Ford Transit Connect Still Owns Half Of U.S. Small Commercial Van Segment

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

Ford Motor Company’s Transit Connect has seen the number of its direct rivals rapidly expand over the last two years. Not only must the Transit Connect fend off challenges from the Nissan NV200, now Chevrolet sells a version of the Nissan Van and FCA has imported the Fiat Doblo as the Ram ProMaster City.

Nevertheless, Ford still owns more than half the market for small commercial vans. Through the first four months of 2015, a period in which small commercial van volume in the United States has increased 58%, the Transit Connect’s market share stood at 55%. True, that’s down from 63% in the equivalent period one year ago. But a year ago, there was no such thing as a Chevrolet City Express or Ram ProMaster City. Moreover, Transit Connect volume has increased dramatically. Its 38% year-over-year improvement translates to 4,201 extra sales for Ford MoCo over just four months.

The Transit Connect was a productive product for Ford from the beginning. Ford sold 27,405 Transit Connects in the model’s first full year on sale in America, after which Transit Connect sales increased year after year after year. After year. Last year, as Ford launched a second iteration of the Transit Connect, U.S. sales of the van were 58% stronger than in 2010.

This year’s pace through the first one-third suggests Ford will could sell more than 50,000 Transit Connects in the U.S. for the first time in 2015. Sales increased in each of 2015’s first four months, a streak which extended out from December 2014, the Transit Connect’s highest-volume month and first 5K+ month ever. Transit Connect volume has improved on a year-over-year basis in 11 of the last 13 months.

Meanwhile, the Transit Connect is America’s fourth-ranked commercial van overall this year, behind the third-ranked full-size Chevrolet Express and two other Fords. The E-Series replacing Transit and the second-ranked E-Series own 54% of the full-size commercial van market.

Back in the smaller category, the Transit Connect has outsold the Nissan NV200 (sales of which are up 59% this year) by nearly three-to-one. The Ram Cargo Van is quickly disappearing but generated 2,805 sales in the first four months of 2015, more than the competitors from Chevrolet and Ram. City Express sales form 31% of the Nissan/Chevy twin total. Ram’s ProMaster City has only been on sale for four months. February volume was 35% better than January; March sales quadrupled February’s total; April was 98% better than March.

But all of the Transit Connect’s rivals are fighting over less than half the pie. Few vehicles so clearly dominate their respective vehicle categories.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.

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  • RHD RHD on May 29, 2015

    By cleverly combining all variants under one name, Ford achieves astounding numbers, and the resulting bragging rights. The same approach works for the F-Series trucks.

    • Bball40dtw Bball40dtw on May 29, 2015

      Well no one in this segment breaks out cargo vs windowed version except the Caravan (which is going away).

  • Iamwho2k Iamwho2k on May 29, 2015

    Having seen both a high-roof and normal-roof Transit, it looks like Ford designed it as a high-roof from the start, then just chopped the hell out of it. Anyway, Chevy must think WTF that even when it's going away the E-Series still outsells it.

    • Dtremit Dtremit on May 30, 2015

      I think there's actually *three* roof heights for the Transit, so it wouldn't shock me if they'd styled to the middle one. Also, I would guess a lot of remaining E-series sales are chassis cab -- that market is likely to be slower to adapt as third-party customizers are going to have to do a lot of retooling.

  • ToolGuy This might be a good option for my spouse when it becomes available -- thought about reserving one but the $500 deposit is a little too serious. Oh sorry, that was the Volvo EX30, not the Mustang. Is Volvo part of Ford? Is the Mustang an EV? I'm so confused.
  • Mikey My late wife loved Mustangs ..We alway rented one while travelling . GM blood vetoed me purchasing one . 3 years after retirement bought an 08 rag top, followed by a 15 EB Hard top, In 18 i bought a low low mileage 05 GT rag with a stick.. The car had not been properly stored. That led to rodent issues !! Electrical nightmare. Lots of bucks !! The stick wasn't kind to my aging knees.. The 05 went to a long term dedicated Mustang guy. He loves it .. Today my garage tenant is a sweet 19 Camaro RS rag 6yl Auto. I just might take it out of hibernation this weekend. The Mustang will always hold a place in my heart.. Kudos to Ford for keeping it alive . I refuse to refer to the fake one by that storied name .
  • Ajla On the Mach-E, I still don't like it but my understanding is that it helps allow Ford to continue offering a V8 in the Mustang and F-150. Considering Dodge and Ram jumped off a cliff into 6-cylinder land there's probably some credibility to that story.
  • Ajla If I was Ford I would just troll Stellantis at all times.
  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
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