Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn has opened a website for customers to learn more about the new E-Transit, the company’s first full-size all-electric van. Order banks for the van will open in July, and customers can sign up for notification of the opening through the new site.
Along with registration, the site offers updated pricing, with a targeted starting manufacturer suggested retail price of $43,295 for the cutaway — lower than originally announced — to $52,690 for the high-roof extended-wheelbase cargo van.
To date, more than 450 commercial customers in North America have said they’re interested in purchasing the new van. Customers can sign up for ordering registration at the new site, available on Fleet.Ford.com. No deposit or purchase commitment is required to receive notification of when order banks open.
E-Transit is the electrified version of Ford Transit. It will be built alongside the Transit at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri. With the zero-emissions offering, Ford says it is helping businesses achieve sustainability goals and lower costs of ownership.
Ford data shows that in the U.S., 70 percent of the full-size bus and van business is going all-electric by 2030. This represents more than 300,000 vehicles annually.
The E-Transit offers eight configurations, including cargo van with three roof heights and three lengths, plus chassis cab and cutaway models, lending itself to an array of applications. Preliminary conversations with commercial customers indicate a mix for demand across the configurations, with about 40 percent leaning toward high-roof vans and 60 percent leaning toward the medium-roof, low-roof, cutaway, and chassis cab versions.
“We’ve had so much interest early on, we wanted to open this registration site to serve customers with a build mix for their needs across all van body styles,” says Ted Cannis, general manager of North American commercial business at Ford.
“Some customers want high-roof vans to maximize internal cargo space, while others need to install bodies on cutaways and chassis cabs. Customers will have an all-electric solution – from box truck delivery to parking structure-friendly utility service vans and everything in between.”
Internal data shows early order indicators favor the delivery segment, including equipment rental, government agencies, utility services, and telecommunications. Customers have also shared plans to use E-Transit for recreational vehicles, school buses, automotive service, carpet cleaning, service vans, blood donation units, and other applications.
The E-Transit was designed with insight from 30 million miles of customer telematics data showing that the average commercial van drives 74 miles per day. With a usable battery capacity of 67 kilowatt hours, the low-roof E-Transit cargo van has a targeted driving range of 126 miles.
Available Pro Power Onboard turns E-Transit into a mobile generator with up to 2.4 kilowatts of available power to help customers use and recharge job site tools. Standard Sync 4 brings connected solutions that unlock software subscriptions to help fleets manage charging transactions, telematics services, and more.
E-Transit offers the same cargo dimensions and standard mounting points as the gas-powered van, so fleets can use the same upfits, racks, bins, and accessories.
Scheduled maintenance costs over eight years/100,000 miles are projected to be 40 percent less than for the gas-powered Transit based on recommended service schedules published in 2019 and 2020 owner’s manuals. The E-Transit is backed by 645 Ford Commercial Vehicle Center dealers across the U.S., about 90 percent of which are electric vehicle-certified.
Ford is rolling out a pilot program this summer in which key customers test the electric van across a variety of vocational use cases. More information about the pilot will be available at a later date.
E-Transit is part of Ford’s more than $22 billion investment in electrification through 2025.
