Ford's new range of electric and diesel vans, heading to NZ
It’s bright green, though it's called yellow-green, it's rear-wheel drive and pumps out 210kW - but it’s not coming to New Zealand… unless a few of us really, really want it.
That’s the new Ford E Transit Custom MS-RT, that was launched alongside the regular Ford Transit Custom range of EVs and diesels that we drove in Frankfurt recently.
Along with the mix of electric and diesel engines stood out a pair of yellow-green (that’s what Ford calls it) MS-RT, for M-Sport, the sister company to M-Sport, run by Malcolm Wilson that builds and runs Fords in the World Rally Championship, and its dedicated Road Technology division, that basically pumps out more sporting derivatives of vehicles like this.
Proof you can haul your cake and eat it, the MS-RT is an exercise in awesomeness, and if the Ranger Wildtrak is anything to go by, would go down like a free craft beer on a NZ summer day.
MS-RT partners with Ford to produce the van which is an official part of the Ford line-up, and sold through Ford dealers.
The bodykit offers a deeper, more aggressive looking front bumper, wide body arch extensions, sports side sills which visually lower the profile of the Transit, plus an overt motorsport-inspired rear spoiler that sits up top, with vents and aero devices, along with an integrated rear diffuser.
Like the regular Transit, it uses the exact same 64kWh battery and the exact same rear-wheel mounted architecture, driving the rear wheels via an electric motor… just unleashed a little more, to churn out 31 per cent more power, peaking at 210kW, over the standard 160kW.
Range is naturally reduced a little, down to an official 236km.
Impressively, the extra power doesn’t detract from the key desire for delivery, and stomping on the throttle from standstill does not invoke a cloud of tyre smoke… or even wheelspin! With the grippy Goodyear 19-inch tyres, while it may have had 500kg on board to help settle the suspension carrying a typical workload, the MS-RT smoothly jets away from the line with 0-60km/h almost identical to the standard Transit EV.
But then, from a typical mid-range speed above 60, just as you start to wonder where this extra power is hidden, the tempo rises and it keeps pulling harder and more aggressively the longer the throttle is pinned. In fact it’ll get to around 100-120km/h rather quickly, we timed it in the low-seven-second range, even with the ballast. But the fun tapers off above that, as we were able to see on the nearby autobahn, with Ford engineers deciding it should level off above that to avoid excessive drain on the battery: we saw an 155km/h indicated and limited top speed.
Brakes are standard E Transit, though sport a matching shade of sporting blue, with mirror caps and door handles painted black.
Will we get the MS-RT in NZ? While it’s not part of the initial plan, it’s such a cool van, it would be a crime for 50 or so keen customers not to tell their local Ford dealer to get one in. Hint hint…
