The Ford Motor Co. recently revealed that its Kansas City plant will start shipping the 2022 E-Transit van, the electric edition of the popular Ford Transit cargo van. The first models just drove off the development line at Ford’s enormous factory in the Northland. The E-Transit is the automaker’s second electric vehicle after the Mustang Mach-E.

“Our employees are very excited about being a part of history,” said Carlos Howell, manager of Ford’s Kansas City plant. 

Ford boasts the largest manufacturing area in the Kansas City region. The company’s manufacturing plant there hosts over 7,000 workers and develops more vehicles than any other Ford center in North America. Beyond the new E-Transit, the local plant also produces the combustion-based Transit van and the legendary F-150 pickup. 

Vehicle batteries for the electric van are also being developed in Kansas City — making the plant Ford’s only location for assembling both batteries and electric vehicles on the spot. 

Detroit’s public officials have said demand is growing for the E-Transit van, with 300 customers already purchasing over 10,000 vans through online orders. What’s more, current corporate customers include Walmart and the City of Orlando, Ford stated.

“E-Transit is a testament to the fact that an electric commercial fleet is no longer a vision of tomorrow, but a productivity-boosting modern reality,” Kumar Galhotra, president of The Americas & International Markets Group for Ford, went on record to say in a news release. 

Within just 24 months from now, Ford officials are striving to have the global capacity to build 600,000 electric vehicles every year.

“Behind the scenes, we have teams working on how to maximize production, with a continued commitment to building every high-demand vehicle for our customers with the quality they expect.”