Electric Ford Transit has a brilliant steering wheel

September 8, 2022

Ford E-Transit

We saw it for the first time in May: the new, all-electric Ford E-Transit. The Ford bus will also be marketed with traditional fuel engines, but for now all attention is on the all-electric variant. This is the first time Ford has introduced an electric model in the 1-ton commercial vehicle segment. We already got the pictures a few months ago, now we also have all the specifications for you.

Range

We’ll fall right in with you. The E-Transit has a range of 380 kilometers, a towing capacity of up to 2,000 kg, up to 1,100 kg of payload and is suitable for fast charging up to 125 kW. The battery pack has a net capacity of 74 kWh and consists not of hundreds of small, cylindrical battery cells, but of pouch cells. At home or at a public charging station, the Transit takes over seven hours to fully charge. You do that at night, of course, while you’re sleeping. With a quick charger capable of delivering 125 kW, the battery pack is back to 80% in 40 minutes.

Power

Two powertrains are available, with a choice of a 136-hp and 217-hp electric motor. In both cases, you have 415 Nm of torque at your disposal. As mentioned, you can hang up to 2,000 pounds behind the van, making it an excellent replacement for a diesel bus, according to Ford. Thanks to its overall height of just under 2.0 meters, you can drive the Ford E-Transit Custom into a parking garage or McDrive without any problems. Loading and unloading is no problem either, as the new Ford has the widest sliding door openings in its class.

Load volume

As a closed van, the new E-Transit Custom has a load volume of 5.8 to 9.0 m3. The load capacity is up to 1,100 kg3 and the maximum load length is 3,450 mm. Double-cab versions and a passenger van are also available. Customers can choose from a short or long wheelbase, with a low or raised roof. So the choice is wide.

Technology

Every Ford E-Transit Custom is equipped with a 13-inch infotainment screen, which runs the SYNC 4 system. Behind the steering wheel you can get a digital instrument cluster and fortunately we also detect some physical buttons in the interior. Just about every driver assistance system you can think of is also present. Think Pre-Collision Assist, Lane-Keeping System, Driver Alert, cruise control with adjustable speed limiter, traffic sign recognition, Intelligent Speed Assist and we could go on… The steering wheel is extra special and you can – when standing still – lay it flat. They you can work up a nice burger to your stomach without messing around. You can also easily place a laptop “on” the steering wheel.

Turkey

All variants of the Ford Transit Custom are built by Ford Otosan, Ford’s joint venture in Turkey. This will be done in an entirely new plant on the Yeniköy site, which is part of a previously announced 2 billion euro investment in production capacity. Note that the first examples will not roll off the assembly line at the state-of-the-art plant until the end of 2023. So a little more patience…