Ford to bring electric Puma to Australia as it commits to 5 EV models by end of 2024

Ford Australia says it intends to have at least five full-electric vehicle offerings in Australia by the end of 2024, with an electric version of its popular Puma small SUV joining two electric transit vans and the long awaited Mach-e Mustang.

Ford currently has zero EV offerings in Australia, despite the popularity of compelling models in the US and European markets such as the Ford F150 Lightning electric ute, the Mach-E Mustang and the E-Transit van.

Of the five upcoming Ford BEVs for Australia, two have been known to be “in the pipeline” for a while: The Ford E-Transit is expected very soon, with the smaller E-Transit Custom van to follow in 2024.

Ford also revealed at the recent Melbourne Grand Prix that its highly popular Mach-E Mustang  would be made available here later this year, with reservations to begin soon.

Ford Australia has now also revealed that the fourth BEV bound for Australia will be the upcoming Puma electric that is soon be shown in Europe. Few details about the Puma have been released so far, but those that have point to a small crossover that will compete with the likes of the Hyundai Kona electric.

The Puma is slated as the replacement to the Fiesta small ICE hatch that was dropped here last year, and more recently in Europe. European sales of the Puma are not expected to begin until early next year though, meaning the Puma EV won’t arrive in Australia till at least mid to late 2024.

The Ford spokespeople were also keen to point out that securing ‘sufficient quantity and specification’ of each model for Australia was an important part of the announcement – although they were not keen to specify what ‘sufficient quantity’ meant in terms of actual numbers of each model allocation for Australia.

Hopefully this means that both the long wait times for delivery and/or ‘chook raffles’ that bring down ordering websites that we have seen for many EV models here won’t be a part of the Ford EV rollout. 

If the fifth EV in Australia is not to be the F150, there are clues as to what could be offered in Ford’s recent European EV announcements. There, Ford is planning to have nine BEVs in its line-up by the end of 2024 as part of Ford’s European plans to exit internal combustion engine vehicle manufacture and sales by 2030.

For Europe, the planned nine EV line-up is made up of four passenger and five commercial vehicles.

The fifth EV for here (or perhaps beyond – the Ford spokespeople here were specific about the ‘at least’) could therefore be an additional commercial vehicle or perhaps one or more of the two upcoming European Ford medium SUVs based on VW’s MEB platform.

One possibility is therefore the Transit Courier small van recently revealed in Europe. The Transit courier would be a competitor to both the upcoming new model Renault Kangoo e-tech (due here soon), as well as the Peugeot e-Partner (due here in July).

It could also be one of the remaining two passenger vehicle BEVs that Ford have yet to reveal much beyond shadowy profile pictures in the European announcement.

These are a ‘Medium-size Crossover’ and a ‘Sport Crossover’, both based on the VW MEB electric-only platform that Ford will (at least for a time) be sharing with VW as part of an agreement to use up to 1.2 million VW MEB units in European Ford vehicles.

The MEB platform is expected to allow Ford to build these two European EV models at a lower price-point than the Mach-E. 

The Driven’s take: It seems that Ford has seen the future of the automobile is electric after all and is powering ahead to move from offering zero EVs to five here by the end of next year to catch up with … and maybe even become a leading part of … the EV transition in Australia. 

It is worth noting that part of that transition must necessarily also be the phasing out of ICE vehicle sales. It was therefore notable that Ford also announced at the briefing that sales of the Ford Escape small SUV are to end in Australia, although no firm end-date was given. (The Escape is currently offered here in both ICE and PHEV variants).