The Ford E-Transit Van Is On Its Last Legs

• The Ford E-Transit electric van’s replacement has been scrapped.
• The new electric commercial van was slated to go into production mid-decade.
• An affordable model will take the place of the E-Transit in North America after its discontinuation.

The Ford E-Transit electric van is not getting a new generation. The American automaker confirmed the move in the same document that announced the cancellation of the Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup and the company’s shift to hybrids and extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs).

The electric Transit van went into production in late 2021 at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant, and has been sold with minimal changes ever since. The battery was upgraded in 2024, leading to increased range figures and faster charging times, but the rest stayed mostly the same, including the rear electric motor.

2025 Ford E-Transit

Photo by: Ford

All of that was going to change when the E-Transit’s planned successor entered production “mid-decade.” A new generation of electric vans was announced by Ford in 2023, and the first models were slated to roll off the assembly line in Ohio in 2026, but that plan has been scrapped, as Ford is moving away from big EVs in favor of hybrid powertrains. 

The company is still pushing forward with its plan to bring an affordable electric pickup in 2027, but the E-Transit is not part of that plan–or any other plan, for that matter.

When the current generation Ford E-Transit is discontinued in North America, it will be replaced with “a new, affordable commercial van” powered by gas or hybrid powertrains, the automaker said. It’s unclear when the current electric model will be discontinued, but seeing how the blue oval car maker ruthlessly pulled the plug on the F-150 Lightning electric truck, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same thing happening to the E-Transit in the following weeks.

The E-Transit is also sold in Europe, where a replacement was slated to go into production soon. That will no longer happen, but the company said it will continue to sell its full lineup of electrified vans there. Besides the E-Transit, Ford sells the small Transit Courier electric van, as well as the electric Transit Custom van, which is based on the same underpinnings as the Volkswagen Transporter. There’s also the Transit Connect, which is based on the Volkswagen Caddy, but the only electrified version is a plug-in hybrid.

With the Ford E-Transit on its last legs and the Chevrolet BrightDrop electric van out of the picture, the battery-powered commercial vehicle segment in the U.S. has slimmed down significantly, with the Rivian Commercial Van, Mercedes-Benz eSprinter and Ram Promaster EV being the only models still unaffected.

Despite holding the title of America’s best-selling electric van for a long time, the Ford E-Transit’s sales figures have been anything but stellar. In 2023, the American battery-powered commercial vehicle sold 7,672 units, followed by 12,610 units in 2024, according to Cox Automotive. This year, however, sales took a nosedive, with just 430 deliveries in the third quarter and 4,604 from January through October.

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