Ford is preparing for the 100% electric future, mainly in Europe, where it is more mandatory than voluntary. Ford recently announced an offensive of electric models by 2024, including the Ford Tourneo Custom EV van. A video teaser has just been released showing a little more detail, but not much more. We will know all the details on May 9.
At the front, there is a visual signature that runs the entire width of the nose, a common stylistic resource in electric versions. In addition, it will be a differential detail with Transit Custom. Remember that the names of Ford commercials could hardly be more counterintuitive. The passenger version (M1) is called the Tourneo Custom, while the industrial version (N1) is the Transit Custom. The second component is the one that marks the size.
Both Ford Customs will be manufactured from 2023 in Kocaeli (Turkey), a factory where the e-Transit, 100% electric, based on the Transit platform, is already produced for the European area . There is no passenger version of this, it is an industrial model and lacks the last name of differentiation. Ford and its industrial partners, SK On and Koc Holding will set up a battery factory in the same country to better exploit economies of scale.
Both Ford Tourneo Custom and Transit Custom will share the vast majority of components, of course, the platform, powertrain, and main body parts, but will have more differentiation than the outgoing generation, which appeared in 2012 and was slightly updated in 2017. This development is assumed made in collaboration with Volkswagen, a manufacturer with which there are synergies in the range of commercial vehicles.
Surely there are still hybrid and thermal versions, so it will be a multi-energy platform and therefore not fully optimized for its 100% electric life. This approach has already been put into practice by other manufacturers such as Stellantis, whose medium vans -eK0 platform- can be diesel, electric, and even hydrogen fuel cells.
The range of commercial vehicles of the American brand is grouped under Ford Pro, which is a division like Ford e, specializing in electric cars, and Ford Blue, which inherits the traditional business of Ford and the facet of more playful vehicles such as Mustang. and Bronco. We will have to wait another year for the arrival of the 100% electric version of the Transit/Tourneo Courier, which is the smallest format in the Ford Pro family.
