It's not much, but it's something that we can still hang our hats on. Ahead of its debut, which is scheduled to be later this year, Ford->ke31 released a teaser image of the 2011 Explorer->ke342 with chief engineer Jim Holland.

It doesn't show a great deal of the new SUV except for parts of the clamshell hood, the sweptback headlights, and, of course, Holland's smiling mug. Nonetheless, Holland is confident that the new Explorer would carry the high-standing tradition its predecessors have built over the years. "When you see it, you know it's a Ford, you will know it is an SUV, and you will know it's a very modern interpretation of our Explorer," he said.

While recent spy shots of the Explorer have given us more light on its design aesthetics, we do know that the new SUV will come with an option between a 2.0-liter four-cylinder Ecoboost and a more powerful 3.5-liter Ecoboost with 355 hp (265 kW / 360 PS) and 350 lb-ft (474 Nm) of torque, which, according to Ford, should give the Explorer "best-in-class fuel economy and V6 performance."

Ford has yet to announce the exact date and place of the new Explorer's debut, but we're pretty sure that it's going to happen within the year, maybe towards the latter part of 2010. Either way, it should be something a lot of us will look forward to.

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