Ford Motor Company states that the van will help owners to benefit from lower running costs by eliminating fuel bills, as well as assisting in carbon reduction efforts.
Bill Ford, executive chairman of the Ford Motor Company, said: “By providing a variety of electrified vehicles, we are making it easier for our customers to embrace this fuel-saving technology.”
With 28kWh of power coming from the elctric motor, the Transit Connect Electric has a top speed of 75mph and a range of up to 80 miles. This is ideal for city work, but clearly not the choice for motorway drivers !!
If you lift the Transit Connect's bonnet, it's obvious that this is no ordinary van. Ford have replaced the 2 litre diesel engine with a high-voltage electric motor that sends torque through a single-speed gearbox to the front wheels.
Behind the fuel cap is an electrical charging port that accepts 120V and 240V AC power that can take up to 10 hours to charge from empty and is stored in a 28kWh lithium ion battery. The battery sits where the fuel tank would normally be. which resides where the gas tank used to live. Because the vehicle doesn't have an alternator everything is purely electric driven including the power steering, cooling, heating, air conditioning, brake boosting, and other systems.
However, this mean green machine comes with a price tag reported at around £40,000 (retail price yet to be confirmed).
