Ford Tourneo 2024 review

Ford Australia has a problem.

With the beloved Fiesta and Focus hatches gone, the Escape midsize SUV pulled after it failed to gain traction locally and the slow-selling Puma small SUV put on hiatus until an electric version arrives, the brand with a rich history of passenger vehicles finds itself accidentally branded as a commercial vehicle specialist.

But while Ford Australia wipes its eyes with the flurry of $100 bills brought in from the Ranger’s success, it’s given the importer pause to think of what to try next, something it hasn’t dabbled in for a long, long while: people movers.

The new-generation Transit Custom commercial midsize van – Ford’s third best-selling vehicle – has recently landed in Australia, and in the fourth quarter of this year its people mover derivative in the Tourneo (known as the Tourneo Custom in Europe) will follow suit.

Pronounced ‘tore-ney-oh’, this midsize van has already been outlined in two diesel-powered grades for Australia. With a starting price of $65,990 before on-road costs for the well-equipped Active, climbing to $70,990 for the fully loaded Titanium X, the Ford is priced a hair’s breadth under the segment-conquering and recently updated Kia Carnival.

The Carnival isn’t taking its success for granted either, with Kia set to introduce a hybrid option in the near future. Still, Ford has a tool in its European arsenal that could make the Korean look outdated: a fully electric option that is being considered for our market.

Ahead of its local debut, we travelled with Ford to Germany to sample both the diesel and EV versions of the Tourneo to determine if this is a van worth waiting for.

So what do you get for your money?

Both grades come reasonably well-equipped, with the Active sporting LED lights all-round, three-zone climate control, heated front seats, dual-power sliding doors, a wireless phone charger and a 13.0-inch touchscreen with a built-in 5G modem as well as wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Pictured is the Active grade

While it doesn’t yet have a safety rating from local authority ANCAP, it’s faired well in testing overseas and comes standard with six airbags, AEB with intersection detection and front and rear parking sensors, plus active safety tech like the lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring and the rear cross-traffic alert.

Stepping up to the Titanium X throws in a fancier-looking set of 17-inch wheels, a panoramic roof, Sensico synthetic leather seat upholstery, power adjustment for the front row, a premium B&O sound system and a 360-degree camera.

We spent most of our time in the latter trim and were impressed, not just by the standard appointment for the price, but also by the smart and flexible design of the cabin.

With the new-generation Tourneo set to share its platform with the new-generation Volkswagen Multivan, it’s perhaps no surprise the Ford sports a sophisticated rail system that allows both the second and third rows to slide to accommodate your needs.

Australia will be receiving the short-wheel-base version of the Tourneo but fear not, the space inside is massive. The default boot space is 1045 litres but this depends very much on how you have the seats configured.

Need more room for adults? Shuffle the rows further apart. Need more room in the boot for an interstate trip but only have little-kid leg room to worry about? Move the seats forward.

Pictured is the Active grade

The eight-seat layout (2+3+3 front to rear) consists of three individual seats in the second row, and a 2+1 arrangement in the third. Furthermore, each second-row seat has the ability to be rotated 180 degrees to face those in the very back.

The result is a car that works around you, rather than you work around it.

In terms of comfort, the seats in all corners of the cabin are quite comfortable and due to the individual nature of each chair, they come with adequate side bolstering that will hold littlies in place even when they aren’t paying attention.

Four Isofix points can be found in the cabin, spread across the second and third rows.

Parents will also appreciate the good ventilation inside the cabin with roof-mounted air vents that won’t be blocked by changing the seat configuration, along with separate controls for the back seats.

The Tourneo loses some marks for its panoramic sunroof, which offers a gorgeous view of the world and we’re told is layered in heavy-duty UV protection. But, ultimately, nothing beats a solid shaded roof for sun protection and the complete lack of a retractable sunblind to capture the best of both worlds is a bit of a miss.

Ford also utilises this design feature in its Mustang Mach-E, which I am currently running as a long termer, and I can tell you from experience that trying to get kids to nap in the car with a wide-open sky in front of them is a fool’s errand.

Hopefully, Ford chooses to offer a clip-in sunshade at the dealer level, as they do for the Mach-E, which should go some of the way to circumvent this issue if you are keen on the Titanium X over the Active, which has a traditional metal roof layout.

We also noted an absence of pull-up sunshades in both the second and third rows in the SWB version coming to Australia and despite both doors being powered from the base model up, the tailgate is manual on both grades which is bizarre for an opening this large.

