Ford Australia taking it slow with rolling out E-Transit electric van options, still believes diesel will dominate

Despite being a vehicle segment that appears to be such a natural fit with electrification, Ford Australia claims that conventionally powered (turbo-diesel) Transits will remain the big sellers in its local van line-up.

Ford Australia’s president and CEO, Andrew Birkic, told CarsGuide at the recent launch of the all-electric E-Transit, that: “ICE (in the Transit line-up) will still play the bigger role. But that will evolve and we’re all still learning.”

As part of that dominance of the van market by conventionally powered models, also comes the admission that we won’t be seeing the entire Transit range offering a BEV option in this market.

Birkic said while the company was considering other EV-powered Transit formats for this market, the introduction of an EV Transit bus or cab-chassis was unlikely.

“Certainly, we’re looking at other (E-Transit) layouts,” he admitted.

“But we’re not going to bring in one of everything. We have to make sure we have the flow and turnover and we have to bring in a line-up that we know the (Australian) customer wants.”

In Europe where the E-Transit was unveiled about this time last year, a total of 25 variants of BEV Transits are available including cab-chassis, dual-cab, long and short wheelbases and a variety of roof heights. GVMs range from 3.5 to 4.25 tonnes and there are two trim levels, Base and Trend.

By contrast, Australia currently gets just two E-Transit roof heights with common wheelbases, trim levels and body layouts across the range, and a single 4.25-tonne GVM specification.

That said, an EV version of the Transit Custom is slated for some time next year, and Ford will be closely watching the sales performance of this user-chooser-oriented Transit variant.

But Birkic was quick to point out that the European and Australian markets are two very different places.

“It’s different in Europe. (The van market) is just on a bigger scale.”

Birkic also made the point that the E-Transit was not just about Ford’s share in the van segment, but also about ushering in the concept of electrification to Australian car buyers.

“We will measure success (of the E-Transit) on financial return, but it also plays a bigger role in terms of electrification of Ford’s product range.”

As for how many E-Transits Ford reckons it can sell, Birkic was guarded.

“How many? We will bring in a quantity we reckon will be sufficient.”