Electric Vans

[monkeyman]

Has anyone got one or though about getting one. I think they would be good for a lot of us as we don't do a lot of millage. And maybe all the other buts from your system could be wired into it, pump electric reals etc.

 

[spruce]

I know things have moved on a bit since Citroen brought out their electric Berlingo in 2002. It was a flop.

The problem then was the weight of the batteries effecting payload of the van.

The batteries were leased separately and by the time you took that into consideration and the higher cost of the van to begin with, running costs per mile weren't that much different.

Of course that would change with Boris' congestion charge, but in those days range was the limiting factor.

Electric motors use more current the harder they have to work. The problem as I see it with us (wfp users) is that we spend most of the time at full payload capacity. Moving that extra weight will severely decrease the mileage one can travel on a charge. It was fine if you were carrying light loads, but anything around its payload was a no no.

The Berlingo also had a small diesel tank that was used for running a Webasto Thermo Top C to heat the van in winter. Operators let the tank run dry and the heaters electronics cut the Webasto heater. The lines had to be bleed and the heater reset by an authorised Webasto dealer. Most operators didn't know that removing the main fuse for 30 secs could usually reset the heater. Webasto agents charge a fortune for a quick 10 minute job at the most.

No salesman will tell you that the trade-in value of your 3 year old battery vehicle will be next to nothing as buyers will worry about the cost of replacing those batteries. A customer we have has had 2 Honda petrol hybrids. Both cars were using more petrol and the equivalent diesel in the same car. He has now traded in his last 3 year old Honda and took a massive financial hit on it. So not only did he pay a premium buying it new, he lost out dramatically at the back end as well.

He is now running a diesel and swears he will never waste his money on a battery powered vehicle again.

On a positive note, there are more and more charging points for electric vehicles than there were 10 years ago. Our council has installed them in several car parks, but drivers are inclined to park their cars in them when parking spaces in the car park are limited. I've never seen cars being ticketed for doing that.

Our local Asda has 2 charging points as well which apparently are free to use for Asda customers. One old guy drives down early in the morning from the neighbourhood, parks his car and leaves it there all day. He walks back at night and drives off. He says he never uses his own power point at home. Why pay when you can get it for free he said. And the walking in between was good exercise.