Already a normal car has often not easy. In the case of a commercial vehicle, the claims for the take-off qualities are often many times higher. Also and especially if it is an e-car. So the new fully electric Ford e-transit had to prove itself in test, the hard commercial use simulated. Ten years of hard work everyday in just twelve weeks. And that in wind and weather.
As the company announced, the snow suitability in the US Bundestate Michigan was tested, while on the Ford test premises in Lommel (Belgium) was mainly hardening tests on slopes with pistons, harsh pads or cobblestones. Arctic frost, desert heat or altitudes were simulated in the Climate Wind Canal Test Center in Cologne-Merkenich. This “Weather Factory” of Ford can adjust a variety of climate zones and weather conditions, so that the engineers can test the full functionality of Ford vehicles there even under extreme conditions. The market launch of the e-transit in Germany is planned for the spring 2022.
Here Ford shows a short video about the climate and durability tests, which were exposed to the different pre-series variants of the new e-transit in Europe and North America:
Ford undergo the e-transit of this demanding tests to ensure that it is as durable as his sister models with diesel drive, it says. The uncompromising approach is the impact of more than 240.000 kilometers driving distance – that corresponds to a whole decade in hard work day. Conditions as in the Sahara or Siberia are generated according to enterprises. So the e-transit with 28 radiators to 4000 watts each will be heated to over 40 degrees Celsius for two weeks. Even under such inexorable circumstances, the function of the on-board battery must eventually be guaranteed.
The electric transporter also had to prove that he works reliably at minus 35 degrees Celsius – colder as a typical Siberian winter – as well as at heights of 2500 meters. This corresponds to the Grossglockner High Alpine Road in Austria – one of the highest paved streets in Europe. Also patch holes and cobblestones belonged to the test program, in particular to test the durability of the battery pack, the electric motor and the wheel suspension. In sludge and salt baths, it was mainly about the functionality and the corrosion resistance of many components. In addition, the reliability of the electric motor was impressively demonstrated by uninterrupted operation over a period of 125 days, it means.
“We generally test our commercial vehicles under conditions that go far beyond normal use in everyday life of our customers,” says e-transit chief engineer Andrew Mottram. “In the fully electric e-transit we make no exception”. Only when you bring the car to its limits in a controlled test environment, you can be sure that the e-transit will serve the customer reliably.
In late summer, the first practical tests on public roads should begin with the new e-transit. For this purpose, prototypes are integrated into commercial fleets. For example, test vehicles are used in food delivery, parcel delivery and utility companies. The aim is to ensure performance in a variety of application scenarios.
In order to be able to take this change in such a short time, Ford is massively invested in electromobility: For example, the expenses for new electric cars and for the development of batteries up to 2025 should be increased by more than a third to more than 25 billion euros. In addition, in the next few years, seven billion US dollars are to flow into the development of autonomous cars – of which five billions of which are still in this year.
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That would be a consumption of <20kW / 100km mean. Empty, downhill and with backwind maybe ..
I’m looking forward to the 1. E-Ford transit as a womo expansion.
Why emphasizes Ford the standard test program of the automakers in new vehicles?
Ford wants to overturn his previous snail at E-vehicles, better would be to deliver.
Our site vehicles drive averaging 20 – 30 kilometers per day, which would be more than adequate the range of e-transit. There is a construction power distributor to load all vehicles after work.
It would be interesting if the vehicles would have a loadable outer socket. In the mentioned battery capacity you could operate a small welding machine with 3.5 kW’s whopping 2 working days and then loosely back to the base!