Detroit auto show 2019: Next-gen Ford Explorer goes rear-drive

The 6th-generation Ford Explorer looks to retain its all-time best-selling-SUV in America status by adding driver assist and other technologies, while dropping its former front-drive/all-wheel-drive (AWD) platform in favor of Ford's new “corporate” CD6 rear-wheel-drive/AWD architecture first revealed for the 2020 Lincoln Aviator.

The 2020 Ford Explorer and its Lincoln Aviator sibling are the first midsize SUVs arriving in the marketplace after the automaker's 2018 downshift from nine global platforms to five flexible vehicle architectures. “This is a pretty significant change for us,” Hau Thai Tang, Ford Motor Company's executive VP of product development and purchasing told reporters at the 2020 Explorer's January 9 global debut at Detroit's Ford Field.