► New Ford Transit variant revealed
► Takes the Transit range to five
► Will be made in China, not Turkey
Ford may have lost its way when it comes to regular cars, but its commercial vehicles are a huge ongoing success. Britain’s towns are brimming with Ford Transits – used as delivery vehicles, by trades people and by anyone who wants a tough, practical van that’s also good to drive.
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And rather than resting on its laurels, Ford in Europe is adding another van to the line-up. The new Transit City takes the number of commercial vehicles in the Transit family to five.
This means no options, no trims to choose between and no choice between different battery or motor set-ups. The sole version that will be available is aimed at businesses that know how far they need to drive each day, and most likely do all their business in an urban environment. It will be priced between the E-Transit Custom, which starts at around £45,000, and the smaller E-Transit Courier, which is priced from £27,000 (not including VAT).
The City is designed to look similar to the Custom, but under the skin it’s a different vehicle. It was developed in partnership with Jiangling Motors Corporation (JMC) and sits on a bespoke EV platform. Very little, other than the looks and the name, is shared with the rest of the Transit family.
The battery is a 56kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) unit, paired to a 110kW (148bhp) motor, and promises an official electric range of around 158 miles. This might not sound like loads, but Ford is confident it offers more than enough for the needs of most customers. Having studied the data from existing electric commercial vehicles, Ford reckons 90 per cent of them do fewer than 68 miles a day, so this should be plenty for those companies. After all, if a postal delivery van does more than its usual daily miles then there’s a chance that something has gone wrong…