Ford Unveils E-Transit Electric Van with 126-Mile Range and Price of $ 45,000

Ford has unveiled the all-electric version of its popular Transit delivery van, with connected vehicle technology to help commercial fleet owners better manage their freight operations. The E-Transit will have a smaller battery and less range than most electric passenger vehicles launched in recent years, but Ford insists it will be more than enough to meet the last mile delivery needs of its business customers.

The E-Transit is the second major electric vehicle to be launched as part of Ford’s $ 11.5 billion push into electrification, which the company said will last until 2022. The first vehicle was the Mustang Mach-E, which Ford will begin delivering to customers at the end of this year. Next year, the company plans to unveil an electric version of its best-selling F-150 pickup truck.

Ford is unveiling its electric minivan at a time when more people are using delivery than ever before. The coronavirus pandemic has forced more people to shop online for groceries and other services. And the need to invest in cleaner technology is at the forefront of the minds of many automakers as countries around the world work to crack down on combustion-engined vehicles.

When released in 2022, the E-Transit will ship with a 76 kWh battery, which is expected to power it for a range of 126 miles. This might seem like a pittance compared to long-range electric vehicles like Tesla, Lucid, and others. But Ford says it made the move based on 30 million miles of real-world driving telematics from its non-electric Transit customers “to provide the right range for the needs of the fleet.” Based on this analysis, Ford determined that the average daily mileage of a Ford Transit customer was only 76 miles.

People who buy for themselves are looking for “an ambitious vehicle that really goes beyond rocket acceleration, incredible range, etc.,” said Yaroslav Hetman, global director of marketing for electric trucks and commercial vehicles at Ford. “When you talk to business customers, they see it from two perspectives: total cost of ownership and security.”

The price must also be right, says Ford. Had he gone for a larger battery with more range, the price would have gone up, making the E-Transit unaffordable for the customers Ford is hoping to target. To that end, automaker Blue Oval recommends a price tag of $ 45,000, which is about 80% more than the suggested price for the non-electric Transit van of $ 24,625, but competitively priced compared to other electric vans.

Ford’s commercial customers buy anywhere between a Transit van and tens of thousands of them. An important selling point when it is released will be the availability of the federal tax credit of $ 7,500 for electric vehicles. For how long, however, remains unclear: A phase-out plan is triggered after an automaker delivers its 200,000th qualifying car.

Ford offers three variations of the E-Transit, each with a different roof height or body length – but especially nowhere near the 60 trim levels available for the gasoline-powered Transit van.

Of course, the E-Transit is an electric vehicle, which means that it must impress us with its vision of the future. But it’s also not a Tesla or even a Mustang, so the high-tech facade of the E-Transit will have more to do with fleet operations for commercial vehicle owners. And that means characteristics that seem a bit Orwellian on the surface.

Ford describes one of these features as “real-time in-vehicle driver coaching,” in which fleet operators can use the vehicle’s SYNC 4 operating system to monitor their employees’ driving. Whenever an employee exceeds a speed limit, accelerates too fast, brakes hard, leaves the engine running when parked, or fails to buckle up a seat belt, his boss’s disembodied voice goes overhead. vehicle speakers to correct its behavior.

“We are able to use the voice assistant inside the vehicle to let the driver know that they are indeed driving in an unsafe manner or that they have the opportunity to correct some of their behaviors,” said Julius Marchwicki , Ford Commercial Solutions COO, “And that real-time feedback to the driver is much more effective than trying to coach after the fact.”

There is also a driver identification feature, which allows fleet operators to connect specific drivers to their vehicles. Drivers will need to enter a unique code into the SYNC screen to give their employers a record of which driver uses which vehicle. “By matching a driver to a specific vehicle, managers could analyze performance metrics to potentially identify new coaching opportunities to help manage driver performance,” says Ford.

The E-Transit will also serve as a mobile power source with 2.4 kW of exportable power for vehicle owners who need to plug in power tools or other devices. The plugs are located on the rear edge of the passenger side door for easy access. Ford is considering contractors using E-Transit to power a circular saw, for example, at work.

The E-Transit will also share some features with other electric vehicles in the Ford lineup. For example, owners will be able to remotely adjust the vehicle’s heating and cooling system to optimize charging speed while the vehicle is plugged in, much like the Mach-E. Fleet operators can also remotely monitor their vehicles after hours and receive alerts if one of their vehicles is stolen, used without authorization, towed or even been damaged while parked. .

The E-Transit will land amid a wave of new electric vehicles entering production for the North American market. Most will be passenger vehicles, but a handful will be for commercial delivery.

Grid view

Mercedes-Benz has already unveiled an electric version of the Sprinter van. Ford’s main competitor, General Motors, is working on an electric delivery van, dubbed “BV1”. Recently, Amazon revealed its first fully electric delivery vehicle, built by start-up EV Rivian. And another startup, Bollinger, recently revealed the Deliver-E, a fully electric delivery van concept slated for production in 2022. Ford is also working with Volkswagen on commercial vans after the two companies form a global alliance. at the beginning of last year.

Ford is preparing to mass-produce the E-Transit, investing $ 100 million in a plant in Missouri that will serve as a hub for the assembly of the pickup. The company also recently opened a new manufacturing facility outside of Dearborn, Michigan, where it will build the electric F-150.

At first glance, the E-Transit looks almost identical to its petrol ancestor. You must hand it over to Ford for showing restraint in designing the E-Transit. It even kept the ventilated grille instead of going with the slick fairing of a Tesla Model 3 or the layered front end of the Mach-E.

Everything else about E-Transit is nondescript and meant to blend in with traffic – and that’s a good thing. It’s not a vehicle meant to trigger your salivary glands and grope you for your wallet; it is intended to attract “business customers” who make “business decisions” using spreadsheets with many numbers and columns. And to that end, Ford believes it has a winner.

“We don’t focus so much on what our competition is,” Hetman said. “We focus on the customer. And if we can exceed their day-to-day needs, whether it’s trucks, vans or retail vehicles, we know we’re going to win.