E-Transit Cargo Van

Make
Ford
Segment
Van

The benefits of EVs are clear: lower refueling costs, fewer moving parts for reduced maintenance and repair bills, and of course, cleaner air. Those are all welcome changes for the average commuter, but they're even more crucial for commercial fleets, where maximizing uptime and minimizing operating costs is the name of the game.

That hasn't escaped the leaders at Ford Motor Company, and they're responding to the wishes of the commercial vehicle market with a new, pure-electric version of the Ford Transit. Now, the automaker has announced that Kansas City Assembly Plant has been selected as the production site for the new Ford E-Transit.

That's no surprise; the Ford Transit is already built at Kansas City Assembly, alongside the best-selling Ford F-150. But what is surprising is that the F-150 Electric, which will follow the E-Transit to market in 2022, won't be built there, but instead at Ford's historic Rouge Plant in Dearborn.

Kansas City Assembly will add 150 permanent, full-time jobs and see an additional $100 million poured into it to produce the E-Transit - a small portion of Ford's much larger $11.5-billion bet on electrification through 2022. The past couple of years have seen a flurry of new activity in the EV segment from mainstream automakers, but Ford says its strategy is unique.

"Ford's strategy is different - we are delivering affordable, capable electric vehicles in the heart of the retail and commercial market rather than six-figure status vehicles," says Ford's President of the Americas, Kumar Galhotra, in what could be seen as a not-so-subtle jab at GMC's new $112k Hummer EV. "With the stunning Mustang Mach-E SUV, an all-electric F-150 and the new E-Transit, our first wave of EVs in North America will introduce a whole new generation to EVs."

The E-Transit will arrive late in 2021, after its official unveiling on Thursday, November 12.