As soon as customers were finally able to order a plug-in Ford, then they weren’t.
Reports from customers in Germany indicate that the order books for the Transit Custom Plug-in Hybrid (and its passenger Tourneo Custom Plug-in Hybrid version) are temporarily closed.
Ford started to accept orders in late September only in a few European markets and it seems that despite the premium price (compared to conventional version) demand exceeds production capacity.
“Now it seems that Ford is currently not taking any new orders. A letter from Ford customer service to an affected customer was made available to our German colleagues at electrive.net. The letter states that “due to capacity bottlenecks […| the production of the Ford Transit Custom panel van Plug-in Hybrid has been stopped for the time being”. The letter said that the customer’s contract partner will inform them as soon as “availability is restored”.
We believe that Ford’s approach is currently quite limited and even a relatively small number of orders (three- or four-digit) might exceed the planned production run.
Hopefully, next year Ford will step up its game and not force customers to wait. Ford needs to increase production and availability, which ultimately should lead to lowering the prices.
Gallery: Ford Transit Custom Plug-in Hybrid
As a reminder, here we post the specs of both versions:
Ford Transit Custom Plug-in Hybrid specs:
- up to 56 km (35 miles) of NEDC all-electric range
- total range of more than 500 kilometers (310 miles)
- 13.6 kWh liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery pack located under the load floor, covered with 8-year/160,000 km warranty
- front-wheel-drive
- Peak output: 92.9 kW of power (at 9,000 rpm) and 355 Nm of torque (1-2,250 rpm)
- series-hybrid driveline configuration with 1.0 liter EcoBoost petrol engine as a range extender
- charging in 2.7 hours (240 V, 32 A)
- full cargo volume offered by the standard van (6.0 m3)
- 1,130 kg of payload
- CO2 emissions of 60 g/km, fuel-efficiency from 2.7 l/100 km
Ford Tourneo Custom Plug-in Hybrid specs:
- up to 53 km (33 miles) of NEDC all-electric range
- total range of more than 500 kilometers (310 miles)
- 13.6 kWh liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery pack located under the floor of the passenger compartment, covered with 8-year/160,000 km warranty
- front-wheel-drive
- Peak output: 92.9 kW of power (at 9,000 rpm) and 355 Nm of torque (1-2,250 rpm)
- series-hybrid driveline configuration with 1.0 liter EcoBoost petrol engine as a range extender
- charging in 2.7 hours (240 V, 32 A)
- 8 seats
- CO2 emissions of 70 g/km, fuel-efficiency from 3.1 l/100 km
Source: electrive.com