In the United States, the Blue Oval commercial vehicle range is quite varied, indeed. But some pesky rumors claim that it will shrink, and soon.
The cheapest Ford commercial vehicle money can get is the $29,365 Transit Connect panel van. Then you are off with the E-Series, big Transit models, and the Super Duty plus F-650 and F-750 ‘flagships’ that kick off at no less than $63,425, which is even more than a $49,575 E-Transit. However, according to the rumor mill, there is one representative almost set to get the ticket to Valhalla's car retirement home.
That would be the Ford Transit Connect panel van and passenger minivan (sold as Tourneo Connect/Courier in Europe), which due to shrinking small van sales across the North American region will not be imported anymore from late 2023. According to the same pesky rumor, the Blue Oval’s corner-office head honchos have even scrapped previous plans of moving the production of the next-generation model to Mexico.
Still, an all-new Ford Transit/Tourneo Connect/Courier was spied last autumn undergoing the usual development prototype tests and looking like a Puma CUV-based minivan by our spy photographer partners. Of course, that could all be due to Ford’s continued success across the commercial market on the Old Continent.
However, no one should despair just yet, even if only virtually. This is because the imaginative realm of digital automotive artists will not take ‘no’ for an answer. So, here is Dimas Ramadhan, the pixel master behind the Digimods DESIGN channel on YouTube, who has taken up the task of revealing an all-new Transit Connect for the North American market – albeit only in CGI.
And, naturally, the author infused the people carrier (the passenger minivan kicks off at $31,860 for the 2022MY) with some local DNA to make the case even more compelling – or appalling, depending on your POV. As such, the front end incorporates some obvious styling references taken directly from the 2023 Ford F-150 Raptor and Raptor R.
But the quirkiness does not end here. Instead, the rear seems like an arguable CGI mashup of some sort – though at least there’s also ‘Hybrid’ branding to signal that sustainability is an important issue even when it comes to the parallel universes of CGI experts. Last, but not least, also do not think this is the only minivan the prolific author has worked on during the early days of the year.
Instead, embedded second below is the hypothetical “all-new,” fourth-generation 2024 or 2025 Peugeot Traveller Allure, which is the sibling of the Citroen SpaceTourer, Opel/Vauxhall Vivaro, and Toyota Proace van family. Only this time around, the Peugeot version is certainly aiming for additional recognition – especially given the informal Peugeot 308/508/3008/5008 cues!
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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