Ford Capri EV 2026: Does the Reborn Name Deserve It?

Putting the Capri badge on a tall electric crossover is the boldest thing Ford has done with its heritage in years. Ford’s UK site currently lists the MY26 Capri from £42,075, climbing past £52,000 for the dual-motor car, with order books open as of June 2026. The 1969 original was a low, cheap, rear-driven coupe sold on the promise of “the car you always promised yourself”. The 2026 reincarnation is a 4.6-metre, two-tonne EV built in Cologne. The name says affordable fun; the price list says premium family SUV. So the question I keep coming back to is simple: does this car earn the badge, or is it just borrowing the goodwill?

Let me deal with the cynicism first, because it’s the easy shot. Yes, Ford has glued a beloved nameplate onto a body style the original buyer would never have recognised. There is no manual, no rear-drive-only purist trim at the bottom, no pretence that this is a driver’s coupe. It’s a coupe-roofed crossover, and it shares its underpinnings with Volkswagen’s MEB platform rather than anything in Ford’s own back catalogue. If you came here for sentiment, you’ll leave annoyed.

But I’d rather judge the car on what it actually is than on what the badge implies, so let’s get into the line-up, because the numbers are more interesting than the nostalgia.

The line-up: three batteries, three very different cars (Ford Capri EV)

There are effectively three Capris, and they’re not trim levels of one car so much as three distinct propositions. At the bottom sits the Standard Range RWD: a 52 kWh battery, 168 bhp, a WLTP figure of 242 miles and a £42,075 OTR price. That’s the entry point, and frankly it’s the one with the hardest job: 242 miles on the optimistic WLTP cycle is not a long-distance number once you factor in a cold motorway in February.

The middle child is the one most people will actually want: the Extended Range RWD. You get a 77 kWh battery, 284 bhp, 0–62 mph in 6.4 seconds and a claimed 385 to 390 miles, for £48,075 OTR. On paper that’s the sweet spot of the range: usable real-world distance, genuinely quick, and rear-wheel drive for the people who care about that sort of thing.

At the top is the Extended Range AWD, from £52,175 OTR in Premium trim: a 79 kWh battery, 336 bhp, 0–62 in 5.3 seconds and a 346 to 368 mile WLTP claim. It’s available to order in the UK alongside the rest of the range. It’s the fastest and the priciest, and, for me, the hardest to justify.

Where the badge starts to wobble

Here’s the bit that would stop me reaching for the AWD car. Knock the usual 25 to 30% off a WLTP number for a cold motorway run in February and the AWD’s 346 to 368 mile claim lands closer to 250 to 270 miles in real winter use, for a model that, optioned up, nudges £55,000. Pay coupe-SUV money, get crossover range. The extra motor buys you 1.1 seconds to 62 mph over the Extended Range RWD, but it costs you battery efficiency and roughly four grand. Unless you genuinely need all-wheel traction for where you live, you’re paying a premium to go marginally faster and slightly less far.

The original Capri sold on giving you more than you paid for. The dual-motor 2026 car risks doing the opposite: charging premium money for range that lands squarely in the mainstream.

That’s the tension at the heart of this car. The Capri name is a promise of value-for-thrills. The most expensive version of the modern Capri is the one that delivers that promise least convincingly. If Ford wanted the badge to feel earned, the halo car should have been the standout; instead it’s the one reviewers are most lukewarm about.

The company-car case is the strongest argument

Where the Capri makes proper sense, and where the badge debate becomes almost irrelevant, is on a salary-sacrifice or company-car scheme. As fully electric cars, both the 77 kWh single-motor and the 79 kWh dual-motor Capris sit in one of the lowest Benefit-in-Kind bands HMRC applies to any car: electric company cars are taxed far below petrol equivalents in the 2026/27 tax year, with the rate stepping up by a single percentage point each year thereafter. For a higher-rate taxpayer that still turns a £48,000 EV into a strikingly low monthly BiK bill next to a comparable petrol crossover, and it’s the single most compelling reason to put one on a driveway in 2026.

Those figures reflect the 2026/27 tax year, are not a finance offer, and what you actually pay depends on your tax band, your employer’s scheme and your own circumstances, so check the current company-car rate on gov.uk before you commit. The point holds either way: as a £52,000 cash purchase chasing the spirit of a £1,000 1969 coupe, the Capri looks confused; as a low-BiK company crossover with a claimed 385 miles of range and a quick, comfortable body, the Extended Range RWD looks shrewd. Same car, completely different verdict depending on how you’re paying.

So who is this actually for?

If you’re a private buyer with the heart set on the badge, I’d steer you to the Extended Range RWD at £48,075 and tell you to forget the AWD exists: it’s the version that best balances the price, the range and the rear-drive character that at least gestures at the original. The Standard Range car only makes sense if your mileage is genuinely low and urban; 242 miles WLTP shrinks fast.

If you’re a company-car driver, the maths does the arguing for you: the low EV BiK rate on the Extended Range RWD is the kind of saving that makes the badge debate beside the point. Take it.

And if you came purely for nostalgia, for the car you always promised yourself, I’d be honest and say this isn’t it, and no amount of coupe roofline will make it so. That car doesn’t exist anymore, and pretending the crossover is its spiritual heir is the only part of this launch I find genuinely cynical.

What would change my mind

Does the revived name deserve it? Half-yes. The engineering is sound, the Extended Range RWD is a genuinely good electric crossover, and the company-car case is excellent. But the badge is doing emotional work the product can’t quite back up, and the flagship AWD, the car that should justify the heritage, is the weakest value in the range. If Ford brings a sharper, lighter, properly rear-driven performance Capri to crown the line-up, I’ll happily say the name is earned. Until then, buy the £48,075 Extended Range RWD on its merits, run it through a salary-sacrifice scheme if you possibly can, and let the badge be a pleasant bonus rather than the reason you signed. You can configure the range on Ford’s UK site: just go in for the car, not the memory.