Ford E-Transit Custom electric van 2024 review

If you had to guess, what do you think is Ford Australia’s third-biggest selling vehicle behind our country’s outright best-selling vehicle – the Ranger ute – and its cousin, the popular Everest large SUV?

If it wasn’t the subject of this review, I’d say it’s fairly unlikely that your answer would be ‘Transit Custom’ – but that’s indeed the case. A van takes the bronze spot for Ford.

It might be a bit of a drop in annual sales from Ranger (63, 356) to Everest (15,071) to Transit Custom (2843), when looking at 2023 figures, but with Ford’s Escape midsize SUV now pulled from the market and the Puma small SUV on hiatus until an EV version arrives, Ford is leaning into its commercial models to bridge the gap.

As a result, new van products are on the way to Australia, some diesel and some electric, with more attractive pricing expected – and price cuts have already been confirmed for the existing E-Transit large van (now $89,990 before on-road costs).

Spun off from the general Transit range back in 2012 as Ford looked to provide a more focused product in the midsize van segment, the smaller Transit Custom isn’t just a big deal to Ford – it’s also a big deal to the world.

Developed in partnership with Volkswagen, which will offer the closely related T7 Transporter, the second generation Transit Custom is available with three core drivetrains – diesel, plug-in hybrid and fully electric – to cater to the changing landscape of commercial vehicles.

Today we are looking at the latter, known as the ‘E-Transit Custom’, which follows on from the larger E-Transit launched this time last year. The Custom brings improved driving range, mobile generator-like functionality and – probably – a sharper price tag, though we don’t know the final number yet.

Chasing Cars travelled to Germany to sample the E-Transit Custom and its diesel counterpart, along with the same-size Tourneo and E-Tourneo people mover variants which we’ll cover later in separate reviews.

Full specs have yet to be confirmed for the Australian market, but we do know the E-Transit Custom will be sold locally as a three-seat van in long-wheel-base guise with the standard and high roof options offering 6.8 and 9.0