Ford dealers helping to mark major Transit milestone this summer

The Ford Transit Centre network is set to help the brand mark 60 years of the Transit this summer.

Ford is planning to celebrate the milestone, and has already launched a marketing campaign on the theme of ‘Doing beats talking’ and a strapline of ‘Six decades of doing. Ford Pro Commercial Vehicles. The backbone of Britain.’

Humorous TV and online adverts feature British actor Tom Hollander’s voiceover being repeatedly interrupted by hard-working people using Ford vehicles, such as construction workers and emergency services.

The first Transit rolled off the production line on August 9, 1965.

“I think, being the market leader for what is 59, going into our 60th year, we do know our customers well, and we have built very strong relationships with them over the years. We listen to them, we understand the pain points, and we evolve to try and support them,” said Mandy Dean, Ford of Britain’s director of commercial vehicles.

Asked whether new entrants, such as from China, are a concern, she said Ford welcomes the competition, but it has credible products and huge expertise. “We’re the market leader for a reason,” she added.

Electrification continues to be a challenge for van customers, and the UK Government’s communication of its decision that new diesel vans can remain in the market until 2035 serves to muddy the water for business owners. “What they’re not telling people is that the trajectory at which we need to move to electrification hasn’t changed. So next year one in four vans needs to be an electric van. And that grows rapidly to 2030 with 70% of vans,” she said.

Ford will continue to lobby the UK Government for more extensions to the plug-in van grant, which currently offers an incentive of between £2,500 and £5,000 until April 2026.

“The government needs to support communications to customers because that 2035 is misleading, because not all customers will be able to buy a diesel in 2030 as only 30% of the vehicles produced will be diesel.”

The 115-site Transit Centre network is seeing “really encouraging” uptake of Ford’s plug-in hybrid LCVs by their local business customers, which is positive movement in the direction being set by the government, she added, but there is a lot of inertia about making the move to full EV.

Getting customers to trial EV is vital, she said, so van operators see the changes in cost of ownership. “Our research has shown that it can save an operator £12,000 over three years to buy and run and electric van over a diesel. But it’s getting the customer to make that jump.”