Ford's Upcoming E-Transit is Kansas City Resident, Means $100M Plant Investment

Corey Lewis
by Corey Lewis

As we reported a couple of weeks ago, Ford is set to debut its new E-Transit electric van tomorrow. An announcement was made yesterday regarding the Transit’s production location. And the new van brings along some cash, and jobs as well.

Claycomo, Missouri is now the confirmed production location of the E-Transit, as announced by Ford. Ford will spend $100 million to add E-Transit production alongside the plant’s current lineup, the F-150, and regular Transit. The plant already underwent a recent retooling in order to build the redesigned 2021 F-150, after the truck was revealed in the summer.

Claycomo is Ford’s busiest production facility and makes more vehicles than any Ford plant in North America. It also holds the title of the largest manufacturing center in the Kansas City metro area and is an important employer. 7,250 people head to work there every day, and the addition of E-Transit will create 100 additional jobs.

The new E-Transit is part of a current three-pronged plan by Ford to bring its popular, high-volume models into the electric space. The F-150 EV will be built in Michigan, and the Mustang Mach-E is hecho en Mexico. Ford’s current investment in electrification will see it spend $11.5 billion in total by the end of 2022. When the calendar flips over to 2023, Ford wants a considerable and established EV manufacturing footprint in North America.

Look for more E-Transit details after its official launch on Thursday, November 12th. It’s expected to be available in several body styles, and have specs impressive enough to lure commercial fleet managers away from filthy gasoline and toward a green, plug-in future. It would seem a solid plan, given the $0 fuel cost of an EV, as well as less maintenance-intensive operation. As an added bonus, EVs come with fancy software and telematics built in, so Mister Manager doesn’t have to rely on third-party reporting.

[Image: Ford]

Corey Lewis
Corey Lewis

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

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  • SCE to AUX SCE to AUX on Nov 11, 2020

    The E-Transit could do very well, and I imagine it could be a threat to the delivery vehicle Rivian is cooking up.

    • Maymar Maymar on Nov 11, 2020

      The Rivian looks to be the next size up from the Transit (although, there's probably a little overlap once it gets to the LWB high roof models). Although, given Ford's investment in Rivian, it wouldn't be shocking if some of their tech ended up in Ford's EVs.

  • Scoutdude Scoutdude on Nov 11, 2020

    $0 fuel cost of an EV??? Yes you don't have to buy "fuel" but you do have to pay for the electricity.

    • Luke42 Luke42 on Nov 12, 2020

      That's a significant oversight. Us green car hippies have been calculating the electricity cost (and environmental cost) of EVs for decades. They're not free, but they are better. They're also agnostic about fuel, so you can run it off of coal when you're in Indy and Hydro when you're in Buffalo -- all without buying a new car. Also, big power plants are more thermally efficient than car engines, even with all of the conversion and transmission losses. Electricity pollutes less, and costs less, than driving on gasoline -- even though it's far from free in both respects.

  • Formula m How many Hyundai and Kia’s do not have the original engine block it left the factory with 10yrs prior?
  • 1995 SC I will say that year 29 has been a little spendy on my car (Motor Mounts, Injectors and a Supercharger Service since it had to come off for the injectors, ABS Pump and the tool to cycle the valves to bleed the system, Front Calipers, rear pinion seal, transmission service with a new pan that has a drain, a gaggle of capacitors to fix the ride control module and a replacement amplifier for the stereo. Still needs an exhaust manifold gasket. The front end got serviced in year 28. On the plus side blank cassettes are increasingly easy to find so I have a solid collection of 90 minute playlists.
  • MaintenanceCosts My own experiences with, well, maintenance costs:Chevy Bolt, ownership from new to 4.5 years, ~$400*Toyota Highlander Hybrid, ownership from 3.5 to 8 years, ~$2400BMW 335i Convertible, ownership from 11.5 to 13 years, ~$1200Acura Legend, ownership from 20 to 29 years, ~$11,500***Includes a new 12V battery and a set of wiper blades. In fairness, bigger bills for coolant and tire replacement are coming in year 5.**Includes replacement of all rubber parts, rebuild of entire suspension and steering system, and conversion of car to OEM 16" wheel set, among other things
  • Jeff Tesla should not be allowed to call its system Full Self-Driving. Very dangerous and misleading.
  • Slavuta America, the evil totalitarian police state
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