Sollers Ford has postponed the start of production of an electric van Transit in Russia from 2022 to 2023, the head of the company, Adil Shirinov, told reporters.
“We will bring an electric Transit here in 2022 for sure to work with our customers. In 2022, we will not be producing it here. I hope that we will start its production in Yelabuga in 2023, ”said the top manager.
In March 2021, Kommersant wrote that the company plans to launch production of an electric Ford Transit in 2022 in parallel with the main diesel version. Ford unveiled an electric light commercial vehicle (LCV) Transit in 2020, with plans to begin production in the United States at Ford Otosan.
The top manager explained the delay in launching the new product in Russia by the peculiarities of the model’s life cycle – in 2022 this car should only appear in the United States, and the components for the Russian assembly largely come from the Turkish enterprise of the Ford concern.
At the same time, “Sollers Ford” still intends to localize in Yelabuga the production of a 2.2-liter diesel engine, which is installed on the Ford Transit, next year. The volume of production of these engines will not be large: the only local product of the company is LCV Transit, the volume of its production this year will be more than 21,000 units, Shirinov notes. But the localization of this engine is economically feasible even with this production volume, taking into account the availability of a local site for their production.
Sollers Ford is a joint venture between the American concern Ford Motor Company and the Russian automotive group Sollers, owned by businessman Vadim Shvetsov. The main asset of the company is a plant in Elabuga (SEZ “Alabuga”) of the Republic of Tatarstan. It produces LCV Ford Transit in various modifications. Sales of the model in the Russian market for 9 months of 2021 increased by 59% – up to 14,011 vehicles.
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