Ford F-150 Lightning, E-Transit Have Work to Do Winning Over Fleet Customers
So far, many fleet customers have been a bit hesitant to go electric with the Ford F-150 Lightning and E-Transit.
The all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning and E-Transit are both massive bets by the Blue Oval that customers of all kinds – including commercial fleet owners – will eventually recognize the benefits of EVs and make the switch. In fact, Ford expects a sizable chunk of the full-size truck and van markets to consist of EVs by 2030, which is why it’s going all-in on these new models. But it appears that winning over fleet customers might be the automaker’s biggest hurdle to EV adoption, as Ford Pro CEO Ted Cannis recently explained to Reuters.
Cannis revealed that fleet customers are taking a “wait and see” approach when it comes to buying EVs, and noted that “there is still a fear of the unknown” with a product that most fleets have no experience with. Cannis attributes this hesitation to an overall lack of knowledge and experience with electric vehicles, as well as the current lack of clarity in regards to future government regulation and policies involving EVs.
Regardless, Cannis doesn’t believe that this resistance is insurmountable, pointing out that fleet customers can save a tremendous amount of money on maintenance, repairs, and fuel by making the switch to electric vehicles. Ford estimates that E-Transit customers will save as much as 40 percent in maintenance costs over a comparable ICE-powered Transit in the first 100,000 miles, for example. Ultimately, expenses and uptime are invaluable to fleets, which is why Ford is betting big on EVs in this space.
“In the U.S., we see 70% of the full-size bus and van industry going electric by 2030,” Cannis said. “That’s more than 300,000 vehicles annually. And we expect a third of the full-size pickup (market) to go all-electric by 2030, which is more than 800,000 vehicles annually.”
So far, Ford has secured over 24,000 reservations for the commercial-focused E-Transit, and over 150,000 reservations for the Ford F-150 Lightning, though it hasn’t revealed how many of those have come from fleet customers. Regardless, Lightning demand has been so strong that the automaker recently decided to double its planned production of the pickup. But while it’s clear that plenty of consumers are interested in electric pickups, Ford still has some work to do convincing fleet customers to make the switch.
Photos: Ford
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