2023 Ford E-Transit priced and ready to deliver

Almost a year later than first anticipated, the 2023 Ford E-Transit has launched to give the Blue Oval brand its first battery-electric vehicle in Australia.

The large commercial van is one of at least five new electrified vehicles to launch from Ford by the end of next year, with the smaller Ford E-Transit Custom coming in 2024 and two SUVs also locked in – the Ford Mustang Mach-E (late this year) and Puma EV (next year).

The Ford E-Transit is available in two long-wheelbase variants at launch: the 420L BEV Mid Roof that’s priced from $104,990 plus on-road costs, and the 420L BEV High Roof from $106,490 plus ORCs.

The E-Transit pricing represents a massive increase over the comparable combustion-engined Transit 350L RWD, which starts from $53,590 plus ORCs.

However, it’s not without precedent, with the E-Transit’s main competitor in Australia, the LDV eDeliver 9 long-wheelbase mid-roof van, opening even higher at $116,537 plus ORCs.

Both versions of the Ford E-Transit are powered by a 198kW/430Nm electric motor which drives the rear wheels via a single-speed automatic transmission.

They draw energy from a 68kWh lithium-ion battery which yields a claimed (WLTP) driving range of up to 307km in the Mid Roof and 295km in the High Roof – more than 2.5 times the average daily mileage of a delivery van, according to Ford.

The company says the battery can be recharged from 15-80 per cent in 34 minutes when using a DC fast-charger (115kW) or from 0-100 per cent in 8.2 hours when hooked up to a three-phase 11kW AC wallbox.

The Transit’s rear suspension has been completely overhauled and now features heavy-duty semi-trailing arm set-up to accommodate the zero-emissions powertrain without sacrificing payload or carrying capacity.

Those metrics are 1611kg/11 cubic metres for the Mid Roof and 1566kg/12.4 cubic metres for the High Roof. Both models share the same 4250kg GVM but, significantly, are not rated for towing.

Ford Australia says the added aerodynamic drag of towing substantially reduces range, while a survey of Transit customers found only a small number use the van to tow.

Standard equipment in the E-Transit is headlined by Ford’s SYNC4 infotainment system, wireless smartphone mirroring, satellite navigation, FordPass connected services, adaptive cruise control, reversing camera, auto-hold and regenerative braking.

Standard safety gear includes autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, blind spot monitoring and assist, hill launch assist, intersection assist, lane keeping aid with lane departure warning, traffic sign recognition and rear parking sensors.

Three drive modes – Eco, Normal and Slippery – are also on hand to help maximise range, performance or traction, depending on the driving conditions.

Four main options are being offered on the E-Transit: ‘prestige’ paint ($700) and ‘special vehicle operations’ paint ($1400), a single front passenger’s seat rather than dual ($150) and sliding load doors on both sides ($1000).

The Blue Oval’s first EV is covered by a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, with eight-year/160,000km coverage for the battery and high-voltage electric components.

Ford Australia says there should be sufficient supply of the Turkish-built E-Transit to meet customer demand, especially now production has ramped up.

“We will bring in a quantity that we think is sufficient,” said Ford Australia president Andrew Birkic. “It’s not in the onesies and twosies…”

Ford Motor Company’s vice-president of global electric vehicle programs, Darren Palmer, said the car-maker’s $US50 billion ($A75.1bn) investment in EVs over the next four years will see annual production increased to 600,000 units across all model lines by the end of this year – and upscaled to more than two million by the end of 2026.

“We’ve got a footprint around the world and that’s going to help us deliver vehicles to markets including Australia,” he said.

“It’s something we’ve wanted to do from the start, but we saw such overwhelming demand that we couldn’t do it as well as we’d have liked to last year.

“We took some decisions to nearly quadruple production of some of the vehicles, triple production of the E-Transit and also triple production of the Mustang Mach-E.

“The success of the commercial vehicles has been particularly pleasing. It’s still early for a lot of customers around the world but there’s such a good use case, because they’re often quite repetitive and they’re all about cost of ownership, and the payback is so fast we’re seeing massive demand for the E-Transit as soon as we launched it.

“So we’ve struggled to keep up with it [but] now we’re going to have a lot more coming through.”

Click here to read our full review of the 2023 Ford E-Transit.

How much does the 2023 Ford E-Transit cost?
420L BEV Mid Roof – $104,990
420L BEV High Roof – $106,490
* Prices exclude on-road costs

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