Ford has revamped its business in Argentina in a big way over the past couple of years, investing $80 million in the Pacheco Assembly plant and launching a bevy of new products in the South American country, including the Ford Maverick Hybrid, the next-generation Ford Ranger Raptor, and the Ford Territory, which have helped the automaker enjoy sharp sales increases thus far this year. Now, another Blue Oval model is set to arrive in Argentina – the Ford E-Transit – via a new pilot program.
This new Ford E-Transit pilot is already underway as a collaborative effort between The Blue Oval, the beverage company Cervecería y Maltería Quilmes, the global logistics outfit DHL, and several others. The idea here is to let those commercial customers test out the EV van and figure out if it makes sense for their particular line of business before the E-Transit launches in the country officially.
On the flip side, FoMoCo will also use the pilot program to evaluate how the Ford E-Transit performs in various types of real-world scenarios, as it has done in the past with other pilots in other parts of the world. That includes basic data such as the number of miles traveled, the types of travel the vans embark on – such as densely packed urban areas or wide-open highways – the kinds of chargers used, and the availability of charging infrastructure.
Companies participating in this pilot plan to make the necessary changes to their facilities to accommodate it, including the installation of chargers. Regardless, the idea here is that the Ford E-Transit can help reduce operating costs for commercial customers compared to its ICE counterpart, which these companies will get to preview before placing orders for the EV van.
We’ll have more on the E-Transit soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford Transit news and non-stop Ford news coverage.
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