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The excellent news about EV gross sales retains pouring in, and Ford Motor Firm is keen to pour extra gasoline on the hearth. The corporate racked up a robust efficiency in February and it’s banking on the all-electric E-Transit to maintain the momentum going. Wait, what’s the E-Transit and no matter occurred to the F-150 Lightning?
A Combined Image On EV Gross sales
Ford has been banking on its iconic manufacturers to offer its EV gross sales a robust begin out of the gate, and for some time there it appeared to be working.
CleanTechnica was amongst these taking be aware only a few years in the past when Ford launched new electrical autos underneath the long-lasting Mustang and F-150 title plates. The Metropolis of New York made headlines when it snapped up the brand new electrical Mustang Mach-E SUV, and the attention-getting F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck picked up awards from Motor Pattern and NACTOY, amongst others.
Some regarding information about EV gross sales within the US hit the media radar final fall, although when the mud settled the issue seemed to be extra a matter of not assembly expectations. Globally, EV gross sales in January 2024 blew previous the January 2023 determine by 69%, topping the 1 million mark.
Nonetheless, a world gross sales file can masks numerous variation. Certain sufficient, Ford’s EV gross sales “took a nosedive” in January 2024, as described by Fortune, partly on account of a shift within the EV tax credit image.
“Amid an industrywide slowdown in demand for electrical autos, Ford’s EV gross sales fell 11% in January,” Fortune famous.
“Ford is also chopping manufacturing of the Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning plug-in pickup truck,” they added.
Only one month later, the image seems brighter. Earlier this week, the Detroit Information was amongst these reporting that Ford delivered 6,368 EVs in February, an EV gross sales bounce of 80% from February final yr. The determine was drawn from a discover issued by the corporate on Monday. Detroit Information additionally picked via the information to notice a 93% uptick in gross sales of the F-150 Lightning in February, in addition to a 64% enhance for the Mustang Mach-E.
New Electrical Van To Enhance EV Gross sales
No phrase but when, or if, Ford plans to start out ramping up manufacturing of the Mach-E and Lightning once more. Nevertheless, even when gross sales of these two autos don’t meet preliminary expectations, Ford will at all times have the E-Transit, and that may be a large deal.
The E-Transit is the all-electric model of Ford’s common Transit van. A fixture of economic transport in Europe because the Sixties, the Transit was a best-kept secret throughout the pond till Ford launched it to the US in 2014. Ford will need to have like what it noticed, as a result of not too lengthy after that, in 2021, the corporate tapped the Transit nameplate to shoulder some duty for the transportation electrification motion.
Ford dropped phrase concerning the E-Transit launch proper across the time it introduced the brand new Mustang Mach-E. When it comes to media consideration, the Mustang model simply outshone the workaday, unfamiliar face of the Transit. Nevertheless, Ford appeared assured that its new all-electric, all-purpose commercial van would minimize via the media litter ultimately, flying on the coat-tails of the Transit.
Because it occurs, 2024 is the 10-year anniversary of the Transit’s launch within the US, and Ford determined to leverage the event on behalf of the E-Transit.
In a celebratory press launch on March 6, Ford drew consideration to the Transit’s stable status, noting that the van grew to become the #1 promoting industrial van within the US inside six months after hitting the market in 2014. Simply two years later it was outselling minivans, too.
Tim Baughman, the final supervisor of the corporate’s Ford Professional Division, chipped in his two cents for the press launch. “We’ve assembled greater than 1.2 million Transit vans within the final 10 years, and 99% of Transits are nonetheless on the highway, working laborious for purchasers as we speak,” he stated.
“It’s America’s bestselling industrial van as a result of it’s Constructed Ford Powerful, and companies on each streetcorner depend on Transit to maintain the nation transferring,” he emphasised.
As a sister automobile to the Transit van, the E-Transit additionally comes underneath the Ford Professional umbrella. Ford is taking full benefit of the connection.
“E-Transit has shortly grow to be the electric van of choice in America, Canada, and Europe, due to its versatility,” Ford enthuses.
Evidently the corporate shouldn’t be resting on its laurels. It has provide you with some enhancements to maintain pushing gross sales this yr.
“New for the 2024 mannequin yr, Ford Professional enhances vary functionality on E-Transit, providing an general estimated vary of 159 miles on low-roof cargo van fashions with 89 kWh of usable vitality, which helps work overlaying longer distances and supplies extra functionality to unlock electrical options for brand new use instances, like refrigerated supply,” the corporate explains.
How A lot Vary Does An EV Actually Want?
The vary of 159 miles could appear considerably quick by as we speak’s requirements, resulting in the query of why Ford didn’t make it longer. That’s a great query. Ford arrived on the stability of vary and price after analyzing the info from 2.5 million journeys overlaying 30 million miles of economic van use, and calculated that industrial vans solely journey a median of 74 miles a day within the US. Providing a higher-priced automobile with top-end vary may appeal to some clients, however by way of common EV gross sales a lower-range, lower-cost battery pack will do the trick.
As for EV quick charging, that’s one other fascinating angle on the electrical fleet automobile market. The brand new E-Transit can use DC quick charging stations to get a fast 15-minute partial cost whereas on the highway, however Ford assesses that public EV charging stations will not be the first use case for industrial electrical vans. As a substitute, they have a tendency to cost up at depots and different workplaces, or drivers take them dwelling to cost in a single day.
To fill that finish of the EV market, Ford de-emphasizes fast-charging functionality in favor of in a single day charging.
“…the 2024 E-Transit will cost from zero to 100% in simply six hours and 11 minutes when utilizing the now-available Ford Professional Sequence 2 80A charging station12 — 22% sooner than the prior battery — offering a full cost in a single day,” the corporate notes.
Ford has additionally smoothed the way in which for drivers to cost their vans at dwelling. The corporate is releasing a brand new iteration of its Sequence 2 48A charger, which it describes as “greatest for fleet drivers who take their autos dwelling to cost.”
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Mining Authorities Fleets For Extra EV Gross sales
Ford shouldn’t be the one Massive 3 automaker to spice up EV gross sales with a dive into the industrial van market (here’s one other instance), but it surely appears to have gotten an edge on the competitors. Again in 2022, CleanTechnica teased the concept the E-Transit would play a job within the US Postal Service’s large fleet upgrade plan. Certain sufficient, earlier this yr the USPS featured the E-Transit in an replace on the position of electric vehicles within the plan.
The Postal Service alone plans to purchase 9,250 E-Transit vans within the coming months, which ought to assist give 2024 EV gross sales a lift.
One other E-Transit enterprise entails a pilot fleet leasing mission with the Canadian firm Driving Pressure, which incorporates 100 E-Transit vans together with 50 Lightning pickups and 12 Mustang Mach-E, so keep tuned for extra on that.
Observe me @tinamcasey on Bluesky, Threads, Publish, and LinkedIn.
Photograph (cropped): Ford is banking on the E-Transit electric commercial van to assist increase EV gross sales within the US.
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