Anyone running a mid sized electric van?

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Currently run a diesel van for our business, and when it's clapped out we'll probably look at en electric van. Was wondering if anyone on here had real world experience, especially running it at load capacity sometimes.

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erm.. ta. well up on it all and eyes wide open. just wanted to know if anyone on here runs a vivaro-e or similar for a bit of real world experience.

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good to hear leccy vans are fitting some circumstances, but an NV200 with a few years on it if like comparing a gen1 leaf to an e-niro. hoping to hear of what the newer mid rangers are like, especially something like the 75kwh vivaro-e

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EVLATECOMER said:

You're right ENV200 was 24kWh battery with a thirsty heater and less than 24kWh were useable, so 60 miles in winter and now a bit old tech. The e Niro analogy is spot on/

New e Vivaro 75kWh is circa 165 miles real world range and has 20% more power than the dinosaur Merc E Sprinter I believe was tested on 5th Gear. Why would they test ancient compliance vans built originally as city centre delivery vans for the German market??

You can get e Expert on flexi hire to try for a few months and there are cheap lease deals on them too, trick with EV, especially in winter is pre heating cabin from wallbox charger.

that might be a plan. it's a brewery delivery van so frequently goes out at weight capacity but a couple of local drops first up can shed 3-400kg within the first 10 miles or so. longest round was about 160 miles, so would really be pushing it, but the driver has to stop for lunch at some point, so could be planned at a location with a decent charger to take on a few miles worth quickly.

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MrB. said:

I'm going to be reviewing the new Toyota Proace Electric and the Mercedes eVito at the beginning of February. Citroen eBerlingo after that. Give me a shout if you have any questions about them and I'll try and help.

cold/hot weather, motorway speeds are a given to hit range. effect load has is the key for me. get someone to load a pallet with 800kg of something on it and test drive them then.

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TheDeuce said:

For anything other than personal cars and derived vans, I'd wait for hydrogen fuel cell I think. It's a pointless technology for cars but makes absolute sense for commercial vehicles.

It feels back to front to be talking about HFC cars when batteries are clearly up to the job and then also be talking about battery powered commercial vehicles when batteries are generally useless.

fuel cells for delivery vans! you work for honda, right?

H2 economy is utter baloney until there's a massive surplus of energy generation of the renewable variety though. making 'blue hydrogen' is utter arse and you may as well use the tried and tested fossil fuel engines than that.and we won't have a surplus of renewable or any other derivation of leccy until fusion is a developed tech, so probably not in the lifetime of almost every PHer.

once vans can manage 200 miles on a charge in all conditions and 80% SoC in 20 mins, it's argument over. we'll be there by 2025 at worst.

proper big trunkers etc who know. synth fuel maybe?

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BMR said:

I’ve driven a Vivaro E 75kwh since July, done 12500 miles in it since then.

I would say at this time of the year 120-150 miles on a full charge, I seem to be getting 2 miles per kWh but I’m not
Sure if that takes account of ac / heater usage. Summer when I first got it I seen 2.7 miles per kWh out of it and did 170 miles first day out.

I have been advised in winter to keep it in normal mode and leave temp dial about 19 degrees, apparently turning it on and off is like boiling a kettle, but leaving it on is just like simmering away.

Like a couple of others have said I seen the fifth gear review of the VW and merc and wondered why they hadn’t included the Vivaro / expert model.

ta, sounds bang on for us then. although we're in a bit of a charger barren spot, there's enough where some of our customers are to 'splash and dash' to complete the round.

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thought i'd resurrect this to see if there's more real world experience using one…….?

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Pistonheadsdicoverer said:

I saw an electric Octopus van and it was a Vivaro from Vauxhall. Maybe call V and ask them for a test drive?

test drive isn't going to tell me anything i dont know about using one for a day. i have en e-combo already, so almost identical layout.

it's more about using one for lugging heavy stuff about, real life range from a 75kWh pack and any regrets.