subject: Fords Electric Transit [print this page] The Ford Transit has been the back bone for commercials drivers in Britain for over 30 years, to help maintain its popularity Ford has developed an electric version of it. The Ford Transit Connect Electric is being trialled in the US and the United Kingdom.
Ford want the Transit to gain some momentum before it releases the Electric Ford Focus later in 2011, the Focus will be competing against other electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf and Vauxhall Ampera.
Customers trialling the electric Transit model in the US include AT&T, New York Power Authority and the Canada Post. Fourteen of these vehicles have been provided to residents and businesses of the London borough of Hillingdon, who have been invited to test the vehicles during 2010 and 2011 alongside a charging infrastructure.
Commercial vans contribute a lot of CO2 emissions in towns and cities, electric models will help reduce city centre pollution levels dramatically. As well as being friendlier to the Earth, electric vehicles will also be friendly to wallets of businesses and tradesmen. Charging an electric vehicle costs a lot less than diesel.
The British Government is backing these electric vehicle tests, Hillingdon is the latest town to see these test being carried out, the MINI E is being trialled in Oxford, Smart Fortwo EVs and Toyota plug-in Hybrids are being trialled in London and the Peugeot eExpert electric people carrier is being used in Glasgow.
Industry experts are predicting that by 2013 we will see a lot more electric vans being used, so its not long till we see an electric Transit van in Sussex.
