I made a slight mistake in this video. At 08:51 when talking about the supply cables to the air conditioning compressor, I said "AC power", when I was meant to say "12V DC power".
I bought one of these for less than half price at auction recently, with very low mileage. Clearly the previous owner, a specialist window company that operated nationwide, hadn't done their research or had been missold. It's just not suitable for long distance work, where time is money and public charging during working hours is money down the drain. The all-new rear suspension and motor are an engineering marvel. The van is great to drive and fairly economical (just over 2 miles per kWh if driven like a diesel). I'm somewhat disappointed that Ford didn't go further in embracing EVs by getting rid of some of the ICE legacy compromises. For example, as we saw in the video, a huge amount of space is wasted under the bonnet. Yet if you look under the vehicle there is a lot of places that things like the AC unit could have been mounted, leaving the engine bay free for something really useful, like a tool safe. In the cab, we still have the transmission tunnel, that means the centre seat is still only suitable for a small crippled lad with one leg longer than the other. The gear stick housing, which intrudes uncomfortably of the leg room for the middle passenger is surely no longer required. Ford should have been braver and designed an all-new EV-centred platform, a MK9 if you like, and then retrofitted an ICE or hybrid drive train. They could have achieved lower load height, lower centre of gravity and 50:50 weight distribution. If you can live with the range it is a great van, but be sure you can live with the range before buying one.
I just think the commercial chassis vehicle need MUCH bigger battery packs to push the range into the 200s or low 300s ,,, a 100 miles if you have multidrop or delivery drivers on 70+ deliveries on a shift just wont work ...a 200+ mile range would change the dynamic completely
@marcperrett662 The Farizon SuperVan looks interesting. It's coming to the UK early next year. It has a 106kWh battery that offers 300 mile range. There are rumours that the 150KWh semi-solid-state battery from their parent company, Geely, will be coming soon. The semi-solid-state battery doubles energy density (400 Wh/kg vs 200 Wh/kg), so, in theory, payload should increase for the 150kW battery too (41% increase in capacity and 21% reduction in battery weight, if my maths is right).
@@sailingoctopus1 thats excellent news ,,and makes EV commercials completely viable ,,,even the 106kwh is 25% bigger than the standard large battery vans 👍
Nice look around. I thought the 69kWh was gross. Good to know it nett. That gives it the same pack as my e-Expert. I'm looking to see if these are my next Camper build. They are reasonably priced now. Not many with the pro-power around though.
@keypoint1293 what do you need payload in a camper for 🙄 also why do you need range for camping most travel short distances between sites to enjoy an area. A few fast charges on the way is hardly a problem. It's supposed to be a relaxing journey not a race. You obviously don't understand camping.
@@gillscorner794 you obviously use your camper completely different to me then 🙄 most of my trips are around 300 miles and around a leisurely 6 hour drive ,,to the first destination,,, which would involve 3 charges at motorway services ( 79pence/kwh) so probably add another 3 hours to the journey assuming you could get directly onto a charger at each location AND assuming that you could achieve optimum useage rates on the drive. ,,,last trip was 13 days Brecons,,Snowdon,, Lake district and then up the west side into Scotland eventually stopping at Oban ( i love that place ❤) not one of the sites i stopped at (6 in all) had on site charging and charging of vehicles on pitch is not allowed ,,So each day would have involved having range anxiety to find suitable charging locally in very busy tourist areas ,,i definitely dont call that very relaxing either ,,approximately 17 sessions of charging by my reckoning or 4 fill ups of diesel that i actually did (60-65mph all the way))
Thanks for the upload, very informative. Unfortunately, range is still not where it needs to be. Driving in winter, getting in and out and opening the doors to get stuff in and out means your going to need the heaters. On the plus side, it doesn't have a wet belt. Cheers 🍻
Another informative video. I think the preoccupation of range should be changed to the savings per mile (exc other costs). My Kona ev costs 1.5p per mile vs 15p for a petrol car. (Charging at night on an EV tariff)
While I agree. If you can charge at home, the cost of running an EV feels almost nothing. Our two private EVs are costing only about £150 a year to fuel. But when it comes to vans, especially big vans like this, they are typically charged at a workplace but would still cheaper to fuel than a diesel. However, its the range of EVs that is putting many off. But many will be thinking about this wrong as they'll be comparing it to a tank of diesel which only gets refilled over week or two.
