Who would have thought an odd-shaped commercial vehicle produced in Turkey would be the harbinger of the future of the automotive industry?

Believe it. The Ford Transit connect appears to be the prototype of the near-future of an automotive industry in transition. In a word, that future involves choice.

At the turn of the previous century -- the early days of the 20th century -- consumers jumping into the new automotive world had to not only choose their vehicle and its size, color, options, etc., but also the powertrain/fuel. At that time they had three basic choices -- gasoline, electric and steam. The three systems divided up the market fairly equally. Fast forward a decade as the country paved more inter-city highways and the slow, short-range electrics and fast, but complex steam machines fell by the wayside to the efficient gasoline vehicles (which actually would run on a variety fo liquid fuels). 

So it looks like the Ford Transit Connect may lead the way to a similar time 100 years later. At the Chicago Auto Show, Ford introduced the electric version of the Transit Connect (as expected), but also showed a CNG-powered version outfitted as a taxi (an upgrade to the soon to be retired Crown Vics), which also could be a propane/LPG-powered. These versions will join the existing gasoline and diesel versions of the small commercial van that are currently on the market.  

But that's not all. In their Transit Connect consumer brochure, Ford makes the point that they are working on fuel cell technology as the ultimate zero emission vehicle. Since they've been running much smaller Focus compacts as their prototype fuel cell vehicles and the Transit Connect can clearly handle a hydrogen tank (which is the same size as a CNG one), that would add another choice.

So the customer walks into a Ford dealership, ready to add this vehicles to his/her fleet. After settling on the color and options, the big choices come:

• gas (or maybe E85 capable)
• diesel (or biodiesel/renewable diesel)
• electric
• CNG
• propane/LPG
• hydrogen fuel cell