Ford Puma Gen-E review

Driving position 

This is far from the first time Ford has made a new car, so you get exactly what you expect to find when you open the door for the first time. 

Everything is where it should be – window switches, climate controls (albeit on a screen), hazard button, etc. The one thing that isn’t where you expect it to be is the gear selector, which has been moved from the centre of the car to a stalk behind the steering wheel – like on a Tesla. 

We like this because it means you don’t need to remove your hands from the steering wheel when changing between drive, neutral, reverse and park (button on the end of the stalk). Simply flick it up or down and you’re away. 

The seats themselves in our mid-spec Premium model were comfortable. Our car had the upgraded part-vegan leather seats, while basic Select trim cars get cloth seats. 

There’s plenty of adjustability in the seats, meaning you can get comfortable very quickly. Though, because of the batteries under the floor, we couldn’t sit as low as we’d like. Still, the ceiling is high (even with the sunroof), so even taller drivers shouldn’t struggle to fit. 

The two-spoke steering wheel is comfortable to hold and easy to adjust – just like in the petrol Puma. 

In fact, the only real difference between the electric Puma and the petrol one inside is the centre console, which has open storage and cupholders in the EV, because the gear selector has moved to the wheel. 

The 10-inch display for the digital dials ahead of you are easy to read and aren’t blocked by the wheel in any way. And overall visibility, despite the tiny door mirrors, is really rather good.  

But even if you didn’t think so, there’s a cracking 360-degree camera system to help you park or position yourself at the charging station. 

Tech and features 

Dominating the centre of the dashboard is a 12-inch landscape infotainment screen, unlike the new Ford Capri’s portrait one, which unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) can’t rotate like in a BYD. 

As you’d expect, it works as it should. Ford’s SYNC software is easy to get on with and is smooth and crisp, though you’re probably going to use wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto anyway. 

Something we haven’t seen on a lot of cars is the ability to change the size of your CarPlay screen. You can have it full screen or have Ford’s system take over a third to show which radio station you have on. 

Then, when you need to charge your phone, you can pop it on the wireless charger below the screen or use one of the USB ports. 

Sitting above the dashboard is a B&O speaker, which is excellent if you’re the only one in the car, because it almost directs the music straight at the driver, creating an immersive experience. But don’t worry, back-seat passengers, you get it just as good. 

We also need to call out a special feature not related to tech. You see, most cars nowadays come with a sunroof, but it’s usually only in the front. So instead of making rear-seat passengers miss out, Ford has fitted the Puma Gen-E with two sunroofs – one at the front and one at the back. 

Electric motors and power 

Every Ford Puma Gen-E is made equal, giving you 168hp from its front-wheel-drive, single electric motor setup, no matter the model you choose. 

To toggle the level this power is delivered to you, there are a few driving modes on tap: Eco, Normal, Sport and Slippery. We found keeping it in Normal most of the time is the best option. 

In Eco mode, the car softly limits itself to 65mph unless you press the throttle pedal much harder, then it’ll trundle up to 70mph and beyond. This isn’t new tech. We first saw it in the Renault Zoe years ago, and it does help conserve range, but it can be a little annoying at times when you need to quickly overtake on the motorway. 

On the accelerator pedal, we found it to feel a bit mushy and more like a haptic touch plate than an actual pedal, which can be a bit disconcerting at times. 

The brake pedal isn’t the same, however, and feels like an actual pedal, but you probably won’t find yourself using it much because of the car’s one-pedal driving option – found in the driving modes menu on the touchscreen.  

This, along with the car’s ‘L’ increased regen mode, makes it perfect at absorbing energy back into the battery pack every time you slow down.

Handling and ride comfort 

We covered a lot of motorway miles in the Puma Gen-E and found that road noise was kept to a minimum – we suspect helped by the smaller door mirrors and decently cushioned tyres. 

It, of course, jitters a bit on rougher sections of road like that terrible part of the M25 northbound just before Heathrow, but we’ve never tested a car there that isn’t terribly noisy and juddery on that stretch of tarmac. 

When you peel off the motorway and onto some more fun and twisty B-roads, you’ll find the Puma fares well.  