@@GoGreenAutos I'm tempted by an E-transit after the mechnical nightmre the last one i had was with a diesel engine and modern diesels are made of chocolate
But that’s only half the story (conveniently) On longer journeys, when I have to charge my EV at public chargers, it costs over twice as much as it would to fuel my petrol car. 75p a kW gets me 3 miles. 75p worth of unleaded gets me 6.8 miles People need to know the whole picture, not just some out of date narrow minded narrative
@@AndyC2_ Not all chargers are 75p and Tesla ones are amongst the cheapest at about half of that or there abouts albeit I seldom rarely use any. Also not all EV's are equal and there are EV's that can do over 5 miles to the Kw. my over 2 ton 4.2 sec 0-60 EV will easily do 4 miles per Kw. It can go down to 3 when I wear my lead shoes! The other thing is that if you can charge at home or at work you blend the two rates together.
I have a question, when you touch the brake to start regeneration braking does the brake lights come on and stay on while you are breaking and go off when this braking finishes or does the brake lights just flash on & off?
I didn't check on this van, which is now sold so I can't check. However, with most EVs, the brake lights come on at a certain level of deceleration. So if the regen is light, no brake lights. But if the vehicle is slowing down more, it puts the brake lights on even if the brake pedal isn't touched. On the e-Transit, the first level of regen wouldn't be strong enough to keep the brake lights on, so you would just get a flash initially when the driver touched the brakes. But the second level is probably strong enough to trigger the lights. There's an EU rule to set the level at which the brake lights come on.
interesting install of the battery pack into the transit ,,very well done ,,i would be more intrigued to hear from actual owners of loaded vehicle range figures , rather than TH-cam reviews ,,,your point about 30k+ van mileages does,nt add up as all delivery companies would do substantially more than that ,,small local buinesses may do well with it but certainly most companies need the abillity to travel further than that loaded than the short range would allow ,,, which comes down to the potential down time while waiting for charging ,,,and then only to 80% anyway ,,i wonder how bigger companies who can effectively park their vehicles anywhere with a diesel van would be able to charge large numbers of vehicles overnight assuming they were,nt needed during that time ? two ev vans recently delivered in 23 plate guise to my company are due to be returned to their central vehicle supplier due to range problems ,,,the vans seem to be miles off the car ranges ?? 300 miles(reallife) range would be completely acceptable and practicle ,,,the battery packs need to be much bigger for commercial users ,,,Fantastic driving vehicles BUT 9 minute fill ups for ice vehicles is a big decider in the real world
Sorry to be negative but real world driving in winter will likely be little more than 100 miles. Add to that the fact it has such an inefficient heater, that would bring it down to 75 miles. I know people say to use seat and steering wheel heating, but then how would you keep all the windows clear ? Yes it has a heated element in the windscreen but they only stay on for 4 minutes at a time and use massive power consumption. It’s just too much compromise, it’s like using a van from the 1970s with sub standard heating and technology. People should be calling it out as simply being not good enough, yet all I hear is you making excuses for the poor range, poor heating and de misting capabilities. In a vehicle that size and weight, it should have a battery twice the size I’d love to see you load it up and do some real world range testing in the winter months
Unfortunately I didn't have the vehicle long enough to do any testing as it sold within a few days. But my tests on other electric vans show that weight doesn't make the difference people assume. See www.youtube.com/@GoGreenAutos/search?query=weight But yes I would agree, a larger battery would be better on such a large van. But that will only add cost and probably not sell. The cost of batteries are reducing rapidly, so I would expect the next model to have a much larger battery and probably a lower list price as well. It was a very different time (in terms of battery cell prices) back in 2021 when this van production was getting ready.
@@GoGreenAutosYes I wasn’t very clear but it wasn’t so much the weight, it would have been great to see the real world range and how it’s affected by using the heater etc Thanks
The heat pump in my 2014 LEAF works really well and has minimal effect on the range. With a big battery such as this vehicle has, and only heating the cab, I think a heat pump is the way to go.
