The ORIGINAL Ford Transit Custom PHEV... a bold experiment | Editor's Choice October 2026
Ford’s Transit Custom medium van is a hard one to beat… but the original PHEV version was not
Words by: Tom Roberts
Published on 8 October 2026 | 0 min read
Just to go into this article with the right tone… the CURRENT Ford Transit Custom PHEV is a wonderful medium van with a refined drive, smooth handling and the excellent practicality the van is known for (just take a look at my first drive article). That’s not the one we’re talking about here.
The ORIGINAL Transit Custom PHEV was practical, but it was not smooth or quiet to drive. Now, this article is not going to be me bashing the original version. Far from it, it’s a celebration of how van manufacturers can try something, realise it kind of works but needs refinement, and then succeed wildly with the next effort.
Plus, I drove the original van 244 miles from Hemel Hempstead to Bath and back again, so I know what I’m talking about (the header image of this article was from back then before I started colouring my beard in). And you can still find original Transit Custom PHEVs on the Autotrader marketplace!
The ORIGINAL Transit Custom PHEV
At the time Ford’s PHEV Transit Custom hit the market somewhere around 2019-2020, it was a glimpse of the future because an electric Transit Custom was on the way and this felt like a bridging van before it hit… but it was also a reminder that the fully electric Transit Custom wasn’t here yet.
It was available in two body types – a single-cab L1H1 panel van and a Tourneo passenger version with eight seats. Both packed the company’s long-lived 124bhp 1.0-litre EcoBoost petrol engine under the bonnet in series configuration with a 92.9 kW electric motor and a 13.6 kWh battery pack. For reference, the current Transit Custom PHEV packs a 2.5-litre petrol engine linked to a more powerful electric motor to offer around 25-35 miles of electric range.
You read that right, the original PHEV was a Ford Transit Custom with a 1.0-litre petrol engine… feels odd to type that. And boy, when it kicked it to power the motor once the electric battery was drained you REALLY heard it.
Not what I expected from a Transit Custom
The first leg of my epic journey across England all those years ago was 122 miles to Bath and we started off the day with a full 30 miles of electric charge and 150 miles of petrol range. The trip out of Hemel to the M25 was on electric power, all smooth, quiet and relaxed. About 20 miles later I hit the motorway, the battery was drained and the petrol engine kicked into life. Quiet driving ended and only the radio could cover the noise.
I arrived in Bath 20 minutes later than Google Maps expected… and traffic wasn’t to blame. I blamed the sluggish performance of the van on the motorway once the petrol engine kicked in. But, and it’s a big but, I arrived safely with no aches or pains. And that was the flag in my head. It was still the internal experience of a Ford Transit Custom, but the driving experience was a chore. It no longer is... see below...
Learning from bold first attempts
So, you can see I’m not bashing the original (too much). It was still a Ford Transit Custom, which makes it a good van in general. It’s just that it was using older hybrid technology that the current model has significantly upgraded, with good reason.
The old one worked, it did a job, but the driving experience of a Ford Transit Custom is as much about smoothness and being able to enjoy the cabin as it is practicality. The new version is the best Transit Custom PHEV yet, the best hybrid van on the road today, but the original was a bold first attempt that didn’t fail… it just didn’t live up to the Transit Custom’s reputation.