Ford Motor Co. on Feb. 8 began shipping its E-Transit van—its second fully electric vehicle (EV)—from the company’s Kansas City-area assembly plant, which is the first such facility to build both batteries and vehicles themselves in-house, the OEM announced in a release.
The van, which is slated to have wide delivery applications, has more than 10,000 orders from businesses of all sizes and Ford is working on ways to increase production even more, the car and truck maker said in the release. The Claycomo, Missouri, plant gained a $100 million investment from Ford and created 150 new jobs to help make the electric version of the popular cargo van.
According to the company’s release, Ford will have global capacity to produce 600,000 battery-electric vehicles annually by late 2023, including 200,000-plus Mustang Mach-E SUVs and 150,000 F-150 Lightning trucks. The new E-Transit is the first of two EVs purpose-built for Ford Pro commercial customers. The second will be the F-150 Lightning and Lightning Pro, all-electric versions of the company’s wildly popular pickup truck.
