Ford recently confirmed that the next-generation Ford Transit Custom range will include an all-electric model in addition to plug-in hybrid, mild hybrid and conventional engine variants. The new Custom range, which includes the Transit Custom van and Tourneo Custom people mover, will go into production in the first half of 2023.

All versions of the next generation Transit Custom will be built by Ford Otosan. This is Ford’s joint venture in Turkey and is based in Kocaeli, the home of the Ford Transit range. The next-generation Volkswagen 1-tonne commercial vehicle also will be built in Kocaeli, adding ‘valuable scale to vehicle platforms and bringing more technologies to market, faster’.

Stuart Rowley, president of Ford of Europe, said: “The next generation Transit Custom range — including the all-electric versions — will strengthen Ford’s position as Europe’s number one commercial vehicle brand.

“Transit Custom is the ‘jewel’ in our commercial vehicle crown and key in our drive to grow our commercial vehicle business as we continue to create a sustainable, profitable Ford business in Europe rooted in an electrified future.”

Ford said in February that its entire commercial vehicle range will be zero-emissions capable — all-electric or plug-in hybrid — by 2024, with two-thirds of Ford’s commercial vehicle sales expected to be all-electric or plug-in hybrid by 2030.

However, Ford says it understands that not all commercial vehicle operators will make the move from the conventional internal combustion engine to all-electric vehicles in a single jump. This is why its range of powertrain technologies from mild hybrids through to plug-in hybrids “are essential and will continue to be a significant part of the next generation Transit Custom range”.

Ford Otosan’s Kocaeli plant opened in 2001, and since 2004 has been the company’s global lead facility for the production of successive generations of the Ford Transit Custom range and the Transit 2-tonne.

Last December, Ford Otosan said it plans to invest more than 2 billion euros to increase vehicle and battery pack assembly capacity production at Kocaeli, and that it expects to increase employment by around 3,000 people.