Ford announced in March that it would launch seven new electric vehicles in Europe until 2024. They will join the Mach-E and the E-Transit – which are already for sale – to create an impressive offering of nine EVs. The first new offering among those is the E-Transit Custom, which will offer 236 miles (380 kilometers) of WLTP range when it reaches customers by 2023.
As Ford had already disclosed, the new electric delivery will be manufactured in Turkey by Ford Otosan, the American carmaker's joint venture with Koç Holding. To be more precise, the Kocaeli plant is responsible for the E-Transit Custom, and also the two other commercial EVs Ford plans to unveil until 2024: the E-Tourneo and E-Tourneo Custom.
The Courier and Transit families will have two other electric siblings called Tourneo Courier and Transit Courier. From an industrial point of view, the only difference is that they will be made at the Craiova plant in Romania, which Ford Otosan now owns.
The E-Transit Custom has fast charging capability, but Ford did not inform how fast it can charge, possibly because it will take a while for production to start. We are also missing the chemistry the battery pack will use. The most likely option is NMC or NCA, meaning it will use ternary cells. Ford customers would eventually benefit from LFP cells, which are cheaper and more robust. The handicap is that they are heavier, which will impact the payload. Ford also did not disclose this invaluable information to fleet owners.
The good news for all European workers who envy the F-150 Lightning and its capability to power tools is that the E-Transit Custom will also have the ProPowe Onboard technology. In other words, anyone who needs to perform services without access to a power plug will not have to carry a generator anymore. As long as they keep an eye on autonomy to be able to return home, the new delivery van can take care of that.
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