The Transit Connect Electric has a range of up to 80 miles per full charge, and can be recharged using 110 or 220 volts.
Ford Motor Company and Azure Dynamics have announced that the Norwegian Post has becomes the first European customer of the Ford Transit Connect Electric, placing an order for 20 of the battery-electric vans, or BEVs.
“The Norwegian Post will be an environmental leader in the mail and logistics industry by taking advantage of the latest technology available,” said Dag Mejdell, CEO of the Scandinavian nation’s postal service.
“In signing a contract for delivery of the new Ford Transit Connect Electric, the Norwegian Post is taking an important step towards its goal of reducing 150,000 (metric) tonnes of CO2 annually,” Mejdell said, noting his agency has an option to purchase more.
Norwegian Post is the largest provider of mail and logistics services and the biggest employer in Norway.
Ford and its partner Azure Dynamics, of Oak Park, MI recently began a pilot program for the Transit Connect Electric last December. (Click Here for more.) A conversion of the standard Transit Connect van, sales officially begin in the summer of 2011.
While a number of gas-powered Transit Connects have been sold to retail buyers, the partners are targeting government and commercial markets with the Transit Connect Electric. As TheDetroitBureau.com has previously reported, many analysts and industry planners now believe that fleet operators will more readily embrace the benefits of alternative power than retail customers.
“Transit Connect Electric was designed and engineered with customers like Norwegian Post in mind,” said Scott Harrison, Azure CEO.
“The ForceDrive powertrain excels under the types of urban driving conditions that the Transit Connect Electric is likely to encounter during postal delivery routes. We’re honored to have Norwegian Post as our inaugural customer in Europe and are eager to help them achieve the environmental, operational and performance goals that they seek,” Harrison said.
The Transit Connect can travel 80 miles per full charge of its 28 kWh of lithium-ion batteries, and has a top speed of 75 mph. While that may lead to so-called “range anxiety” among consumers, Azure and Ford are betting that won’t be a problem for fleet buyers – who typically know the precise distance any vehicle is likely to travel every day.
The Ford Transit Connect Electric – Ford’s first all-electric vehicle in Europe and is the first of five electrified vehicles that Ford plans to launch in the U.S. and Europe by 2013.
Next comes the Ford Focus Electric in 2012, followed by the C-MAX Hybrid and C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid, as well as another, yet-unidentified plug-in hybrid electric model in 2013.