It’s nothing like the original Ford Puma from the late 1990s, but it has some of the current petrol Puma’s pedigree, which is all you need, and it’s perfect for the type of buyer of this car. 

The floor-mounted batteries help to keep its centre of gravity low, helping it in corners. But even at lower speeds around town, the Puma Gen-E is compliant, comfortable and well-balanced. 

It’s literally all you could ask for from a small family SUV that happens to be electric. 

Boot space 

The Ford Puma Gen-E has a 523-litre boot (including the Gigabox – more on that below), growing to 1,283 litres when the rear seats are folded. You should note that without the Gigabox, it has around 380 litres of space. 

We found this is plenty to fit a road bike (front wheel removed) in the back with plenty of space for other bits of kit. 

Even with all five seats in place, there’s more than enough room for most daily errands. 

Something that makes the Puma unique in its offering is the Gigabox (known as the Megabox on petrol models), which is a large storage area under the boot floor with a removable plug. 

– Watch the Gigabox in action

This means you can hose down muddy boots in there or use it as a giant cool box full of ice. This is what makes it a true family car. 

Under the bonnet, you’ll be pleased to know there’s a 43-litre front boot (froot), suitable for charging cables, though it is a bit narrow. 

Rear seats 

Rear-seat space is decent but best reserved for two adults. Three people can fit side-by-side, but this would be best kept for shorter journeys. 

Luckily there’s no transmission tunnel affecting the middle passenger’s foot space, because Ford decided to go with a proper electric platform instead of using the petrol Puma’s one. How thoughtful. 

The two outer seats get ISOFIX child seat mounting points, and of course, all rear passengers benefit from their own sunroof, separate from the front one, though it doesn’t open. 

Storage solutions 

Family SUVs need to be practical. That’s just a fact. If you’re going to be hauling around all your kids’ sports kit, their packed lunches and whatever else they’ve accumulated that day, it’s important to have somewhere useful to store it all. 

One of the obvious places would be the aforementioned froot, though this is shaped like a letterbox and therefore probably only suitable for charging cables or a really thin loaf of bread. 

This leaves the cabin itself, which has plenty of storage solutions.  

There’s a very deep central armrest to store most of your valuables, two decent-sized cupholders and the wireless phone charger, where you could store more things if needed. 

Safety 

When the standard Ford Puma was tested by Euro NCAP in 2022, it scored four out of five stars, and that carries over to the Gen-E, which hasn’t been tested separately. 

It’s the usual affair with standard safety kit, such as automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane-keep assist, driver attention warning, a tyre pressure monitoring system, blind-spot monitoring, and so on. 

Range and charging times 

Ford’s kept things simple with one battery and range option for the Puma Gen-E with a 43kWh (usable) battery and 233 miles of range. 

In the real world, we saw closer to 200 miles on a full charge, during a mixture of town, city and motorway driving. We’d have liked to see it push past the 250-mile mark, but perhaps we can expect this in a future model. 

Ford claims the Puma Gen-E's efficiency is up to 5.4mi/kWh, but we saw 4.4mi/kWh over 400 miles doing motorways 90% of the time and with little to no help at conserving range. We were just driving normally, as you would. 

For reference, a Tesla Model 3 (often referred to as a highly efficient EV) gets around 4.5mi/kWh, so we’re impressed with the Ford’s figures. 

Then, when you do need to charge up (the port is on the rear left, by the way), the Ford Puma Gen-E can charge at up to 100kW, giving you 10-80% in 23 minutes. 

Or if you use a 7kW home charger, it’s more like six-and-a-bit hours for a 0-100% charge. 

Reliability 

It’s a well-known fact by now that electric cars tend to be more reliable than petrol and diesel cars, because an electric battery and motor setup has fewer moving parts than a traditional internal combustion engine. 

Not only that, but in the case of the Gen-E, it has the tried-and-tested backing of the petrol Puma, so it’s safe to say it’s going to be a solid car. 

There’s a reason the Puma is one of Britain’s most popular cars. 

From the factory, the Puma Gen-E gets a three-year/60,000-mile new car warranty, a 12-year anti-corrosion warranty and an eight-year/100,000-mile high-voltage battery warranty. 

Safe to say you’re well-covered from the get-go.