Ford ships a Chinese-built Transit to Europe as its China sales halve

Ford's answer to Chinese vans is a Chinese van with a Transit badge

The Transit City went into production at Jiangling Motors' Xiaolan plant in Nanchang on 31 August, and Ford China says the first export batch of around 1,000 vans is destined for Europe, with deliveries due before the end of the year. It makes its public European debut at IAA Transportation in Hannover this week, and it is the first vehicle Ford has ever sourced from China for its European line-up.

A €35,990 Transit City undercuts the E-Transit Custom by €15,000 in Germany

German order books opened in August at €35,990 net, or €42,828 with VAT, for the short L1H1 van, with the L2H2 at €38,490 net and a chassis cab at €37,990 net. Ford's own E-Transit Custom, built in Turkey, starts at €57,953 gross. Britain gets the van for under £30,000 and Australia at A$50,000 drive-away, taxes included, when deliveries start in November. Every version carries the same 56 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery and a 150 hp front motor, good for 254 km on the WLTP cycle and 381 km in the city test. The short van takes 1,085 kg and three Euro pallets, the long one 1,275 kg, and an 87 kW charge takes either from 10 to 80 percent in 33 minutes.

Jiangling's E-Fushun supplies the platform, and Ford has been a JMC shareholder since 1995

Underneath, the Transit City is the JMC E-Fushun, a delivery van Jiangling showed at the Guangzhou motor show in November 2024 with CATL batteries of 41.5 to 53.4 kWh and an 82 hp motor limited to 100 km/h. Ford of Europe, which runs Transit development for the whole company, gave it the bigger battery, nearly twice the motor output, one-pedal driving and a 12.3-inch screen. Ford first invested in JMC in 1995 and remains its largest shareholder at about 32 percent. The venture has built Transits for China, the Middle East and South America for years; this is the first aimed at the market that made the Transit name.

Ford exported 184,000 vehicles from China in 2025 and sold 99,400 through Changan Ford

Ford's Chinese plants shipped 184,000 vehicles to more than 80 countries last year, up 9 percent, more than double the 2022 figure and a third consecutive record. The Territory, Ranger and Transit did most of the work, and the Edge, Nautilus and Mondeo joined the export list in 2025. At home the picture inverted. Changan Ford, the passenger-car venture, retailed 99,400 cars in 2025 against 247,000 a year earlier and sold 35 Mustang Mach-Es in twelve months. Ford now exports more from China than Changan Ford sells there.

Farley stood in Nanchang on 1 September, days before Sean Duffy's letter arrived

Jim Farley met Nanchang's city government on 1 September and told them, in Jiangling's account, that the partners would jointly expand into international markets. Late that same week the US Department of Transportation sent him a letter, published on 8 September, objecting to Ford's CATL battery licence in Michigan, its Geely venture at Valencia and its talks with BYD, and calling Ford's plan to move Lincoln Nautilus production out of China by 2030 too slow. The letter does not mention Jiangling or the Transit City. Farley had already warned his own staff in August that the China tariff would not hold forever; a month later he was in Nanchang arranging what comes after it. Donald Trump meets Xi Jinping on 24 September.

The EU's EV duties stop at customs heading 8703, and a panel van is 8704

The countervailing duties Brussels put on Chinese electric cars in October 2024, from 7.8 to 35.3 percent on top of the standard tariff, apply to battery-electric vehicles built to carry up to nine people, customs heading 8703. A Transit City is a goods vehicle under heading 8704, so it enters Europe paying only the ordinary duty, the same treatment as any Maxus or Farizon van. Australia charges Chinese-built vehicles no tariff at all, and they took 40.3 percent of its new-vehicle market in August. Ford Australia, which gets 88.5 percent of its sales from the Ranger and Everest, wants the Transit City and a Chinese-built Bronco Basecamp to double the share of the market it competes in, from 30 to 60 percent, within three years.

AutoNext Take

Ford sold 99,400 cars through Changan Ford last year and shipped 184,000 vehicles out of the country, and the Transit City is what that arithmetic produces when it reaches Europe. A 30-year-old partnership built to sell Fords to China has become a factory that sells Chinese Fords to everyone else, and the €15,000 gap to a Turkish-built E-Transit Custom is the reason Ford Pro is willing to say so out loud.

Jiangling's 2026 export total lands in January 2027, and on the current trend it passes 200,000 with the Transit City inside it for four months. That is the figure to hold against Duffy's letter, which objected to plants in Michigan and Valencia and never mentioned the one that already ships Chinese Fords west. If the total falls short of 184,000 instead, the Transit City will have arrived in Europe just as the strategy behind it stalled.

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