Photos: Ford Explorer America Concept

By Staff writers and Derek Fung on 15 January 2008

In Detroit, Ford displayed its Explorer America concept car, pointing the way to a slightly cleaner, greener future for one of America's biggest selling cars.

When Ford sent its Explorer to Australia in the late '90s, its popularity in North America didn't translate. A significant part in the Explorer's failure here was its crudeness, especially in comparison to the Japanese incumbents, like the Prado, Pajero and Land Cruiser.

The slew of "green" technologies displayed on the America concept aren't exactly new but bring the Explorer up-to-date. Assuming, of course, that they make it into the next-gen SUV.

Image 1 - Photos: Ford Explorer America Concept

Unibody architecture
Current Explorers and many traditional SUVs -- like the Toyota Land Cruiser and Nissan Pathfinder -- use a body-on-frame design, but Ford used a unibody architecture on this concept to save weight. The concept also has electric power steering, a feature already found many small cars. Ford says over 80 percent of its cars will use electric power steering by 2011.

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