Believe it or not, the Ford Puma is the best selling car in the UK right now and Ford are pretty good at making cars that top the sales charts. Back when the Fiesta was still a thing, it was constantly one of the best selling cars in the UK for quite a long time. Now, as the UK and the rest of the world is moving to electric cars, Ford has now turned its attention to the Puma, which is now available as an affordable EV, dubbed the Puma Gen-E.

With the Explorer and Capri, Ford used the MEB platform from Volkswagen as the base. However, that brought with it the worst bits from the latest Volkswagen cars, namely haptic controls and sliders for the volume and heating. However, with the EV Puma, Ford has simply converted the existing petrol car and turned it into an EV.

To this end, the Puma is relativity identical to the existing combustion car, meaning the interior is pretty much the same, as is the boot capacity. Ford has even gone to the effort to put a 43-litre frunk under the bonnet, offering a handy place to store the charging cable and the removable tow bar.

In terms of dimensions, Ford has ever so slightly stretched the Puma, and is now 5mm taller and 28mm longer than the combustion model. This is mainly to accommodate the battery pack.

The battery used here isn't huge, at just 43kWh and this will, according to Ford - offer up to 234 miles of WLTP range on the standard Select model. This then drops a bit, to 226 miles on the Premium trim. The battery used is NMC, which has much better cold weather thermal performance when compared to LFP and standard Lithium-ion battery packs.

The motor isn't hugely powerful, which is good news for insurance premiums. There is a front mounted 166bhp motor with 290Nm of torque. However, because the Puma doesn't way loads for an EV too, at just 1,563kg it can do 0-62mph in just 8 seconds. Top speed is 99mph.

Inside, Ford hasn't changed the interior much, we still have the same 12-inch infotainment screen from the latest Puma facelift, which offers the SYNC 4 software, as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. For the driver, there is a pretty large 12.8-inch screen.

Manufacturing is an interesting part here. Ford is manufacturing the electric drive units in Halewood, UK and the entire car will be made alongside the combustion Puma in Craiova, Romania.

The new Ford Puma Gen-E is available to order from today, with the first cars to arrive in dealerships from March 2025. Pricing is from £29,995 in the UK for the Select trim and comes in Frozen White at no extra charge and for an extra £800, you can choose from the launch colour Electric Yellow as well as Agate Black, Solar Silver, Fantastic Red and Digital Aqua Blue. The top spec Premium trim is priced at £31,995.

More info can be found in the official spec sheet from Ford.