Running an electric van

[Pjj]

No chargers in or west of Exeter!

View attachment 22611

View attachment 22612

View attachment 22613
 

It’s not my place to argue why you could go electric if you want to. But if you do want to change over then you may find it’s doable. Every one runs their business differently and I can only say that I wanted to make it work for me, made a few minor changes and, five years on, would never willingly go back to ICE. 

It’s not a case of arguing , Ime just stating the facts from my point of view , half these charging points don’t exist apart from on a map , and a number of them that do exist arnt working and haven’t for over a year , maybe the map  is showing proposed sites ?..  again Ime not against electric vehicles but we travel to ,Bristol, Bath, Oxford , and London every 6 weeks for commercial contract work , how many times and how long would it take for us to get there and travel around and get home again ?? With a 3:5 ton van ?? It wouldn’t be possible at this time maybe in the future but not any time soon , and I still say the manufacturers figures for range are totally misleading and don’t  give real world true figures . I have looked at all the offerings of electric vehicles in the 3:5 ton range as I have just bought a new van a few weeks ago , the best range is a renault Kangoo that is way to small and range of 114 miles , the best payload of any electric van I could find was around 900 and something kg again no good for our industry . Perhaps things will change in the future but we will have to wait and see , they have 9 years and counting ????

 

[steve garwood]

I put around £100-£120 a month in mine and I use a diesel heater to heat my water every day!

Thought you had an immersion element in your tank?

 

[Extremecleansussex]

It’s not a case of arguing , Ime just stating the facts from my point of view , half these charging points don’t exist apart from on a map , and a number of them that do exist arnt working and haven’t for over a year , maybe the map  is showing proposed sites ?..  again Ime not against electric vehicles but we travel to ,Bristol, Bath, Oxford , and London every 6 weeks for commercial contract work , how many times and how long would it take for us to get there and travel around and get home again ?? With a 3:5 ton van ?? It wouldn’t be possible at this time maybe in the future but not any time soon , and I still say the manufacturers figures for range are totally misleading and don’t  give real world true figures . I have looked at all the offerings of electric vehicles in the 3:5 ton range as I have just bought a new van a few weeks ago , the best range is a renault Kangoo that is way to small and range of 114 miles , the best payload of any electric van I could find was around 900 and something kg again no good for our industry . Perhaps things will change in the future but we will have to wait and see , they have 9 years and counting ????

The WLTP figures that are used for range these days are much closer to real life expectations than the figures they used to use. 
I can see that, for your needs, there’s probably nothing yet available (although the Maxus 80 may come closest) but your needs are not representative of the whole of the industry. maybe my needs are not representative either but I’m sure there are lots like me who can manage with a 700kg payload and generally do less than 60 (or 120 with the newer e-nv200) miles per day. For those people like me, electric is already a viable alternative. 
 

The points shown on zap map are all existing and useable post; any out of order ones are ringed in red. Chargers are everywhere but they’re generally smallish and out of sight so you need to actually be looking for them to know where they are. They’re not like petrol forecourts which practically shout out that they’re there. 

 

[Don Logan]

I was thinking the same. I only spend £80 a fortnight and that's doing around 600 miles.

 

[Nik]

Extremecleansussex, can you send me some photo's of your van inside set-up please.
Thanks

Nik

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Got chatting to a delivery driver in a new Merc Sprinter electric, told me its got well under 100 miles range

Make that 50 miles if you use the heater and windscreen wipers. ?