Ford says its 2022 E-Transit van is showing up to work a little early. Through a Ford Pro pilot program, several companies, including Penske Truck Leasing and National Grid, have taken delivery of preproduction units of the E-Transit van.

The pilot vans will be operating in fleets serving the rental, delivery, service, maintenance, telecom and utility industries, and will give companies the opportunity to investigate how the automaker’s Ford Pro Intelligence and Ford Pro Charging solutions can help improve fleet efficiency.

Penske plans to validate the E-Transit van’s capabilities, driving experience and charging strategy for rentals to small- and medium-size businesses. “We expect to see strong utilization and interest from customers making final-mile deliveries, regional deliveries, and eventually consumer use for smaller household moves,” said Penske Truck Leasing President Art Vallely.

The E-Transit van, which is assembled at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant, will be available in eight configurations, including a cargo van with three roof heights and three lengths, plus chassis cab and cutaway versions.

Ford Pro Intelligence delivers solutions that connect to the vehicle wirelessly to help businesses manage fleets with real-time vehicle insights such as charge event monitoring, vehicle tracking, state of charge, range, charge history and logs, charging/battery settings and alerts, and departure preconditioning. 

Ford Pro Charging will provide tools to enable home, public and depot charging tailored to fleet operational needs. Employee home charging will include hardware and software solutions to manage overnight charging, along with energy reports to make driver reimbursement simple. For public charging, customers can access the BlueOval Charge Network, which currently includes some 19,500 charge stations and 63,000 charging plugs nationwide. Depot charging solutions monitor optimal charging times for fleets to help avoid utility demand charges.

“Beyond supplying all-electric vehicles to customers, Ford Pro is helping businesses determine better solutions for energy management and fleet efficiency,” said Ford Pro CEO Ted Cannis. “Our services link to the vehicle and into the entire operational environment of the business, which is the only way EVs will stick. Anything else is just disruptive to their business bottom line.”

E-Transit will begin arriving at dealerships in early 2022.

Source: Ford Pro