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CEO Jim Farley said Ford’s commercial division is the Tesla of its respective industry segment.
Ford was fairly quick to electrify its Transit to turn it into the E-Transit after it saw that there was a market for electric commercial vehicles. However, unlike the many startups that showed electric vans, Ford already had its line of Transit vehicles which it repurposed as EVs and now it announced the start of production for the pure-electric E-Transit.Production is now in progress at the Blue Oval’s Kansas City, Missouri plant as Ford is looking to fill some 10,000 orders it received from 300 different customers ranging from government institutions to private buyers. The biggest single order is from Walmart, for 1,100 E-Transits.
Ford wants to be a commercial EV leader and has very big ambitions for this segment, even though startups have so far racked orders for a lot more electric vans than it currently has. That’s what company CEO Jim Farley wanted to say when during an event held this week in Sonoma, California, he said
We are the Tesla of this industry.
Farley previously said that
Ford is North America and Europe’s commercial truck and van leader, so the transition of fleet vehicles to zero emissions, especially for the fast-growing last-mile delivery segment, is critical to achieve our carbon neutrality goal by 2050.
Ford is ready to lead the charge, starting with the all-electric Transit and all-electric F-150 on the way. This is good for the planet and a huge advantage for customers to help lower their operating costs and provide connected fleet management technologies that will help their businesses.
Gallery: Ford E-Transit European Specification
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The manufacturer wants to sell the E-Transit throughout its entire global commercial dealer network comprised of over 1,800 locations, of which 645 are in the United States. Of the ones in the US, the automaker notes that around 90 percent are ready for the sale of electric vehicles.When it comes to specs, the Ford E-Transit is not especially impressive, with its 67 kWh battery pack and targeted EPA range of 126 miles (203 km) on one charge. It does have DC fast charging at up to 115 kW and it comes with an eight-year warranty; prices start at $45,000 for fleet customers.