GearheadGrrrl

So basically Ford is giving the car buyers to the Japanese and Korean manufacturers and replacing them with Jeep buyers...

Was working at a Mercury dealer in late '69 when the Ford dealer kiddy-corner from us had their first Louisville come in. We (and I mean we, seemed like everyone from the Mercury dealer found an excuse to walk over to the Ford dealer that day) were amazed that even this lowly LN500 with a 300 six got such top of the market features- tilt hood, well laid out instrument panel, even constant velocity joints in the steering shaft so it wouldn't bind! For several years the only medium/heavy truck that could compete with the Louisville was Mack's R and U models, good company to be compared with.

More like the trailer makers are trying to compensate for the truck makers poor design- Even with a round front or the king pin as far forward on the trailer as possible, it takes 51", half the width of the trailer, to be able to make the 90 degree tractor to trailer angle that is the standard for cargo semi-trailers. You want the kingpin even or slightly ahead of the truck's rear axle for stability, and no way can you get that needed 51" cab to axle distance or even a 48" CA with a 66" or even 78" long short box. Long box is the only way to do it right, anything less is asking for trouble...

I'm amazed that the manufacturers make and sell such incompatible products- Compare that to Class 8 semi tractors and trailers where everybody works out the geometry to insure compatibility and a 72" Cab After is about the shortest they make and 84" is common.

Yup, definitely based on the VW Caddy, which IMHO is a good thing. I'm pretty well tooled up to maintain VWs so I'd prefer the Caddy, but I'll settle for the current Transit Connect. Hard to tell if the upcoming Maverick based Transit Connect will be an improvement or. not- The hybrid powertrain and all wheel drive will be nice features, but I'm afraid a stretched roof Maverick will have a lot less interior space.

Ford just dropped the Tourneo Connect press kit for the euro market, I lust for the TDI version but alas, this van is probably forbidden fruit for us Americans... https://tourneoconnect.fordpresskits.com

Could be that the 22,000 GVW F600 is an "in between" size that not many buyers want- The 19,500 F550 is the biggest operators who need to pull a trailer without the IRS demanding FET want, and the 26,000 GVW F650 is popular because it's just under the CDL requirement and avoids fuel tax prorating in some states.

You mean the conventional with the Mercedes cab? Ugly, but the best riding Daimler truck I ever drove!

Wouldn't be that simple- Transit Connect is unit body so a lot of reinforcement to what would be left of the body shell would be needed,

I would have expected the Mach E to do much better- The extra weight carried may explain the oversteer.

Want to say thanks to everyone for the great advice given here, got my Transit Connect wagon ordered today!

A lot of these operators also demand a secure parking brake and thus demand air brakes.

That stat sounds correct, the higher mileage van operators are probably buying diesel Sprinters. But good luck getting the cheap fleets who are used to buying a new stripped T150 for less than $25k and beating it to an early death to pay almost twice that for an electrified Transit. As for the "suits" in "glass house", they've got way more data than I do if they'd bother to use it...

Electrifying a Transit that that doesn't wander far is doable, a step van or RV that needs a range of a couple hundred miles will be much tougher. and Ford doesn't even have a tandem rear axle truck to electrify...

Ford will probably give away some basic functions to draw customers in, but I doubt they'll be giving a full functioning system away. Most fleet customers already have systems and aren't going to bother with Ford's proprietary product.