2025 Ford Puma Gen-e review: Bestseller is a disappointment in electric form

I didn’t know Richard Parry-Jones when I travelled to Saint-Tropez in January 1993 to drive a new Ford. But without knowing it, I was already feeling his influence. The car was the replacement for the Sierra and, frankly, we weren’t expecting much given how mediocre was that car and the fifth-generation Escort (Britain’s biggest-seller in ’93). And in the latter case ‘mediocre’ is being kind. But then came the invite, and with it an offer to transport any and all rivals to comparison test against the car they called Mondeo. This was, indeed, what some might call ‘fighting talk’. But without so much as sitting in it, and despite all evidence to the contrary, we knew before we left England that Ford had come up with a world-beater. And so it proved. We drove a Nissan, Peugeot and Toyota to the Mediterranean where the Mondeo took them to pieces.

Richard led the engineering development of that car and, as it turns out, it seems he was only practicing as Ford then replaced the dreadful Escort with the once-in-a-generation brilliant Focus, again under his direction. Between them, those two cars established Ford as the go-to place if you wanted not just value and equipment, not merely a car that was quiet and comfortable, but also superb to drive. Even people who had no interest in cars became staunch Ford loyalists. I remember how desolate was my sister-in-law, a district nurse at the time, when they replaced her Focus with an Astra. When I asked her to articulate why, she simply said, “I just loved the way it drove.” She didn’t need to understand the niceties of control blade multi-link rear suspension to know a fine car when she saw one.

And so to the subject of this month’s test: the Ford Puma Gen-e. Like that old Escort, the Puma is Britain’s best-selling car and now you can choose to have yours powered purely by electricity. It will reach 62mph in a relatively rapid 8.0sec thanks to its 168bhp electric motor, though its top speed is pegged to 99mph, which Ford correctly calculates will be enough for most. It’s quite attractive, reasonably well-equipped and of course it’ll never be less than pleasant to drive because, after all, this is a Ford we’re talking about. Surely?

Surely not. It’s been a while since I was last so disappointed by a car, which is not to say it’s the worst I’ve driven of late, merely that relative to my expectations, it got nowhere near. No, I’m not going to descend into a rant about its lack of an internal combustion engine or gearbox, it’s just badly executed. I went through that big historical preamble because as I drove it, I found myself thinking, “What would RP-J think of this?” The answer wasn’t long in arriving. I knew Richard a little, and the cars he curated rather better and I simply cannot see him driving that at final sign-off and saying, “Yup, that’s good enough.”

“It worries me that this appears to be acceptable to Ford these days”

For a start, the ride quality – at least on optional 19in rims – is plain poor. It’s passable on smooth surfaces, but as soon as the road gets rougher it’s not long before you’re being jolted about in an astonishingly un-Ford fashion. And where did all that tyre noise come from? It worries me that this appears to be acceptable to Ford these days.

Even on paper it just fails to stack up: remember when the Focus was best in class? Today I’d say in the Puma’s category that car is the Kia EV3 and a compare and contrast is instructive: the Kia has more power, better acceleration, a higher top speed, a bigger battery, better range and faster charging. Crucially it also rides beautifully and the fact that, like that first Focus back in 1997, it too has a multi-link rear axle does not strike me as a coincidence. The Puma? A simple beam axle, which is what you choose for your car when you’ve decided to spend your budget elsewhere.

What I’m hoping is that this Puma is one of those cars you sometimes see when a manufacturer decides having a presence in an emerging market is better than not, even if the product is not your finest work. And probably the biggest difference between the EV3 and this Puma is that the Kia was designed on a dedicated EV platform while the Ford is a Puma with its ICE removed and replaced by a battery pack and electric motor.

Even so, it worries me that Ford still thinks this is good enough despite the brilliance of so many of its forebears. If this were a Vauxhall I’d be far less put out, because expectations would be much more modest. But in this new electrified era, where one electric motor is indistinguishable from another, in terms of the car’s function rather than form, the ability of a car’s chassis is pretty much all that’s left to lift it above the crowd. And if you lose that, or give it away, what’s left? Just another car. Like this one.

Ford Puma Gen-e Premium

• Price £31,995
• Engine Front motor, 53kWh battery
• Power 168bhp
• Torque 216lb ft l Weight 1563kg
• Power to weight 107bhp per tonne
• Transmission Single-speed, front-wheel drive
• 0-62mph 8.0sec
• Top speed 99mph
• Range 233 miles (WLTP)
• Charging speed Up to 100kW
• Verdict Where’s Ford’s quality control?