Electric Transit enters fleets in UK, Europe

Ford’s all-electric Transit is starting work on European roads as customer trials commence with a number of major fleet operators ahead of the volume sales launch in spring 2022.

Among the trial partners are AWB waste disposal, the City of Cologne municipal fleet, DHL Express in the UK, DPD, Norwegian Post, and Recover Nordic.

The trial kicks off with 10 E-Transit prototypes being put to the test across a variety of intensive real-world operating scenarios in the postal, municipal and utilities, last mile and grocery delivery sectors within Germany, Norway and the UK.

The trials fleet features a full range of E-Transit variants including van, double-cab-in-van and chassis cab derivatives with GVMs from 3.5 to 4.25 tonnes, and a variety of specialised vehicle conversions that reflect the complex operating requirements that Transit vehicles need to support.

“We want to demonstrate that helping customers reduce their environmental impact can go hand-in-hand with improving their productivity,” said Dave Petts, market lead, urban electrified vans, Ford of Europe.

“Real-world mileage in customer hands helps us to show the business benefits that E-Transit can deliver, as well as providing valuable feedback on usage patterns and charging behaviour so that we can refine the operating experience,” He added.

The trials mark the latest phase in Ford’s development of the new E-Transit, following a demanding testing program at Ford proving grounds and engineering facilities. Trials partners will operate the E-Transit prototypes over six- or 12-month periods.

Ford UK says that the E-Transit has been carefully engineered to allow simple and straightforward conversion using the same fixtures and fittings developed for existing Transit models.

A selection of the trial vehicles have been converted by the Ford-approved Qualified Vehicle Modifier network to help demonstrate the versatility of the E-Transit platform.

Examples of the conversions include a refrigerated box body for grocery delivery, powered by 2.3kW ProPower Onboard system, a drop-side body for tradies, a caged tipper for refuse removal, and last-mile van and box body with walkthrough bulkhead and rear air suspension.

The E-Transit customer trials programme follows an earlier successful initiative featuring the Transit Custom Plug-In Hybrid, during which a cross-section of city-based customers covered over 240,000 kilometres and found they could operate in zero-emission mode for 75 per cent of their mileage when in central London.

Further testing in Cologne, Germany helped demonstrate the benefit of an innovative dynamic geofencing technology, which automatically triggered zero-emissions EV Now mode in areas with particularly high air pollution to help improve local air quality in urban areas.

In the UK this year, Ford has maintained its position as the UK’s best-selling commercial vehicle brand, and the Transit Custom is the best-selling vehicle overall.

We contacted Ford Australia to find out whether the E-Transit was on the radar for inclusion in our model line-up, especially considering the amount of interest in the recently-released Fuso eCanter fully-electric light-duty truck.

Ford's official response was: "We have no news to share about any additions to the Transit line-up in Australia at this time. However, Ford Australia recognises the growing appetite for EVs and we’re taking a considered approach to electrification to make sure we get our offering right for our customers.

"We are very proud of our Transit line-up, with the versatility of the range across Transit Custom, Transit Custom Sport, Transit Bus, Transit Van and Transit Cab Chassis providing an option for every commercial customer."

Ford added in its statement to trucksales.com.au that demand for Transit continues to be strong, as demonstrated by Transit Custom sales, which are up 48 per cent YTD to July.

We will bring you any updates as soon as they come to hand.