@@GoGreenAutos so pretty much made the argument to wait for better battery capacity on commercials until buying ,,drove a merc Cetan while my transit was being used by someone else last week ,,, took it off the charger at 98% ,, 97miles in cold weather but admittedly i wasnt being particuarly frfugal when driving it,,,,loved it as a vehicle ,drove really nice
@@thinfourth Maybe. I've been ignoring them until I bought this one, which happened to be a 198kW one. I must admit, it wasn't as lively as I was expecting, but then its a huge van, so maybe I was expecting too much. But as always, EVs hide the speed because they are so quiet and smooth and there's no noise and vibration giving you the feeling of speed.
Big ole load of cr&p! Absolutely useless for anything other than a few local trips or a bit of multi drop. Don't try and use one on the motorway in winter!!!
I made a slight mistake in this video. At 08:51 when talking about the supply cables to the air conditioning compressor, I said "AC power", when I was meant to say "12V DC power".
I don't think you showed the location of the 12v battery in the video?
I bought one of these for less than half price at auction recently, with very low mileage. Clearly the previous owner, a specialist window company that operated nationwide, hadn't done their research or had been missold. It's just not suitable for long distance work, where time is money and public charging during working hours is money down the drain.
The all-new rear suspension and motor are an engineering marvel. The van is great to drive and fairly economical (just over 2 miles per kWh if driven like a diesel).
I'm somewhat disappointed that Ford didn't go further in embracing EVs by getting rid of some of the ICE legacy compromises. For example, as we saw in the video, a huge amount of space is wasted under the bonnet. Yet if you look under the vehicle there is a lot of places that things like the AC unit could have been mounted, leaving the engine bay free for something really useful, like a tool safe.
In the cab, we still have the transmission tunnel, that means the centre seat is still only suitable for a small crippled lad with one leg longer than the other. The gear stick housing, which intrudes uncomfortably of the leg room for the middle passenger is surely no longer required.
Ford should have been braver and designed an all-new EV-centred platform, a MK9 if you like, and then retrofitted an ICE or hybrid drive train. They could have achieved lower load height, lower centre of gravity and 50:50 weight distribution.
If you can live with the range it is a great van, but be sure you can live with the range before buying one.
I just think the commercial chassis vehicle need MUCH bigger battery packs to push the range into the 200s or low 300s ,,, a 100 miles if you have multidrop or delivery drivers on 70+ deliveries on a shift just wont work ...a 200+ mile range would change the dynamic completely
@marcperrett662 The Farizon SuperVan looks interesting. It's coming to the UK early next year. It has a 106kWh battery that offers 300 mile range.
There are rumours that the 150KWh semi-solid-state battery from their parent company, Geely, will be coming soon. The semi-solid-state battery doubles energy density (400 Wh/kg vs 200 Wh/kg), so, in theory, payload should increase for the 150kW battery too (41% increase in capacity and 21% reduction in battery weight, if my maths is right).
@@sailingoctopus1 thats excellent news ,,and makes EV commercials completely viable ,,,even the 106kwh is 25% bigger than the standard large battery vans 👍
Got to be the most informative video, thank you for taking the time to make this. Very useful (about to buy one of these…)
Thanks. You're welcome.
This is the 2023 model. In the US we get the 2025 model in Feb 2025 with a 249 mile range that can fast charge 130 miles in 30 minutes.
That was interesting.
Smart looking and well equipped with enough range for many local applications rather than motorway munching.
Exactly. There's plenty of trades that only work locally.
That looks like any easy vehicle to work on . Battery pack easy to drop down and motor also
Really interesting. Thanks!👍
Glad you liked it
Nice look around. I thought the 69kWh was gross. Good to know it nett. That gives it the same pack as my e-Expert.
I'm looking to see if these are my next Camper build. They are reasonably priced now. Not many with the pro-power around though.
Yes finding one with pro-power (V2L) would make an excellent camper.
Will make great camper conversions
no it loses 300kg of payload compared to ICE. no range. completely useless.
