Ford Transit PHEV Review

Range

Start your working day with the battery charged and the Transit should cover 26 miles on electricity only, according to the official figures. That might well be plenty if you are trudging around doing stop-start deliveries in a big city. Venture further afield and the petrol engine will take over, either automatically or on your command. The combined petrol-electric range is more than 300 miles. Where the system makes most sense is when travelling into a town, as the Transit will save the battery and switch over when it reaches the city limits using GPS ‘geo-fencing’ technology. If that sounds a bit scary, you can just press a switch on the dashboard instead. 

Battery

The 13.6 kWh battery in the Transit isn’t huge, being about the same size as in a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV van and smaller than in Ford’s own Kuga PHEV. 

It’s been cleverly shaped though to fit under the floor and front seats though, meaning it has no impact on the load space available and actually makes the van more stable than a diesel version, as the weight is low down and right in the centre of the vehicle. 

Charging

Buying a Transit PHEV will make little sense unless you can plug it in, either at home, work, or on the street in between jobs. The socket is beneath the passenger side headlamp and a full charge takes under three hours if you’re using a dedicated wallbox or street charger. A three-pin plug will extend the time to around 4.3 hours - fine if you are topping up the battery overnight at home or during the day in a works car park. 

It’s understandable that employees might not want to plug in at home as it’ll add to their personal electricity bill, so the Transit’s dedicated app will work out where and when it has been charged to allow accurate expense claims to be made.