As of May 4, commercial customers interested in learning more about the Ford E-Transit full-size electric van ahead of order banks opening in July can now “raise their hands to share purchase intentions” on a new registration site that’s part of Fleet.Ford.com. Just don’t call them preorders.
On this new site, Ford announced updated targeted battery ranges by body type, roof height, and wheelbase, along with targeted MSRPs for each configuration. Base starting MSRP ranges from $43,295 for the cutaway — lower than originally announced — to $52,690 for the high-roof extended-wheelbase cargo van. Prices exclude destination/delivery fees, fees and taxes, and "dealer processing charges."
Ford said in a statement it already has more than 450 commercial customer “hand raisers” in North America spanning 45 vocations already, including 200 top fleets and fleet management companies.
As numerous upstart automakers ready their commercial EVs, Ford is banking on commercial customers’ familiarity with the best-selling Transit van, which has the same cargo dimensions and standard mounting points as the gas-powered Transit for easy carryover of upfits, racks, bins, and accessories. Setting itself further apart from its new competitors, Ford can boast a ready-made service network of about 600 EV-certified Ford Commercial Vehicle Center dealers across the U.S.
E-Transit offers eight configurations, including a cargo van with three roof heights and three lengths, plus chassis cab and cutaway models.
Ford also believes it has a good idea of the type of hand raisers who will buy the E-Transit, which will be built alongside the Transit at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant. Ford contends that about 40% are leaning toward high-roof vans and 60% are pointing to medium-roof, low-roof, cutaway, and chassis cab versions.
Early order indicators favor the delivery segment, Ford said, with other vocations such as equipment rental; local, state, and federal government agencies; utility services; and telecommunications showing interest. Other uses include recreational vehicles, school buses, automotive service, carpet cleaning, and service vans, to more unusual applications like armored transport, blood donation units and prisoner transport.
“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,” said Ted Cannis, general manager, North American commercial business. “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.”
While Ford has lowered e-Transit’s starting MSRP, previously announced specs stay the same:
E-Transit has a usable battery capacity of 67 kilowatt-hours for a targeted driving range of 126 miles for the low-roof E-Transit cargo van. On the registration site, though not mentioned in the press statement, Ford says more announcements will come on “additional derivatives that offer more capability and range.”
E-Transit has a targeted maximum payload of 3,800 lbs. with up to 487.3 cubic feet of cargo space in the cargo version. Cutaway versions will feature a maximum payload up to 4,290 lbs.
Early-production E-Transit vans will be tested by select fleet customers in telecommunications, delivery, utility services, and other vocations this summer.
