Ford plans to bring an electric Transit commercial van to the European market by 2021 as part of the automaker's broader plan to electrify its global portfolio.
Car manufacturer announced Transit EV, along with more than a dozen Other electrified consumer models that will become part of their European portfolio, at their Go Further event in Amsterdam on Tuesday.
Ford didn't give many other details on Transit van. And for now the EV van is only separated for Europe. Ford's focus on Europe is sensible, considering the sales record in the region. Ford sold 380,900 commercial vehicles in its 20 European markets last year, up over 8 percent compared to 201
The company said commercial vans were "designed to meet the needs of businesses for a convenient and versatile zero discharge capacity carrier." City applications. "That type of language suggests a city-focused vehicle that can have a range of 200 kilometers. Ford Transit will be available in several body styles, Ford said.
Ford made several other commercial vehicle-related announcements on Tuesday, including the introduction of its new Tourneo Custom Plug-In Hybrid that can place eight people and will be available to European customers starting in late 2019.
One of the more Interesting sections of commercial news are Ford's new initiative to target 100 percent uptime for commercial vehicle operators. Ford plans to hit that goal via a utility-based maintenance program that will be powered by a new app called FordPass Pro which was previewed at the event.
The FordPass Pro app, which will be launched later this year, is specifically designed to support small business owners and proprietors to maximize productivity.
"Commercial customers need smarter and more integrated solutions, built around a business environment," says Hans Schep, general manager of vehicles at Ford of Europe.
Ford also presented a Transit Smart Energy Concept, a 10-page minibus. The concept, which has about 93 miles of driving distance from a four hour charge, was developed by Ford's merkenich technical center engineers in Germany. The concept uses a Ford Transit chassis equipped with the same battery-electric drive technology as StreetScooter WORK XL. StreetScooter is the company behind DeutschePost DHL electric vans.
Ford is working on other iterations of the term minibus that increases energy savings and expands battery-powered driving range, including features that allow the driver to control the heating and cooling of individual seats – and deactivation of uninhabited seats.
Ford says road trials with the Transit Smart Energy Concept are expected to start later this year after completing wind tunnel tests. Ford engineers will take what they learn from these trials and future versions of the concept and ultimately use their range-expanding features for volume production cars.
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