@keypoint1293 what do you need payload in a camper for 🙄 also why do you need range for camping most travel short distances between sites to enjoy an area. A few fast charges on the way is hardly a problem. It's supposed to be a relaxing journey not a race. You obviously don't understand camping.
@@gillscorner794 you obviously use your camper completely different to me then 🙄 most of my trips are around 300 miles and around a leisurely 6 hour drive ,,to the first destination,,, which would involve 3 charges at motorway services ( 79pence/kwh) so probably add another 3 hours to the journey assuming you could get directly onto a charger at each location AND assuming that you could achieve optimum useage rates on the drive.
,,,last trip was 13 days Brecons,,Snowdon,, Lake district and then up the west side into Scotland eventually stopping at Oban ( i love that place ❤) not one of the sites i stopped at (6 in all) had on site charging and charging of vehicles on pitch is not allowed ,,So each day would have involved having range anxiety to find suitable charging locally in very busy tourist areas ,,i definitely dont call that very relaxing either ,,approximately 17 sessions of charging by my reckoning or 4 fill ups of diesel that i actually did (60-65mph all the way))
@marcperrett662 Yes you obviously like looking a motorways rather than scenery, and like to pollute all the places you visit too
@@gillscorner794 idiot if you don't understand weight limits on vans.
Thanks for the upload, very informative.
Unfortunately, range is still not where it needs to be. Driving in winter, getting in and out and opening the doors to get stuff in and out means your going to need the heaters.
On the plus side, it doesn't have a wet belt.
Cheers 🍻
Another informative video. I think the preoccupation of range should be changed to the savings per mile (exc other costs). My Kona ev costs 1.5p per mile vs 15p for a petrol car. (Charging at night on an EV tariff)
While I agree. If you can charge at home, the cost of running an EV feels almost nothing. Our two private EVs are costing only about £150 a year to fuel.
But when it comes to vans, especially big vans like this, they are typically charged at a workplace but would still cheaper to fuel than a diesel. However, its the range of EVs that is putting many off. But many will be thinking about this wrong as they'll be comparing it to a tank of diesel which only gets refilled over week or two.
@@GoGreenAutos I'm tempted by an E-transit after the mechnical nightmre the last one i had was with a diesel engine
and modern diesels are made of chocolate
@@thinfourth Yep, DPFs, Adblu, wet timing belts are all things that have made combusion engines even more unreliable.
But that’s only half the story (conveniently)
On longer journeys, when I have to charge my EV at public chargers, it costs over twice as much as it would to fuel my petrol car.
75p a kW gets me 3 miles.
75p worth of unleaded gets me 6.8 miles
People need to know the whole picture, not just some out of date narrow minded narrative
@@AndyC2_ Not all chargers are 75p and Tesla ones are amongst the cheapest at about half of that or there abouts albeit I seldom rarely use any. Also not all EV's are equal and there are EV's that can do over 5 miles to the Kw. my over 2 ton 4.2 sec 0-60 EV will easily do 4 miles per Kw. It can go down to 3 when I wear my lead shoes!
The other thing is that if you can charge at home or at work you blend the two rates together.
I have a question, when you touch the brake to start regeneration braking does the brake lights come on and stay on while you are breaking and go off when this braking finishes or does the brake lights just flash on & off?
I didn't check on this van, which is now sold so I can't check. However, with most EVs, the brake lights come on at a certain level of deceleration. So if the regen is light, no brake lights. But if the vehicle is slowing down more, it puts the brake lights on even if the brake pedal isn't touched.
On the e-Transit, the first level of regen wouldn't be strong enough to keep the brake lights on, so you would just get a flash initially when the driver touched the brakes. But the second level is probably strong enough to trigger the lights.
There's an EU rule to set the level at which the brake lights come on.
