► Electric Transit gets 196-mile rangeForget all the exotica that you usually find cluttering up the pages of this website – the Ford E-Transit is very probably the most significant vehicle launch of this year. A 100 per cent electric version of Ford's large Transit van is no small moment.
So, while Ford is late to the party, it's taken that time to come thoroughly prepared. A proper testing regime means the E-Transit has been put through all the same paces as any other model in the line-up, while a 68kWh battery pack gives the Ford a 'targeted' WLTP maximum combined range of 196 miles.
Ford has approached this rather differently. Using one of the motor packs from the Mustang Mach-E, the lower-powered variant has 135kW, which is equivalent to 180bhp. This detuned model was added when the powers that be started getting nervous about the initial varaiant, which has 265bhp – massively more than any other van currently on sale in the UK, and pretty handy when maximum payload is as much as 1,758kg.
The space under the bonnet isn't empty – that's where Ford has stashed all the control systems and added a crash structure the engineers call the 'mega brace', which replicates structural role of the combustion engine in a front-end smash – but the nose feels lighter and keener to turn. One tap gives you a setting halfway between standard D and the more aggressive L, two taps takes you all the way to that Level – and this then resets once you start accelerating again. The concept works ok, if it also gives the vehicles behind the impression you might be having a fit, yet seems a weird approach when a set of paddles on the steering wheel could have achieved the same result in a more familiar fashion.