Mark your diary. Or if you don’t have one, write it on the corner of your copy of the Daily Star: 12 November 2020. That’s the date that Ford will unveil the electric Transit van. Oh yes.
All Ford has done for now is release the teaser image you see below, but we do know that the electric Transit will go on sale early next year. If you’re not too familiar with your Transits, that one down there is a standard short-wheelbase panel van, which means that Ford has adapted the existing van to make the electric version, the E Transit. That's as opposed to creating a new one from scratch, which would of course cost a fortune to develop.
It’s likely that the E Transit model will also include long-wheelbase versions too, and in any event be powered by an electric motor with around 200 miles of useable range. The lithium-ion battery pack will be laid along the floor, to ensure a properly flat loading bay and that only very little space is lost as compared to the internal combustion models; a short wheelbase Transit has 9.6 cubic metres of load space. Something about Euro pallets.
Ford is actually relatively late to the electric van thing, just as it was to the car one. The Ford Focus Electric is to date the company’s only modern electric production model, technically (we'll clear this up in the next paragraph), having been released in 2011 and then discontinued. That said, the company is currently showing off all sorts of electric tech, including a Mach-E electric drift car in July with SEVEN electric motors producing 1400bhp.
That car was a showpiece for the forthcoming Mustang Mach E electric crossover, which is available to order now and will hit the roads soon. No doubt the company will follow it up with more cost-effective electric cars (the Mach E has a starting price approaching £50,000), including rivals for the likes of the Nissan Leaf and VW ID.3.
The electric van segment is growing fast too, including the Citroen e-Dispatch, the Vauxhall Vivaro-e and the Mercedes eVito. These vans are not sponsored by the letter ‘e’.
We’ll let you know more about the E Transit on 12 November. Make a brew.
Keyword: Ford announces electric Transit van