US Postal set for hybrid delivery vans?

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is set to examine the use of hybrid delivery vans as part of its Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV) programme which has just kicked off.

Ford readies Transit for its next 50 years

Ford will next year add SCR deNOx technology to its heavier Transit van and chassis-cab models to comply with upcoming Euro 6.1 emission requirements applicable to diesel vehicles under 3.5 tonne gvw. Alan Bunting reports 

Ford Transit van is 50 today

Ford is marking the 50^th anniversary of the Transit van with a Press event at its Dunton, Essex, European Research and Development Centre.

Ford claims to outpace industry in Europe

Ford Motor Company claims its overall sales in Europe continue to outpace industry growth in the first quarter of 2015.

Ford outpaces Euro industry growth

As Nissan in the UK highlights its sales success in Europe (see below) total sales of Ford vehicles in its 20 traditional European markets totalled 88,700 in January, an increase of 9.8 per cent on the same period last year.

Renault to supply light CV to Fiat from 2016

Renault and Fiat have signed an agreement whereby Renault will supply Fiat with a light commercial vehicle based on a Renault platform.

The styling of the Fiat vehicle will be developed by Fiat and will feature unique and distinctive elements on the model, branded Fiat Professional.

More Euro-style vans for the US

Fiat Chrysler has unveiled its Ram ProMaster City – the Ram Truck brand's entry in the expanding field of Euro-style compact commercial vans aimed at small businesses and urban markets.

The leading rival is the Transit Connect from Ford and made in Turkey.  It is reckoned Ford pioneered the compact cargo van segment in 2009 with its European import and has just rolled out a redesigned second generation.

Also competing in this sector is Nissan’s NV200 small van, the base vehicle for New York City's new taxicabs.

And General Motors (GM), through its Chevrolet arm, has negotiated with Nissan to begin this year selling a version of the NV200 as the Chevrolet City Express. In Europe, Nissan teamed up with Renault. The French company did have a partnership with GM for their Vivaro/Trafic offerings – competitors to the Ford Transit.

What the North American small cvs all share is a smaller footprint and smaller engine than traditional panel vans, so offering lower purchase and operating costs. Also common are city-capable designs with large bumper systems all around and more car-like safety and convenience features.

The Ram ProMaster City is based on the Fiat Doblo from Europe and is powered by Chrysler's 2.4-litre Tigershark four-cylinder gasoline engine. It is front-drive and will use the company's new, fuel-efficient nine-speed automatic. The engine and transmission also are used in the new Chrysler 200 sedan and the Jeep Cherokee.

Built in Turkey, the City will be sold in two-seat cargo and five-seat passenger versions and be able to carry 1,883 pounds in its 131.7 cubic feet of space. The cargo area measures 60.4in by 87.2in and has a building panel-friendly 48in between the wheel wells. City goes on sale in early 2015.

The new vehicle joins the Ram van line-up that includes the larger Ram ProMaster Euro van and the Ram C/V, a commercial version of the Chrysler minivan.

According to Ram Truck, total Class 1-4 commercial van market is expected to be about 400,000 a year over the next five years, with the new compact vans taking about 25 per cent of the market.

      

                                           More engines, please

Meanwhile, someone, somewhere in one part of the Fiat Chrysler must be twisting hard the arm of someone, somewhere in another part of the same group.

For Chrysler Group LLC sales chief Reid Bigland recently let slip he is short of engines from VM Motori, the Cento, Italy-based company wholly owned by Fiat after it bought out GM’s 50 per cent share.

Bigland told reporters Chrysler is “working hard” to increase production in Europe of the VM Motori 3-litre V6 diesel engine that powers the 2014 Ram EcoDiesel pickup.

According to Bigland, demand for the diesel model, which is noteworthy for its compacted graphite iron (CGI) cylinder block and which many customers claim can exceed the 28 mile/gal fuel economy label, has exceeded expectations.

“Frankly, demand for diesel has really surprised us,” he said.

The diesel version of the Ram 1500 pick-up truck is on dealer forecourts for only 13 days. Demand for diesel versions accounts for 20 per cent of sales.

