E-Transit Faces ‘Boot Camp’ Extreme Testing

You probably wouldn’t climb a mountain, run over icy tracks or cross thousands of potholes before starting work – but that’s what our all-electric E-Transit van endured as part of its development. 

To ensure E-Transit can cope with intensive customer use, engineers put it through “torture tests” designed to recreate the effects of 240,000 km – or 10 years’ hard work for customers – in 12 weeks. 

The tests included thousands of passes over “torture tracks” that replicate the world’s worst roads, so we can be sure E-Transit will cope with the cobbles, potholes and kerbs of city streets. 

We also assessed E-Transit in climates from Siberia to the Sahara using our high-tech “weather factory”  to optimise its performance and cabin comfort in extreme weather. 

To push the all-electric drive system to the limit, engineers simulated a fully-laden climb up one of the highest paved roads in Europe, and drove E-Transit in snow and ice to make it sure-footed and confidence-inspiring for drivers in challenging conditions. 

E-Transit will go through more testing, including real-world customer trials, before reaching dealers in Europe next spring. 

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