Ford Van Production In Europe Can Adapt To Customer’s Needs

April 24, 2024 11:18 am

In Europe, vans have long been the commercial vehicle of choice, and in that regard, the Ford van lineup continues to dominate the sales charts. The Blue Oval has also revamped its offerings in that region in a big way as of late, launching the redesigned Transit Custom there last fall – which CEO Jim Farley calls the “Super Duty of Europe.” That ICE model is also being joined by the new, all-electric E-Transit Custom, though in recent months, waning demand for EVs has prompted Ford to delay certain models and even axe planned battery production joint ventures. However, this shift seemingly won’t impact Ford van production plans, according to Automotive News Europe.

In fact, Ford expects a big slowdown in terms of EV van sales in Europe in the short term, but the automaker also builds those all-electric models on the same assembly lines as its ICE models – which gives it plenty of flexibility in that regard. That wasn’t the case in 2023, as EV van sales in Europe increased by 47 percent to 143,877 units, resulting in a 7.4 percent market share. However, in January and February of 2024, that percentage dipped to five percent.

Ford expects EV van sales to pick up as the year drags on, but it also isn’t terribly concerned about this shift, either. The reasoning for this is the fact that the automaker has built in flexibility at its production plants, which allow it to essentially produce whatever customers are buying at any given time. Currently, the Ford Otosan Assembly plant in Turkey – which builds the Transit Custom and E-Transit Custom – has one shift dedicated to EV vans out of three, but it can increase that number if needed moving forward.

“The whole market is slowing down versus what we said it was going to be,” Hans Schep, head of Ford Pro Europe, told journalists on a recent visit to Ford Otosan plant. “The key thing for us is how we are organizing to deal with that ambiguity and that flexibility. That is one of the key things that we have here is that ability to move as the market moves whichever way.”

We’ll have more on Ford’s European van strategy soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.

By Brett Foote

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.