The same day Leftlane got wind of news that Fiat’s Doblo would be coming stateside under the Ram brand to do battle with Ford’s E-Series and GM’s heavy-duty vans, new information suggests that Ford too may been looking to bring its European van to the U.S.
The news shouldn’t really come as a surprise to those who closely follow Ford’s recent moves towards global platforms and improved fuel economy and economies of scale. It may also be a bit ironic, if anything, that the similarly ancient body-on-frame Panther platform underpinning Ford’s rugged Crown Victoria also saw its final car produced today.
The “confirmation” of the E-Series’ demise comes from Wards, who caught wind of the switch to a single global Transit platform during a presentation given by Ford CFO Lewis Booth from the UBS Frankfurt Auto Show Investor Conference. On multiple occasions Booth mentioned just “the Transit” when speaking of the future commercial-van products, conspicuously leaving out mention of the E-Series.
In an attempt to truly get confirmation on the matter, Wards reached out to Ford, but the automaker declined to comment.
With the U.S. market also facing ever-increasingly stricter emissions and fuel economy laws, it seems inevitable that Ford (and General Motors) will have to soon ditch their long-running body-on-frame commercials vans in favor of the awkward (to U.S. buyers), tall and very European-looking Transit and comparable vans.
Ford may realize that fact, but it also realizes that it has more at stake by undertaking the switch than any other manufacturer in the U.S. Ford currently dominates the commercial van market with close to 60 percent of the market, so finding a way to retain customers by switching them from the tried-and-true E-Series (which has been on the market for 51 years) to the very foreign-looking Transit.
So when will the switch take place? No one at Ford is saying, but in the next few years – at most – would be a very safe bet.
References
1.’Ford van lineup…’ view
