As Ford Authority reported back in March, the Ford Transit Connect will be discontinued in the U.S. following the 2023 model year, marking the end of an era for the small van. Order banks for the 2023 Ford Transit Connect closed back in February, but it seems as if the automaker isn’t done building it just yet. In fact, sources familiar the matter have told Ford Authority that 2023 Ford Transit Connect production will end at the Valencia Assembly plant in Spain in late December.
2023 Ford Transit Connect production will officially end on December 22nd, 2023, giving it until nearly the end of the year. For now, there are no plans to replace the van in North America, but it’s possible that the Ford Transit Custom could takes its place in that lineup, though it’s currently unclear if such plans are in place.
Ford said the decision to stop selling the Transit Connect in North America was made as part of its “efforts to reduce global manufacturing cost and complexity, alongside decreased demand for the compact van segment.” Ford currently imports the Transit Connect from Spain, but was planning on building the next-gen version in Mexico on the Ford C2 platform, which already underpins the Ford Bronco Sport and Ford Maverick. Instead, the new, Europe-only model will live on as a rebadged Volkswagen model underpinned by that automaker’s MQB platform, like the Tourneo Connect.
Small van sales have been in decline for some time now, so this move doesn’t come as a major surprise. This likely also played a big part in Ford’s decision to exit the U.S. market in that regard, while it continues to expand its full-size Transit lineup with the all-electric E-Transit and the Transit Trail, which is a new, off-road-focused variant already on sale in Europe that recently joined the automaker’s U.S. lineup as well.
We’ll have more on the Transit Connect soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Transit Connect news and around-the-clock Ford news coverage.
Comments
Funny how sales have slowed , yet there a numerous small companies that use them .
I was really looking forward to the C2 platform .
Glad I got my order in before the cutoff .
I ordered by 2023 Transit Connect cargo van back in August of 2022 when the order bank opened. I have a priority code of 10 which I’m told is pretty good (whatever that means). I have not heard a thing. The commercial sales rep. at my dealer tells me that Ford won’t tell the dealerships anything regarding individual sales (single vehicle to retail customer) – if their order will get built or not. They even suspended the customer build tracker for this product line. The dealer person thinks Ford is going to leave a lot of customers hanging after a long long wait.
The problem, I believe, is that Ford rolled-over a lot of 2022 customer builds they did not complete to the 2023 model (with a big discount). Effectively they were building 2022’s long beyond what they would normally for a particular model year.
The retail customer has no recourse. Ford does not see individuals as their customers; they refuse to communicate with them on the issue. I have tried via multiple routes. The response is “we do not have the resources and are unable to help with that particular question”. Their customers are the dealerships; they leave dealerships in the middle with nothing, but managing upset customers.
I hope somebody at Ford actually sees this comment, but likely no luck with that.
Production has to end at Valencia plant to retool for electric vehicle production….that nobody in europe currently wants now the EV early adopter boom is over.
I got my order in time to back up my 2014 with 352,500. Enough said. Had a 2020 backup but not a fan of 50″ screen tv on dashboard. Should not be legal. We don’t want you to text but lets put a poorly functioning tablet on the dash….
I ordered by 2023 Transit Connect cargo van back in August of 2022 when the order bank opened. I have a priority code of 10 which I’m told is pretty good (whatever that means). I have not heard a thing. The commercial sales rep. at my dealer tells me that Ford won’t tell the dealerships anything regarding individual sales (single vehicle to retail customer) – if their order will get built or not. They even suspended the customer build tracker for this product line. The dealer person thinks Ford is going to leave a lot of customers hanging after a long long wait.
The problem, I believe, is that Ford rolled-over a lot of 2022 customer builds they did not complete to the 2023 model (with a big discount). Effectively they were building 2022’s long beyond what they would normally for a particular model year.
The retail customer has no recourse. Ford does not see individuals as their customers; they refuse to communicate with them on the issue. I have tried via multiple routes. The response is “we do not have the resources and are unable to help with that particular question”. Their customers are the dealerships; they leave dealerships in the middle with nothing, but managing upset customers.
I hope somebody at Ford actually sees this comment, but likely no luck with that. The dealership has offered to explore other models of vehicle to sell me. I have done my research and told them that based on the many elements of capability I’m looking for I will be turning to another brand.