“We’re going to be able to meet that demand, it’s just going to take us a few months,” Bigland said.

Maybe Fiat will have to commit some expenditure to expand engine manufcature at Cento - or consider manufacture outside Europe.

Bigland added that he expects Chrysler to hit 51 consecutive months of sales gains in June. he sees no underlying issues with the year’s sales pace as pent-up demand, an improving economy and credit availability continue for consumers.

US auto sales so far this year are up about 5 per cent and Bigland expects overall industry sales to rise between 2 per cent and 6 per cent in 2014. He does not expect US sales to hit 17 million this year, but that sales will continue “on a slow trajectory upwards.”

“Eventually in the next two to three years, I think we will get back to a 17 million annual sales mark and then stabilize from there,” he said.

However, it only needs a serious uprising in the Middle East to throw a spanner in the works and make oil prices rocket, thus denting world economies and the best laid plans of even the slickest automaker.

Transit rolls in Claycomo; F-150 next

Ford Motor Company has begun production of the 2015 Transit van at its Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Missouri.

Transit will replace the venerable Ford E-series van, first sold in 1961 as the Ford Econoline. Ford will continue making E-series vans during the 2014 calendar year as Transit production ramps up.

€190 million for new Vito production

Daimler has invested €190 million to upgrade its van plant in Vitoria, Spain to produce the next generation Vito.

Following the summer shutdown, production will begin of the next generation Mercedes-Benz Vito at the facility, which has also just seen another model changeover for the new Mercedes-Benz V-Class factory. The new MPV goes on sale in June.

Nissan UK tops plants, brands

In the UK, Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK at Washington on Tyneside produced the most vehicles in 2012 with an output of 510,572 units. It also made the most of any one single brand – 310,837 of its Qashqai model. In June, the plant will begin building the second-generation Leaf electric car.

The figures produced in the SMMT Motor Industry Facts 2013 of the ‘top five’ UK producers and brands, showed that Jaguar Land Rover held second position with 305,467 vehicles built, though in model ranking its Evoque brand came fourth with 112,331 units built. A new nine-speed automatic gearbox from ZF will be fitted first to Evoque models before spreading through the range.

The third highest output was recorded by BMW’s Mini plant at Oxford with 207,530 units built. The Mini brand came second behind Quasqai.

£80m EU loan for Turkish Transit plant

It is curious that in the year General Motors confirmed Luton, UK as the focus of its European Vivaro van production, Ford elected to vacate its Swaythling, Southampton plant in favour of centralised Transit van production in Turkey where costs are lower.

The interesting difference is that Turkey is effectively outside the principal European trading community. However, it cannot be ignored that in June this year, the European Investment Bank (EIB) approved a £80 million loan to help ramp up production of Transit vans at the Ford Otosan facility at Kocaeli, Turkey.

The UK, France, Germany and Italy are the main source of funds for the EIB.

The loan was agreed as part of a billion dollar investment plan – about £600 million – for Ford’s 395-acre site in Kocaeli. The application for the loan was made in October 2011 to finance the modernisation of the plant ahead of new generation Transit 6.

End of UK Ford Transit

As  many in the industry have been forecasting, Ford is finally shuttering its Southampton plant where over two million Transit vans have been built.

It seems only yesterday that Ford Motor Company was making plans to turn the company’s Southampton, UK plant from making Transit vans to chassis- cabs in readiness for the launch of Transit 6.

That was in 2008. Since then, with Transit 6 now launched, the market in Europe has changed. The euro crisis and the economic downturn have forced Ford to “restructure”, as vehicle demand declines. The result is that Ford’s 2008/9 plans to ‘save’ its UK Transit plant in the wake of the 2012 run-out of Transit 5 have been ditched.

Even as close as August 2010, Ford was still preparing for the Southampton upgrade that would see the removal of the present body framing lines and robotised body-in-white production. There was even talk earlier this year Transit 6 chassis-cabs still being built at Southampton. Ford even extended the run-out of the Transit line from 2011 to 2012 in readiness for the launch of Transit 6 in 2013.