributes, the brand new car shares little to nothing with the gas-powered SUV within the U.S., or a plug-in hybrid model that is presently out there in Europe. The naming is a part of the corporate’s technique to leverage its “most iconic” manufacturers for EVs, together with the Mustang Mach-E crossover and F-150 Lightning.

Ford mentioned it has no plans to supply the midsize electrical crossover within the U.S. It’s certainly one of two automobiles anticipated for Europe that leverages the Volkswagen Group’s all-electric “MEB” platform at Ford’s manufacturing unit in Cologne, Germany.

Ford and Volkswagen first introduced a broad collaboration on electrical and autonomous automobiles in 2019. The collaboration on EVs was supposed to hurry up the method of getting automobiles to market as Ford works by itself devoted platform.

The Detroit automaker expects to supply 1.2 million electrical automobiles utilizing Volkswagen’s platform over six years, beginning in 2023 — double its earlier manufacturing plans. These plans embody 600,000 EVs a yr in Europe by 2026.

Ford mentioned the Explorer EV can be supplied in two trims: Explorer and Explorer Premium, with a beginning worth of lower than 45,000 euros (about $48,250) when gross sales launch later this yr. The corporate declined to reveal the anticipated vary and different efficiency statistics.

Ford has mentioned it needs to reference its American roots extra within the advertising and marketing and styling of European passenger automobiles, in keeping with Automotive Information.

“Explorer is a trailblazer for a brand new breed of thrilling Ford electrical automobiles,” Martin Sander, common supervisor of Ford’s European EV enterprise, mentioned in a launch. “Steeped in our American roots however in-built Cologne for our clients in Europe, it’s street trip-ready for the massive adventures and totally loaded with all the things our clients will want for his or her every day drives.”

The push for EVs by Ford comes amid a restructuring of its European operations that to this point has included 1000’s of layoffs. Ford executives have mentioned the automaker is trying towards a “leaner, extra aggressive price construction” for the area.