Ford Puma Gen-E

Big spaces in small places.

This is the Ford Puma Gen-E (someone is going to use Gen-E as some sort of edgy way of spelling Jenny, I just know it). It sits as the smallest of Ford’s current EV offerings. It offers a very competitive starting price of £29,995 and comes with a 43.6kWh battery and 166bhp. 43.6kWh might not sound like much but will explain later why raw capacity isn’t everything.

The Puma Gen-E is available in 3 trim levels: Select, Premium, and Sound Edition. Select trim has 17” alloys, LED projector headlights, Lane Keep Aid and Lane Departure Warning. Ford EV’s that are Ford from the ground up also have the Quickclear Windscreen (Puma Gen-E and Mustang Mach-E) which is so useful in winter as it minimizes power consumption. Premium adds 18” alloys, LED Matrix lights, power tailgate, and 10 speaker B&O sound system. Sound Edition limits the colour choice but adds a high performance B&O stereo, contrasting black roof, winter pack, and Advanced Driver Assist pack.

Exterior

Have you ever seen a Puma before? Of course you have. It’s been the best selling car in the UK for the last 2 years. The Gen-E changes very little from the petrol counterpart; There is a new nose with blanked off grille, LED headlights and reshaped lower bumper. The rear is a similar story with minimal changes over the petrol version with the absence of exhaust pipe being the most obvious.

What is interesting is the conversion from Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to EV. It’s in a similar vein to the MG ZT when it was modified to accept the 4.6 Ford V8 in that it’s a new platform underneath a familiar exterior. The Puma’s platform has been modified to accept a lithium-Ion battery in place of the fuel tank and exhaust system. This has a knock on effect of not lowering the ground clearance significantly while also preserving the interior space.

The car I drove was supplied in eye-gougingly yellow (aptly named “Electric Yellow” officially). While it’s an excellent feature for pedestrian safety, I would much rather have the car in the Digital Aqua Blue (pictured) or the Agate Black. You have to be comfortable with the colour choice as the upper window surround is visible from the interior.

Interior

The interior is going to be familiar to anyone who has had experience with a recent Puma. There are a couple of changes though. The electric Puma has a double layer centre console with wireless phone charger and cup holders up top and a storage tray with USB-C underneath. This is because there is no need for a transmission lever or mechanical handbrake the ICE version requires.

The steering wheel is almost hexagonal in shape. This actually has some benefits and isn’t as weird as initial appearances would suggest. Hands fall comfortably to the 10 and 2 position. While the high, flat top rim gives unobstructed view of the instruments when the steering wheel is adjusted accordingly.

The dash layout is nice with the EV version gaining a two tone interior adding some beige to the front cabin. The regular Puma just deals with a black interior. Most noticeable with the interior is the change of seats when moving from Select to Premium trim. Select just has some cloth seats which is to be expected while Premium adds half leather/half Alcantara seats which feel a lot more premium and have some white contrasting stitching to help. The dash is the same in both models with only behind the scene touches like the B&O stereo and power tailgate being noticeable.

Ford has included some decent sized screens so the information displayed can be clear and easily readable at a glance. Range, speed, and trip information is easy to see at a glance with interesting little touches like the battery and motor temperature gauges.

The rear of the interior could be most accurately described as wipe clean. The door panels are hard plastic from top to bottom which is great if there are kids with various yoghurt and chocolate stains to be deposited on every surface but less so if there are adults back there. What is also noticeable from the powertrain transition is the transmission hump in the rear is significantly less in the EV than the regular Puma. While 5 people won’t be comfortable for longer journeys, the extra room for each rear passenger to move their feet is welcome.

The rear of the centre console offers a 12V auxiliary socket and 2 USB-C ports so there’s plenty to keep phones and tablets charged.

Driving

Driving the Puma is very similar in nature to the ICE variant. In the end, it’s a Fiesta on stilts. Ford has managed to work some of it’s chassis tuning magic on the Gen-E that just isn’t there on the larger Explorer. The steering is a particular delight with good weight and decent feedback compared to most EVs. With the Puma Gen-E being front wheel drive, you get some sense of how the front end is responding to the torque from the electric motor. I found that under hard acceleration in Sport mode, you can feel the front wheels wriggle as they try to put the traction down which adds a sense of character and fun.

Given the ICE roots of the Gen-E, you can see lumping a battery pack underneath has affected how the car is balanced. There’s more weight towards the rear of the car giving a more assured footing during cornering or if the car is travelling over low grip surfaces.

ECO driving mode dulls the responses to eek out every possible mile from the battery. While the throttle pedal still makes the car move at an acceptable rate, I wouldn’t rely on it for efficiency at constant speed driving. The amount of energy needed to move the Puma at 70mph is going to be the same regardless of whether it is in ECO or Sport.

There are propulsion sounds available in each driving mode. The one in Sport is meant to emulate the 1.0 3 cylinder engine but just ends up sounding like an angry hornet in the drivers door panel.

Efficiency over the drive was 5.6 mi/kWh which is extremely efficient given the test routes combined town, motorway and fast road driving. This was also one of the hottest days of the year so the air-conditioning system was working hard to maintain pleasant cabin temperatures. With that efficiency and the usable battery capacity, it would give about 244 miles of range overall.

Battery and Charging

There is only one battery available with the Puma Gen-E. It’s a 43.6kWh NMC lithium-ion battery. You may think that such a small battery may lead to higher cycling degradation but Ford has thought of that. The actual battery capacity is around 53kWh while being software limited to 43.6kWh usable. Having this massive buffer means the user can only cycle the battery pack through 82% of its overall capacity and will minimise cycling degradation. Yes, the official range is only 233 miles, but it will be 233 miles for a long, long time.

Charging wise is pretty standard affair. The AC charging is 7kW single phase or 11kW 3 phase. Given the small battery, this could take 4.75 hours at 11kW, or 7 hours on a more common single phase 32A supply. DC rapid charging rate is similar to the Stellantis range of cars with a peak of 100kW and an average 10-80% of 85kW.

GigaBox

Box, KiloBox, MegaBox, Gigabox. Two of those aren’t real but one of the most useful features on the Puma is the large area under the boot, which in the ICE Puma is 80 litres known as the MegaBox. In the EV Puma, it’s 145 litres. Which, not surprisingly, is called the GigaBox. The standard boot is well shaped but shallow. Removing the boot floor to use the GigaBox adds some useful height for tall dogs, plants, or fill it with ice and use it as a cooler. There’s a handy drain in the bottom to empty it afterwards.

There is also a small front boot big enough for the charging cables which is handy as it can keep the dirty, wet cables out of the cabin space. Worthy of note is how Ford was able to squeeze a front boot in this model but unable to do so in the larger Explorer an Capri models.

Final Thoughts

The Puma is a much more compelling ownership proposition than the larger Explorer and Capri. The Ford only features are useful and the dynamics are also much more in line with expectations. In the small SUV EV category, there are some direct competitors such as the Jeep Avenger and Vauxhall Mokka. While cars such as the recently launched Renault 5 EV challenge it in the small car segment. The Puma has to rely on being extremely popular in its ICE form and it’s driving dynamics to sell.

Overall: A golden retriever puppy out of ten. Small, excitable, loyal companion.