Ford e-Transit review

This is primarily a review of the full-size e-Transit, so there's nothing too ridiculous here. Other than the sheer size of the thing – manoeuvring it in tight spaces is like trying to guide an elephant through a museum of priceless vases.

Strip away the bodywork and you’ll find a 68 or 89kWh battery mounted low under the floor, just like in an electric car. The motor and associated gubbins are located aft near the rear axle, producing either 181bhp or 265bhp. Both versions have the same 318lb ft of torque.

There’s nothing between the axles apart from brake lines and chassis; the rear suspension is heavy duty and fully independent, which means reliable handling loaded or unloaded. Suffice to say it rides unlike any Transit before it, a feeling underlined by the lack of shake, rattle and roll. It’s a really quite serene place to spend time.

Noted. How fast is it?

As far as power goes, electric suits load lugging simply because the available torque is always front and centre. No it’s not very fast, but from a standstill it’s quite sprightly and isn’t hindered by a jolt of momentum that might otherwise have items flying about in the back. It’ll keep up with traffic with ease, the one-speed box seamlessly pulling to 50mph. Beyond that the motor’s a little more pedestrian.

There’s no space under the nose by the way, that’s set up with the electric control systems that cleverly mimic a crash structure, and also an under-nose mounted spare, should you option it.

Is it easy to drive?

Oh yes: a rotary dial in the centre console picks drive or reverse, then you simply stop and go with the pedals. There’s a light regen braking system (push ‘L’ in the middle of the gear selector or tap the brakes), and three modes. Normal is for everyday stuff, ‘Slippery’ is for when it’s horrible out and you’ve got a load on, and ‘Eco’ downplays the top speed, acceleration and aircon to provide what Ford reckons to be an 8-10 per cent range advantage.

The only time the E-Transit gets flustered – or rather, makes you flustered – is in tight spaces, particularly reversing uphill. The motor won’t creep simply by coming off the brake pedal, which means dabbing the throttle and lurching backwards one inch at a time. The rear-view camera isn’t much help judging distance, so you might have to get out and eyeball it. Multiple times.

Noted. What’s the story with charging?

The e-Transit will take up to 22kW on AC (six hours for a full charge) but on a typical home wallbox it’ll be an overnight job via the charge port on the nose.

If you do get caught short out in the wild, there’s respectable 115kW DC fast charging with the smaller battery or 180kW with the bigger one, which should see 10-80 per cent in 37 and 28 minutes respectively. Remember though, that'll cost you. And you'll have to try and fit the thing inside a charging bay without blocking the rest of the postcode.

Interestingly there’s Ford Pass for charging aggregation/access, and it’ll bill back to wherever you want.

Other than that, there’s decent forward vision, back-up and top-down cameras on the right spec and a surprisingly nimble turning circle. Albeit one with a 950-1,758kg payload that’s hellish to parallel park. Beware the parking sensors, which are aligned to the rear bumper but not the roof, so be extra vigilant for raised hazards.

And what about the smaller Transits?

Well, first thing to note is that the Courier (that's the one on foreign plates in the pics above) gets Puma/Fiesta underpinnings, and it shows. It’s fun to drive and corners decently with little body roll, at least loaded up with sand in the rear as ours was when we test drove it. It’s not exactly quick, with 0-62mph taking 10.7 seconds (unloaded), but it too gets Eco, Normal, Sport, and Slippery modes. You’ll not want to drive it in Eco for too long if you want to get anywhere on time (or upset any customers).

Still, the regen is pretty predictable, meaning it slows exactly as you’d expect when you come off the accelerator pedal, and in warm temperatures we managed 3.8 mi/kWh, or 160 real world miles. The Courier also supports 100kW DC charging, meaning its 43kWh battery can be recharged from 10-80 per cent in 23 minutes. A 10-100 per cent charge takes just over five hours on a wallbox at home or at the depot.

The e-Transit Custom doesn’t handle quite as well, but it still feels leagues better suited to electric power than it does to diesel combustion. A 0-62mph time of 7.4s in the 215bhp version (12.0s with the 134bhp motor) and 306lb ft of torque gives you far greater confidence when pulling out at roundabouts or overtaking, and even when sat in slow moving traffic it’s a far quieter and more comfortable place to be.

All versions get a heat pump as standard, maximising winter range. It also gets faster 125kW DC charging compared to the Courier too, enabling a 10-80 per cent charge of its 64kWh battery in 39 minutes. A full juice using an 11kW AC charge takes just under seven hours.