A few years ago, The Blue Oval brand launched the Ford Transit Connect Taxi – a special package for the popular Transit Connect van. The Transit Connect taxi saw some fanfare from operators who had limited options in freshening their fleets with practical and fuel-efficient vehicles, as well as from customers who were tired of riding in old cabs that had long passed their prime. But it would seem that Ford’s new-age taxi offering is on its way out.
Sources familiar with the FoMoCo’s fleet product plans told Ford Authority that the Ford Transit Connect Taxi will be discontinued in the very near future. But Ford won’t be discontinuing an actual model. Instead, the change will simply result in Ford dropping the Transit Connect’s taxi package.
Offered only on the long-wheelbase Transit Connect Wagon in the Passenger Wagon body style and XL (base) trim level, the Taxi package offered various standard features and a few optional ones. The package included the following standard features:
- Four manual keys
- 12V Powerpoint in front center console
- 180-degree swing-out rear cargo doors
- Power second-row windows with one-touch up/down
- Power front-row windows with one-touch up/down
- Power-adjustable and heated external mirrors with manual folding feature
- Specially-configured/recessed second-row seat for additional legroom
- AC control button in second row
- Taxi upfit wiring harness
The Ford Transit Connect Taxi package also offered a handful of optional features, including a roof wiring hole and the School Bus Yellow exterior color.
Furthermore, the package deleted third-row seats as well as the SecuriLock Passive Anti-Theft System (PATS, in Ford parlance).
Sources tell us that Ford originally planned to discontinue the TC’s Taxi package after the 2020 model year, but the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic might push the change into the 2021 model year. As of this writing, it’s unclear whether Ford has plans to replace the Transit Connect Taxi with another vehicle or package down the road.
We’ll continue to follow this one and report back as we learn more. In the meantime, we invite your to subscribe to Ford Authority for more Ford Transit Connect news and around-the-clock Ford news coverage.
Comments
The best vehicle for a taxi is something that has a beefy suspension and better brakes than any normal SUV or mini van. Very heavy duty cooling is most critical for cooling the engine and transmission combo, to provide longer life for the tranny and lower temps under the hood, so that the air conditioning system is not overtaxed. The only other vehicle that meets this criteria is the small Ford Ranger pickup truck. Lot’s of room in the back move a couple of wheelchairs and small moving jobs and delivery of a group of parcels. Obviously a cap over the box eliminates and weather or theft problems. The resale value is much better with a small pickup truck as well. Too bad that Ford does not offer the larger 2.7 liter turbo engine as an option instead of the wimpy 2.3 liter in the Ranger. Why not?
Nobody is going to be using a Ranger as a taxi cab… I think what you said might have applied a few decades ago, but going forward the name of the game for taxi fleets is Hybrid. Hybrids blow any gas application away in fuel economy for taxi application (lots of stop and go, idling, low speed city driving) and the also have proven themselves for reliability… with better brake life and lower maintenance costs. There was an article a while back about a Ford Escape Hybrid NYC taxi that went something like 500,000 miles and was still going strong without much more than regular maintenance.
In my city I’d estimate that about 60-70% of taxis are now Hybrids and in some cities its actually turning into a condition for taxi plates/medallions.
As far as Ford is concerned I’d be VERY surprised if the 2020 Escape Hybrid doesn’t become the standard bearer as far as their taxi offerings go. It has everything going for it when it comes to ride, rear seat room, economy, and cargo space. In NYC for example the last Escape Hybrid was super popular, and now the RAV4 Hybrid seems to be taking a big chunk of the market. The Escape is the natural player.
They currently offer a Fusion Hybrid taxi package as well.
Majority of the Transit Connect Taxi’s in the US are built on the Standard Long Wheelbase Transit Connect instead of the Taxi Package. Many areas, leading by NYC, have adopted rules to have the Taxi’s wheelchair accessible. To install the Mobility Package, you cannot use the Taxi Package because OEM moves the second row seat back 8” and it would be in the wheelchair pocket. It would be better if Ford changed the Taxi package to include all items but mounted the second row seat in the standard position.
This is a perfect example of an outsider pretending to have some valuable insider information, but in reality the author is totally wrong. What a waste of an article. There wasn’t one piece of factually correct information in this article besides the content of the taxi package which anybody could copy from the TC order guide. So much for being an authority on Ford.