With the American launch of Ford’s Transit Connect vehicle, the automaker will revolutionize the way small businesses and entrepreneurs deliver goods and services. But Ford Motor Company’s ambitions for this commercial van don’t end there. At the 2009 Chicago Auto Show, Ford announced that Transit Connect will be the first of Ford’s battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), with low-volume fleet models available in North America in 2010. This has implications far beyond the world of small business: It represents the first step in an aggressive plan to bring a wide variety of BEVs to the American market.

The battery-electric Transit Connect is being produced in partnership with Smith Electric Vehicles, a unit of the Tanfield group — and an old hand at the electric car business. The company has been converting gas cars to electric power since 1920. Smith has already produced electric versions of the Transit Connect for the European market. Their expertise allows Ford to bring this American version to market quickly.
The Transit Connect is ideally suited to battery power: Commercial vehicles tend to ply predictable, short-range routes in cities and suburbs, with frequent stops. Electric power allows the Transit Connect to achieve 100 miles at a time. Combined with government incentives and gas savings, the Transit Connect BEV will bring even greater efficiency to small businesses.
As for Ford’s electrification strategy, this is merely the first step: by 2011, Ford will bring a battery-electric small car to North America, followed by next-generation hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles in 2012.