Ford announced that it is investing $100 million in its Kansas City factory to build the electric version of its Transit van to be unveiled later this week.
The automaker is in the middle of its first big electrification push with the Mustang Mach-E getting to dealerships right now, the F-150 in the works, and now the unveiling of the E-Transit.
Ford plans to unveil the electric van on Thursday, but in the meantime, the automaker is announcing a $100 million investment in its Kansas City Assembly Plant to produce the electric version:
“Ford is investing an additional $100 million in its Kansas City Assembly Plant and adding approximately 150 full-time jobs to begin producing the all-new E-Transit on the heels of the all-electric F-150 announced in September; E-Transit arrives late 2021, F-150 electric 2022.”
Kumar Galhotra, president of Americas and International Markets Group at Ford, commented:
“We’re taking our most iconic vehicles and using fully electric technology to deliver even more performance, productivity and capability for customers. We are building out the North American manufacturing footprint to support this growth. This is just the first chapter with more new electric vehicles and more investment to come.”
Not much is known about the Ford E-Transit at the moment, but we should know everything about the electric van later this week.
Stay tuned.
Electreks Take
There are already several companies producing electric commercial vans.
Ford benefits from the brand name. The Transit is already a popular van.
They could also differentiate themselves by bringing more configurations to the electric version, like even a camper?
But I dont want to get my hopes up too much.
What I am more concerned about is the $100 million investment. That seems on the low side for the volume production of an electric vehicle program.
I know that the Kansas City factory is already producing the Transit and therefore, they can leverage a lot of that production capacity for the electric version, but I still think that $100 million for all that related to the electric version is low.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