The door itself isn’t all that heavy in my eyes, but grandma and grandpa might have a different opinion, and once open the tailgate height could be a bit of a reach for the more vertically challenged folk.

Those up front are treated to a rather lovely experience with comfortable driver’s seats with flip-down arm rests on the individual seats, along with under-thigh and power adjustment on the Titanium X grade to fine-tune the seating position to your body type.

Ford fits its huge 13.0-inch touchscreen as standard, which is crisp and fluid to use. The Tourneo loses some points for integrating climate control functions into the big screen but at least the functionality is logical and snappy to respond.

But what’s the Ford Tourneo like to drive? Well, that depends on which you’re in: the diesel or the EV. We sampled both, but we’ll start with the former.

The Tourneo diesel confirmed for Australia utilises a 125kW/390Nm 2.0-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine coupled with an eight-speed automatic transmission sending the power to the front wheels exclusively. All-wheel-drive versions are available in other markets.

Those outputs make it slightly down on the 130kW/430Nm Hyundai Staria and a lot down on the 148kW/440Nm Kia Carnival diesels. In our brief drive, the outputs seemed adequate but perhaps the boost in grunt might be appreciated once the cabin is fully loaded and heading out on a road trip to Queensland.

On the move, the Tourneo diesel is polite in how it shuffles through each of its eight ratios but the commercial soul of its Transit Custom sibling is evident. The diesel engine is a bit loud and there just isn’t enough sound-deadening material to block out the world around you.

There are also some finishing touches inside the cabin that expose this fact, with the steering shaft connecting the steering wheel to the driving wheels visible from the driver’s seating position.

The fully-electric version of the Tourneo, known as the E-Tourneo, is actually rear-wheel-drive with a 160kW/415Nm motor offering significantly higher outputs than the diesel and a greater sense of confidence when accelerating up to highway speeds.

With no diesel clatter to worry about the cabin is significantly quieter and would offer a step forward for people movers in terms of refinement if it was to come to Australia. Being RWD, the E-Tourneo is also more fluid and agreeable when weaving through fast country roads.

For a vehicle of this size, the Tourneo is easy to see out of and navigate through tight spaces, the split-focus side mirror is also great for parallel parking.

Ford didn’t pull any punches with its drive route in Germany either, taking us through some seriously rough city streets that were fairly close in quality to crook Aussie roads.

The Tourneo’s independent rear suspension handled the punishment without much trouble and offered confidence-inspiring control at higher speeds. The added weight of the E-Tourneo’s 64kWh battery did make for slightly worse ride quality compared to the diesel’s, but not by much.

The official range claim varies depending on the grade but around 325km is expected on most, and our initial drive reflected that this number is founded in reality.

Although not ideal for long trips, this range could suit the daily duties of many drivers if they are able to plug in and top up the battery at home. By doing this, you could effectively save yourself one extra job a week by skipping the servo visit and maybe even that morally grey issue of leaving your kids in the car while you run in and pay.

The Tourneo can be charged from flat to full using a home-style three-phase 11kW AC charger in a little under eight hours, while a 125kW DC charger will top up the battery from 10-80 percent in around 39 minutes.

While the E-Tourneo doesn’t boast the 2500kg braked towing capacity of the diesel, a quoted figure of 2000kg is still fairly impressive.

At present, the only electric people movers on sale in Australia are very expensive, with the Mercedes Benz EQV starting at $162,339 before on-roads and even Chinese options such as the LDV MIfa 9 ($104,000) are still significantly more than what many Aussie families can afford, especially right now.

Ford is now starting to get serious about pricing EVs in Australia and recently slashed the price of its entry-level Mustang Mach-E to $64,990 before on-road costs, making it more affordable than the cheapest diesel Tourneo.

It gives us hope that if the E-Tourneo was to come to Australia it would be priced similarly to the diesel at around the $80,000 mark. And with the increase in grunt, refinement and the likely significantly cheaper running costs, it would be an easy step up to justify in our eyes.

The already-confirmed diesel is less convincing and feels too close to its commercial counterpart for a passenger vehicle but it still left a good impression overall.

With an extensive standard feature list, highly flexible interior layout and frugal diesel engine the entry-level Active stands out to us as worthy of consideration. And if you do decide to pull the trigger, there’s a good chance you’ll have one in your driveway much quicker than you would its rival from Kia.