Ford Transit
The Ford Transit is a panel van that has been sold in Europe for over forty years, where it is the best selling van in that market. The Transit is so successful in Europe that it has become the generic name for a van. There are a variety of different models available in Europe where the van has been widely used as a commercial vehicle. For a variety of reasons the Transit was never introduced to the North American market but that is set to change. The 2012 version of the Transit is expected to be available globally and it is hoped that will be a big seller in North America. There are a number of reasons that the Transit is about to be introduced to North America but it is mostly about a changing market place. Consumers are no longer willing to drive gas guzzling vehicles so Ford has had to change it's product line accordingly.
The van that Ford has sold in North America for many years now is the Econoline, with it's big V8 engine it is not a very fuel efficient option. The Transit has a four cylinder diesel engine and is much more fuel efficient than the Econoline. Diesels have been popular in Europe for many years mainly because the cost of diesel fuel is significantly lower than the cost of regular fuel. This hasn't been the case in North America so diesel engines never really caught on, however they have started to in recent years because they are more fuel efficient. The pressure from government and the demand from consumers to build more fuel efficient vehicles has seen a number of manufacturers start to introduce European models, that have always been more fuel efficient because of the high price of fuel, to the North American market.
In Europe the Transit's biggest competitor is the Mercedes Sprinter which has been introduced to North America under the Dodge brand. The Sprinter has been selling well because of it's fuel efficiency and it's large carrying capacity and Ford are hoping that the Transit will have the same success. The Sprinter is clearly selling better than the traditional vans available in the North American market so the prospects are good for the Transit.
In their attempt to recover from their financial issues Ford have made a major effort to change the types of vehicles they offer to better reflect the demand of consumers. The Transit is a further attempt to do that. There is clearly a need for vans in North America and there is also clearly demand that they be more fuel efficient. Ford would seem to be on the right track by introducing the Transit to replace the gas guzzler Econoline. The hope is that North American consumers are willing to give up big powerful engines in exchange for more efficient vehicles with smaller engines.