Distance: 2km
Location: Toronto
Date: May 17, 2023
Up front: If you’ve driven any contemporary Ford sedan or crossover like the Escape, the centre console will feel familiar with a rotary dial shifter and a large touchscreen. Admittedly, this tester brought in by a Ford rep has faulty screen software causing lettering to overlap, but the screen is as responsive as a smartphone and the GPS feature works as intended.
The driver’s seat has enough adjustability to make me comfortable and the steering wheel moves up and down, but it doesn’t telescope far enough for me to rest my hands on my thighs. The inside armrests are attached to the seat while the outside armrests are fixed on the doors, so the left and right armrests won’t be level if you adjust your seat height.
Without a transmission tunnel, the space between the two seats provides storage space for personal items. It’s lacking organized storage space under the centre console, but I imagine there are plenty of aftermarket modifications for this.
In the back: Ford only sells this as a van, passenger minibus, or a cab and chassis. Most fleet customers will take one of these three versions to be customized with racks and shelves for their business’s needs. Not much to say here about the spartan interior, but I wish the rear doors had windows at the bottom so I don’t need to look at a camera to see objects when backing up.
Driving: I prefer cab-over vans for their shorter length and agility, so the Ford Transit family, in general, is longer than absolutely necessary. But even though it’s structured like a truck, the floor-mounted batteries give it a low centre of gravity and easy to throw around urban intersections. It is quiet, but that’s without the squeaks and rattles of shelves and goods rattling around in the back. The regenerative braking system is mild, but enough to eliminate the need to tap on the brakes for an upcoming turn or stop-and-go traffic.
I didn’t have the opportunity to take it on the highway, but I didn’t need to. With a range of just 150km, The e-Transit is designed for urban deliveries. Logistics contractors told me they needed at least 300km of range to be comfortable for door-to-door deliveries for a day. The van also costs 50% more than the petrol version and has nearly no availability within 12 months on small orders, so it’ll be a while before we see mass adoption.
