Almost two years ago, Ford had announced it will commence production of a new ‘light commercial vehicle’ in 2023, with an all-electric variant to follow in 2024. At that time the identity of the vehicle was still unknown – today we can announce that Automotive News Europe‘s guess it could be a replacement for the Transit Courier van sold in Europe turned out to be right. The all-new Ford Transit Courier got snapped in Germany for the first time. The current model, which rides on the previous-generation Fiesta city car’s platform, celebrates its ninth birthday this year – aligning with Ford’s circa-10-year life-cycle for its smaller vans.
The new city-sized van would slot into the Blue Oval’s European range below the Transit Connect small van and Transit Custom medium van – both twins to Volkswagen’s new-generation Caddy and T7.
Production of the new Transit Courier will commence in 2023 at Ford’s factory in Craiova, Romania, thanks to a 300-million-Euros investment in the plant, which is currently home to production of the Puma light SUV and the EcoSport small SUV.
An all-electric version will debut in 2024, as part of the brand’s plan for its entire commercial vehicle range to offer a plug-in hybrid or fully-electric option by 2024, as announced in early 2021.
Craiova will become the third Ford of Europe plant to build electric vehicles, following the Kocaeli, Turkey and Cologne, Germany sites that are set to build the next-generation electric Transit Custom and a new passenger electric vehicle based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform, respectively.
The core Transit Courier range will continue to be powered by “advanced” petrol and diesel engines – the latter type sourced from the Dagenham, UK plant – paired to transmissions manufactured at Ford’s Halewood, UK facility.
“Our plan to build this new light commercial vehicle in Romania reflects our continuing positive partnership with local suppliers and the community, and the success of the entire Ford Craiova team,” said Ford of Europe president, Stuart Rowley.
AUTOMEDIA
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