Electric Vans

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Heltor Chasca

Out-riding the Black Dog
Does anyone have any thoughts?

I saw a few mid sized electric vans out in the NL. This would suit me perfectly. Largest tools being a lawnmower, strimmer, hedge cutters, chainsaws etc. Bikes must fit at the weekend. Not much weight. I would love to get shot of my diesel pick up.

I popped into a roadside electric dealership that has popped up outside Ston Easton in Somerset, but frankly, the guy I spoke to was utterly hopeless.

Anyone have any ideas? Particularly trade in or incentive deals. And what models are out there. 60 mile range is too short btw.
 
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Quite a few vans seem to be diesel electric hybrid using electric drive with a range extending generator. Seems like a sensible solution for now.
 

Levo-Lon

Guru
I was tempted when I got the Doblo.
Petrol is rare as is electric.
Nissan is about it really.

Worth a look if you don't do many miles and can home charge?

But sadly it's a small diesel if you need to travel and carry weight.
 
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MontyVeda

a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
A close friend's had a nissan electric van for a few years now (not sure of the model, it's not hybrid and is a touch smaller than a Transit van, but not much). It's very nippy for a van, 0-40 in a few seconds, like a supercharged milkfloat... he loves it, but charging time does have to be factored into long journeys. I think a full charge at a service station's fast charger takes about 30 minutes (as opposed to overnight at home). The range on the motorway is around 70 miles if he sticks to around 55-60mph but does reduce if he's in a bit of a rush doing 70mph. In the city its range is around 120 miles (breaking energy is recycled back into the battery or something, hence the longer city range than motorway driving). One does have to consider things like the heating and the radio/CD are also draining battery, so if it's on its last 10%... you'll get a couple more miles if you turn them off.
 
I've got an eNV200. It's the Combi which is the 5/7 people carrier version of the van, but otherwise the same. I can get 5 bikes in the back normally, although can get more piled on top.

Driving around London, I can get 100 miles range, but on A roads/motorway, more typically 65 miles. I've got a 40kWh version on order (in red so it will go faster), so that will give me an extra 35% range or so.

Generally, car dealerships are hopeless, and for electric vehicles, even more so. A few will have an enthusiastic salesperson, but most just want to sell conventional ICE vehicles. There's been a number of times when I've been charging at Cobham Service on the M25, and someone with a new electric car turns up without a clue how to charge, meaning the dealership just hasn't explained the nightmare of different chargers & networks which exist.

Vans get a different Government grant (20% off compared with £4,500 for the Combi), meaning for the eNV200, depending upon specification, the van version is cheaper than the Combi, which is great if you will only carry 1 passenger.
 

Cavalol

Legendary Member
Location
Chester
Until they get the range sorted out, they're fine for short local journeys but go far and get caught out it's a long wait for a charge. We also had one at work (for internal use) but I never got to drive it. Also, due to the nature of the company, the last they wanted was an EV, so they sent it back!
 
It's a common argument. However, 60% of all car journeys are 5 miles or less. 96% are 20 miles or less. So the majority of people don't really need to worry, but if you're a travelling salesperson traversing the country, then electric won't be the answer.

I went up to the Isle of Skye in May, and am back to Scotland next month. I've regularly been doing 110 mile trips which costs less than £4 in juice. How much is petrol these days?

Until I get the new car, just have to take a 30 minute break to recharge, which conveniently fits in with my bladder! But yes, the charging infrastructure can be an issue due to often only one rapid being installed in each location, so you need to have Plan A & B.
 
Ah, that would be on a lower power connector. The 50kWh rapids are installed at motorways and on other through routes (and increasingly at petrol stations). The lower powered destination chargers I have at home are also often at supermarkets, shopping malls etc, so you can get a top-up whilst you're at home/work/shopping. This are normally 7kWh, and would typically take 4-5 hours to charge.
 

Cavalol

Legendary Member
Location
Chester
Impressive the rapids are being installed at a few places, then. I'm currently weighing up a second hand hybrid, was quite impressed with a Prius taxi we were in last week. If 'all electric' can be charged in 30 minutes, that's really good and will surely sway people towards them more.
 

NorthernDave

Never used Über Member
Our local council have a couple of the Nissan eNV vans and I occasionally see a little Piaggio electric van around the town centre.

And until recently TNT were running an electric 7.5 tonner on city centre drops - it looked just like a regular MAN truck but had Smiths badges.

On an even more encouraging note, the numbers of cargo bikes being used in the city centre has exploded this summer.
 
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