The Ford Capri is back, and it’s had an electric makeover.
The rakish fastback, dubbed the “working man’s Porsche” between 1969 and 1986, is slated to go on sale this year.
Ford announced in March last year that they were releasing their new Capri EV – but on Wednesday unveiled the model for the first time, and rather than being a relatively cramped-in-the-back coupé with two doors, the newcomer is a four-door family car.
The Capri EV is essentially a rebodied version of the Ford Explorer battery SUV, itself the result of a collaboration with Volkswagen using the German firm’s battery-specific chassis platform.
Two versions will be available at first, a 282bhp rear-wheel drive (like the original Capri) version delivering a claimed range of 390 miles and a twin-motor model with 335bhp and a range of 368 miles.
Both weigh well over two tonnes and can be charged from 10 to 80 per cent in less than 30 minutes – provided you can find a suitably rapid 185kW DC charger.
The top speed of both is 112mph. The rear-drive version accelerates from zero to 62mph in 6.4 seconds, the more powerful all-wheel drive version taking 5.3 seconds.
The styling incorporates a roof that slopes towards the rear to suggest the coupé styling of the original car, as well as a nod to the quad headlights sported by many petrol-engined Capris.
Although there have long been rumors (and much wishful thinking) of attempts to revive the Capri name, the decision to use it for this battery-powered SUV coupé emerged in March 2023 when Amko Leenarts, Ford’s European design head, admitted he would love to bring back the Capri name.
As soon as his comments were reported, the internet was awash with the usual polarised opinions that this was either the greatest – or the worst – decision in automotive history.
Fans point to the car’s “iconic” appearances in film and particularly TV.
Car dealer Arthur Daley’s tough guy Terry McCann, played by Dennis Waterman, drove a Mk2 Capri in Minder, while who can forget Bodie (Lewis Collins) vaulting the long bonnet of a Mk3 in The Professionals?
Del Boy also drove one in Only Fools and Horses. The so-called “Pratmobile” was a lurid green Mk3 with tiger print seat covers and myriad spotlights on the front.
A Capri also featured in the opening episode of Top Gear in 1977, driven by a young reporter named Angela Rippon.
Detractors point out that any modern revival of a renowned car name is inevitably going to be a pale shadow of the original.
Ford itself has been a victim of this, when in 2019 it named its first mainstream electric car Mustang, prompting outrage among fans of the hairy-chested, V8-engined “muscle car” of the Sixties.
When the return of the Capri name was touted in March 2023, one Ford insider speculated that, should it be applied to something completely inappropriate, “there’s a danger we’ll be hated by everyone of a certain age group”.
However, more than in any of Ford’s global markets, British drivers always had a soft spot for the Capri (and for Fords in general, but especially the Cortina and Fiesta).
As global sales declined, from November 1984 the UK was the only place where the Capri remained on sale.
The last of 1,886,647 Capris across three generations, a limited edition Brooklands model with a V6 engine, was produced on 19 December 1986 at Ford’s factory in Cologne. UK production at Halewood had ceased in October 1976.
The Capri was followed by the less overt, front-wheel-drive Probe and Cougar coupés, neither of which caught the imagination in the manner of “The car you always promised yourself”, as Ford’s famed advertising described the then-new coupé in 1969.
