Ford Motor Company announced today that it has successfully started shipping its brand new all-electric E-Transit van to customers, working to fulfill the over 10,000 orders the automaker has to for the vehicle.
“Ford E-Transit™, the electric version of America’s best-selling commercial van1 and the first of two all-electric vehicles purpose-built for Ford Pro™ commercial customers, is now shipping across the U.S. The popular E-Transit already has more than 10,000 orders from businesses of all sizes, and Ford is working on ways to increase production,” Ford wrote in a press release today.
The all-electric E-Transit is assembled at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant, which is the automaker’s first plant to assemble batteries and all-electric vehicles in-house.
Ford has received orders for the E-Transit all over the U.S. The company said that it has more than 300 customers who have placed orders for over 10,000 total units. Last week, Wal-Mart confirmed to Teslarati in a statement that it had ordered 1,100 E-Transit vans from Ford.
The E-Transit has been a staple vehicle for many businesses and companies since its introduction in 1965. “E-Transit is a testament to the fact that an electric commercial fleet is no longer a vision of tomorrow, but a productivity-boosting modern reality,” President of The Americas & International Markets Group for Ford, Kumar Galhotra, said.
Ford is using the moniker Ford Pro to launch forward its commercial and government accounts. Ford Pro is the company’s “global business and brand within Ford dedicated to delivering solutions to government and commercial customers of all sizes to help accelerate productivity, improve uptime, and lower operating costs through connected services and work-ready gas and electric vehicles,” the automaker wrote. Ford Pro is helping Ford get these vehicles to customers and businesses in America, driving them forward.
“Ford Pro is committed to driving businesses forward – from the Transit vans and F-150 trucks assembled right here in America by American workers2, to the many businesses it will help grow, to the communities that benefit from the jobs and revenue,” said GM of Ford Pro North America Tim Baughman said.
The E-Transit is one of Ford’s most important projects in recent memory, mostly because of its placement as a keystone in the automaker’s electrified fleet, and it is a vehicle that fits the Ford Pro template. However, the E-Transit joins the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E as two cars highlighting Ford’s electrification transition. Ford recently indicated that it would boost production estimates for the Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning, aiming to reach 600,000 deliveries in just 22 months. CEO Jim Farley believes Ford can be the first legacy automaker to scale EV production, and it has made the most progress thus far.
I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.