Ford’s Smallest EV Gets More Range And Hands-Free Highway Driving

• The Ford Puma Gen-E subcompact electric crossover is getting some tech upgrades.
• Just one year after its debut, the European-made EV is being fitted with a bigger battery.
• The Puma Gen-E is also getting BlueCruise, Ford’s hands-free advanced driving assistance system.

The Ford Puma Gen-E might not ring a bell to our American readers, but it’s quite the hit on its home turf in Europe. And now, after just one year on sale, the subcompact electric crossover is getting a technical upgrade that enables a longer driving range and hands-free highway driving.

Customers who order the Romanian-built EV now get a 46.8-kilowatt-hour usable battery capacity, up from the outgoing model’s 43 kWh capacity. Ford said it improved the internal design of the pack, resulting in a WLTP range increase from 233 miles (376 kilometers) to 259 miles (417 km).

Ford Puma Gen-E BlueCruise Edition (2026)

Photo by: Ford

That’s a noticeable improvement for what is essentially a city hatchback on stilts, seeing how the Puma replaced the wildly successful Fiesta. That said, the maximum charging power remains unchanged at 100 kW, and there’s no notable change to the charging curve, so charging from 10% to 80% now takes a little longer: 26 minutes instead of the outgoing model’s 23 minutes.

The front-mounted electric motor is the same as before, churning out 165 horsepower and 214 pound-feet of torque (290 Newton-meters), so it’s no surprise that the zero to 62 miles per hour (0-100 kilometers per hour) sprint is also the same as before, at 7.4 seconds.

That’s not all, though. The diminutive Puma Gen-E, along with the gas-powered Puma, is now Ford’s smallest model to get BlueCruise, the automaker’s hands-free highway driving assistance system. By using pre-mapped highways, which Ford calls “Blue Zones,” the system can control steering, acceleration, braking, and lane positioning without the driver keeping their hands on the steering wheel. That said, BlueCruise is still an eyes-on system, so the driver still needs to pay attention to what the car is doing and take control when needed.

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Source: Ford

Ford’s BlueCruise was the first system of its kind to get regulatory approval in Europe when the Mustang Mach-E debuted there in 2023. Now, the highway driving assistant is available on several Ford models sold in Europe, including the Kuga crossover, which is sold as the Escape stateside.

On the Puma and Puma Gen-E, BlueCruise comes standard on a newly introduced Blue Cruise Edition trim, and it can be specced as an optional extra on other trims, where a monthly or yearly subscription is also required.

The company’s latest Sync 4 infotainment system is also part of the standard kit, which comes with a 12.8-inch digital instrument cluster and a 12-inch central touchscreen with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity. A six-speaker setup is included with the base model, while the top-spec models get an upgraded B&O Play sound system with 10 speakers, higher-spec midwoofers in the front doors, and an increased output of 650 watts.