Ford F-350 vs Ford Transit

What's the difference?

Ford’s legendary F-Series has been America’s best-selling truck for more than four decades. A major factor in that success is the Super Duty range (F-250/F-350/F-450), which reports for duty when loggers, landscapers, miners, oil-field workers and anyone else with seriously heavy on- and off-road load-hauling requirements needs more than the entry level F-150 can deliver.

Not surprisingly, such extreme-duty towing is also required in Australia, particularly by tradies with heavy equipment, and/or for recreational and sporting pursuits that involve multi-axle caravans, horse floats, boat trailers and the like. Some of these large trailers feature a goose-neck design which requires a prime mover-style turntable coupling mounted in the cargo tub.

There are a number of small volume importers which cater for these specialised requirements, including Harrison F Trucks at Melton in Melbourne’s outer west. Harrison provides ADR-approved right-hand drive conversion, local certification and sales/after-sales service for these American giants, one of which we recently sampled for a few days to see what life is like in the world of the Super Duty.

Meet Ford’s electric pioneer for Australia - the E-Transit.

It may not be as exciting as a Tesla Model S, Porsche Taycan or Audi e-tron, but this electric version of the Blue Oval’s large van will help create a new market for zero-emissions commercial vehicles. 

This is seen as a major opportunity by Ford to provide an electric alternative to typically diesel-powered vans, which will no doubt prove popular with fleet operators looking to cut fuel costs and corporate emissions. While unlikely to suit all van buyers, thanks to its limited range and recharging restrictions, for those companies with shorter delivery routes it will certainly have appeal.

Ford’s research (performed by YouGov) suggests up to 58 per cent of business “can see EVs becoming part of their vehicle fleet in the future".

But it’s just Ford’s first step into the larger world of electric vehicles. We’ve already had confirmation the smaller E-Transit Custom is headed our way and there are good odds the Mustang Mach-E will eventually find its way to Australian showrooms, so there’s plenty of exciting models in store for Ford.

In the meantime, though, the E-Transit isn’t due in Australia until sometime in the first half of 2023, but CarsGuide was able to take one for a test drive near Ford’s Detroit headquarters recently to get a taste of what’s to come.