The title we chose to illustrate this article may seem exaggerated, and yet: the Ford Transit City, unveiled by Ford Pro at IAA Transportation in Hannover, indeed hides a Chinese origin behind its blue oval badge.
A European Utility Vehicle, Really?
That’s the irony of this announcement staged at a German trade show, which is also an industrial showcase of the best innovations from Europe’s automotive industry in the field of commercial vehicles. Officially, Ford is expanding its urban utility lineup with this one-ton electric van, slated to be offered in two lengths and two heights, and complemented by special body versions, such as a box van, a flatbed, and a shelving-equipped configuration offered directly from the factory. The newcomer slots between the compact Transit Courier and the larger Transit Custom. But this vehicle – and that is the heart of our headline – was actually developed by Jiangling Motors (JMC), a Chinese manufacturer in which Ford holds about a 30% stake since 1995. It is built at JMC’s Nanchang plant in China. It’s not the first time a JMC van arrives in Europe within the Ford Pro network sporting the famous blue ovals. We won’t linger on its design, which is simple and almost aggressively pared down, like many cars and commercial vehicles from the Middle Kingdom.
A Price Tag Ford Says Is Highly Attractive
Technically, this is a purely electric utility vehicle with 150 horsepower, powered by a single 56 kWh Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery pack that delivers roughly 254 kilometers (about 158 miles) of range. Fast charging tops out at 87 kW, enabling a jump from 10% to 80% in about 33 minutes, while AC charging at 11 kW takes around 4.5 hours to reach 80%. By today’s standards, those specs are modest next to the E-Transit Custom, but they fit a city-oriented use case and, above all, the model’s main goal: price. This approach allows Ford to offer an electric van that is clearly cheaper than the E-Transit Custom, which starts around €47,000 in Germany, by positioning it closer to the price of the small E-Transit Courier, which starts there at €35,617. One open question remains, however: its availability in France is not yet fully confirmed; a Ford representative admitted they’re working on it but are still having trouble pinning down a competitive price for the national market. Wait and see, then.
