Getting Americans to give up their apparent death grip on the E-Series van won’t be an easy task, but Ford is banking on the fuel savings to be had with an EcoBoost-equipped Transit as one way to achieve the seemingly impossible.
Since Ford will be phasing out the long-time top-selling E-Series in favor of the import-from-Europe full-size Transit, the automaker has decided to make the proposition a bit more appealing by adding the same 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 found in over 40 percent of F-150′s sold in 2011.
The net result, says Ford, will be at least a 25 percent drop in fuel consumption compared to a comparable E-Series, something sure to raise interest in fleets racking up miles. That fuel savings will come partly from the use of an EcoBoost V6 (in rear-wheel drive) as opposed to a V8, and partly due to a roughly 300 lb weight advantage for a comparably-sized Transit over an old school E-Series.
“The new Ford Transit commercial van will deliver all the capability and capacity that customers get with today’s E-Series, but with the bonus of improved fuel economy and potentially lower operating costs thanks to its available EcoBoost engine,†said Tim Stoehr, Ford commercial truck marketing manager.
The UAW-Ford labor contract plans for Ford to assemble the Transit right alongside its F-Series trucks at Ford’s Kansas City assembly plant. Ford will also build an integrated stamping plant on location, expanding the Kansas City plant’s footprint and workforce. In all, the plant is set to receive a substantial $1.1 billion in upgrades, along with the addition of a second shift for the F-Series trucks alone starting in 2012.
In Europe, the Transit comes in many shapes and sizes – including a unique road-oriented SportVan – but Ford has not yet disclosed what variants the U.S. will receive. Production of the Transit will begin in the U.S. in 2013.