@@GoGreenAutos Thank you for your clarification, I hoped that would be the case
interesting install of the battery pack into the transit ,,very well done ,,i would be more intrigued to hear from actual owners of loaded vehicle range figures , rather than TH-cam reviews ,,,your point about 30k+ van mileages does,nt add up as all delivery companies would do substantially more than that ,,small local buinesses may do well with it but certainly most companies need the abillity to travel further than that loaded than the short range would allow ,,,
which comes down to the potential down time while waiting for charging ,,,and then only to 80% anyway ,,i wonder how bigger companies who can effectively park their vehicles anywhere with a diesel van would be able to charge large numbers of vehicles overnight assuming they were,nt needed during that time ? two ev vans recently delivered in 23 plate guise to my company are due to be returned to their central vehicle supplier due to range problems ,,,the vans seem to be miles off the car ranges ?? 300 miles(reallife) range would be completely acceptable and practicle ,,,the battery packs need to be much bigger for commercial users ,,,Fantastic driving vehicles BUT 9 minute fill ups for ice vehicles is a big decider in the real world
DPD are dropping them because of dire range when loaded. Less than 80 miles in winter.
Can you imagine pulling up at the pumps in an old transit and taking 3 hours to fill the tank.
But it doesn't take 3 hours. Typically ~30 mins when DC charging.
Can you imagine an old Transit that starts every morning with a full tank!
Sorry to be negative but real world driving in winter will likely be little more than 100 miles.
Add to that the fact it has such an inefficient heater, that would bring it down to 75 miles.
I know people say to use seat and steering wheel heating, but then how would you keep all the windows clear ?
Yes it has a heated element in the windscreen but they only stay on for 4 minutes at a time and use massive power consumption.
It’s just too much compromise, it’s like using a van from the 1970s with sub standard heating and technology.
People should be calling it out as simply being not good enough, yet all I hear is you making excuses for the poor range, poor heating and de misting capabilities.
In a vehicle that size and weight, it should have a battery twice the size
I’d love to see you load it up and do some real world range testing in the winter months
Unfortunately I didn't have the vehicle long enough to do any testing as it sold within a few days. But my tests on other electric vans show that weight doesn't make the difference people assume. See www.youtube.com/@GoGreenAutos/search?query=weight
But yes I would agree, a larger battery would be better on such a large van. But that will only add cost and probably not sell. The cost of batteries are reducing rapidly, so I would expect the next model to have a much larger battery and probably a lower list price as well. It was a very different time (in terms of battery cell prices) back in 2021 when this van production was getting ready.
@@GoGreenAutosYes I wasn’t very clear but it wasn’t so much the weight, it would have been great to see the real world range and how it’s affected by using the heater etc
Thanks
The heat pump in my 2014 LEAF works really well and has minimal effect on the range. With a big battery such as this vehicle has, and only heating the cab, I think a heat pump is the way to go.
yeah complete garbage.
@@GoGreenAutos so pretty much made the argument to wait for better battery capacity on commercials until buying ,,drove a merc Cetan while my transit was being used by someone else last week ,,, took it off the charger at 98% ,, 97miles in cold weather but admittedly i wasnt being particuarly frfugal when driving it,,,,loved it as a vehicle ,drove really nice
Owww you have the rare 198kW one
Are they?
@@GoGreenAutos I'm sure most i have seen are the smaller motor
well
It's probably th same motor but with different mapping
@@thinfourth Maybe. I've been ignoring them until I bought this one, which happened to be a 198kW one.
I must admit, it wasn't as lively as I was expecting, but then its a huge van, so maybe I was expecting too much. But as always, EVs hide the speed because they are so quiet and smooth and there's no noise and vibration giving you the feeling of speed.
Did you notice the excellent modification to the brake vacuum sensor on the servo? Watch the vid again and you will see it.
Yes the foam tabs stuck on the top? I was going to question that to see if anyone knew the purpose?
@GoGreenAutos was a recall , water dripped onto sensor causing sensor failure. That's fords way of a fix. 😂😂
Surely the button at the charge port could be used by someone else, to unplug early & stop a charge...I don't understand the use case
Not when the van is locked.
seems like a lot of rust on the pack
It looks like it on camera, but it's just mud.
I always thought Iveco was Ford...
useless range.
Big ole load of cr&p! Absolutely useless for anything other than a few local trips or a bit of multi drop. Don't try and use one on the motorway in winter!!!