Harley Lover

Van Dyke: https://www.autonews.com/manufacturing/ford-make-some-electric-motors-its-van-dyke-plant

I think perhaps the other factor in play is that Ford are internally projecting high costs for ongoing product development and plant updates/retrofits to put itself in place for the late 2020's and 2030's when the make up of its fleet will be dramatically changed (due to government regs (EV's) and perhaps an element of market demand). If this is true, Ford are looking at it's projected profits/costs for Brazil, and reached the conclusion that a $4 billion hit now is better than what its forecasts showed for the rest of the decade. And those projected savings will be plowed into addressing the costs I mentioned above. A potential example of this might be the investment in OAC later this decade (keeping in mind that the investment is far more than what has been announced for the plant, since other costs for things such as product development, etc. are also linked to what happens at OAC). Repeat this at multiple plants around the globe, and it adds up. Also factor in Ford's nascent interest in potentially jointly investing in battery production, and there's yet another high cost endeavor that requires capital. When all is said and done, Ford are in a race to create as much capital velocity as it can, as it will need as much as possible to finance itself going forward. This also enhances Ford's ability to borrow as the capital markets and banks will look more favorably upon Ford and give Ford better terms if Ford can demonstrate improving operations and profitability.

Is this version/color combo/grill something that was only shown at the intro, or is it actually available? I really like the white accents. This isn't for now, but 'future' reference:

Some wonks have also proposed a tax per mile driven (I believe this idea originated in one of the Pacific Northwest states). The government would use the same tech that insurance companies use to track the use of a vehicle - older cars would use an OBD-II dongle, newer ones could obviously transmit their usage with simple programming installed. The obvious difference here is that the insurance use is voluntary, whereas there would be nothing voluntary about the government tracking vehicles for the purpose of taxation. No comment on the Big Brother aspect of this. Just saying the idea is out there, and some politicians will promote the idea to get their revenue.

OP. if you have the VIN, try this site: https://www.etis.ford.com/vehicleSelection.do#

Could he use ETIS, if he has the VIN, to maybe get more vehicle info?

From the linked article, the most likely explanation:

Bullsh*t. False assertion.

FYI, I got a virus notification on that link.

My favorite colour is brown. No - blue!

Here's the thing: we don't know what Ford have been telling their customer base with regard to these capabilities in the run up to actual production of the Transit EV. GM is great at what I call "engineering by press release", while Ford seem to prefer doing the work in the trenches with their fleet customer base. All that said, it's a giant 'we'll see' in terms of whether Ford are prepared, and know this market as well as they claim. Things will come into focus (no pun intended) as this year progresses. I'm somewhat concerned that Ford might not have adequate battery supply lined up to support what appears to be burgeoning interest in this segment. Again, we'll see how well they have planned. I have to admit, based on past performance, when it comes to planning, I'm not confident about this.

Ford will argue they have much more institutional knowledge of this market and what fleet managers need. That position will be put to the test.

I hate to say it, but I think this van is perhaps the best tangible evidence of how GM's work on bespoke EV chassis and leveraging those chassis across multiple offerings will start to affect Ford competitively. That said, the one thing missing from GM's announcement is COST. And let's face it, a big driver of decisions for business applications is cost. If this van with this range is some significant percentage higher in cost than Transit EV, and the perceived benefits it offers in range and size are not worth the added price, then it's another example of GM missing the target. We've written quite a bit about Ford's perceived knowledge of this market and its needs - the difference in this GM product and Transit EV will put those ideas to the test.

This is a path chosen by Hackett and Farley, so the end result will also be their claim to fame (or infamy).

Take note of the claimed range too; we've noted in prior conversations about Transit EV and Sprinter that their lower range (low 100's in Transit IIRC) are fine in the EU and probably okay in the U.S. too based on expected usage. My question is what is driving the GM choice to offer so much more range? Do they have a significant cost advantage with Ultium batteries? Just judging from the pics, this GM van is a significantly larger vehicle than Transit/Sprinter, which echoes your observations.