Ford recently announced the Transit Trail, a variation of their popular Transit commercial van targeted at VanLifers and others wanting a camper van.
The Ford Transit Trail's design makes it easy to customize and add things like shelving, cabinetry, and beds.
Car and Driver magazine describes the Transit Trail as:
Essentially a factory-built camper van base, the Transit Trail comes with key elements that vanning aficionados want, such as swiveling front seats, an onboard AC inverter, an over-cab storage compartment, dual alternators, and a fuse panel, all backed by Ford's warranty.
The Transit Trail is also off-road ready with four wheel drive, an uplifted body, and large tires.
Buyers can customize the Van themselves or get custom conversions via the Ford Pro network of upfitters and interior installers.
The Transit Trail starts at around $65,000, but Ford claims that due to the design and features of the Van, customization is much easier and cheaper than other options.
As their video below shows, Ford is targeting VanLifers- digital nomads that travel, live and work in RVs, vans, or other vehicles converted into roaming residences.
This is a large and growing market segment.
According to the 2022 MBO Partners study, The Aspirations and Reality for Digital Nomads, there are 3.1 million VanLifers in the U.S.
This is up from 2.6 million in 2021 and 1.9 million in 2020.
We expect the VanLife segment to continue to grow. And one reason is the growing support ecosystem for VanLifers, including companies like Ford releasing products making it easier to be a VanLifer.
See our Digital Nomad section for more on this topic.
Emergent Research (that's us) worked with MBO Partners on the abovementioned study.