Adventures in an all electric vehicle.

[atomant48]

Does anyone know what the Electric vans are like for reliability?

A quick Google seems to show the electric Transit and Vivaro have a realistic range of about 150 miles. Not much use as a delivery / tradesman van, but could be a good option to convert to a camper / day van when the time comes to get shot of my current Vivaro conversion, and considerably cheaper than a diesel replacement.

That sort of range would work fine with my general use, and even if you've got to stop and charge it, the kettles in the back.

Have a good mate that recently got the vivaro with 8 seat option - think it has a relatively small battery. Realistic range seems to be closer to 100 than 150. I was a bit disappointed to be honest. I understand the panel van version has a bigger battery ?

 

[m_c]

Have a good mate that recently got the vivaro with 8 seat option - think it has a relatively small battery. Realistic range seems to be closer to 100 than 150. I was a bit disappointed to be honest. I understand the panel van version has a bigger battery ?

There are two battery options, but the bigger battery costs you about 250kg of payload IIRC.

 

[500e]

I will just leave this here....

View attachment 413986

Short changed again only 5 months

 

[Nomad]

I'm guessing that as eurotunnel let you charge your EV for free that they're happy to carry them (or it doesn't say they don't, at the moment).

Travelling with different vehicles - LeShuttle

We take more than just cars across the Channel.

www.eurotunnel.com

That's an interesting point. Most solar set ups I'm aware of on camper vans are used to charge a 12v leisure battery.

Is there a set up that can be used to put power directly into an EV van battery, or do they require a different sort of input? And would it even be worth doing?

Not my fields but I believe most EVs come with (or can be used with) a "granny charger " that runs from a domestic 240V supply.
I'm wondering if you can use panels on the roof (or a few larger panels on the ground when you park up) to charge your leisure battery - and run a 24v/240v converter off that battery to supply the charger?
If your panels have enough output to feed the converter/charger, the battery is only needed as a buffer.
Website Bimble often has solar panel bargains following customers commercial upgrades, friends have bought from them and were happy https://www.bimblesolar.com/

I saw that link about the Eurotunnel - they don't allow charging on the train (a shame as it's "wasted" time if you're driving to the continent) and most of the chargers on the UK port are out of order.

 

[Farside]

I'm wondering if you can use panels on the roof (or a few larger panels on the ground when you park up) to charge your leisure battery - and run a 24v/240v converter off that battery to supply the charger?

You'd need a LOT of them - an unfeasibly large amount and the hassle of rigging / unrigging them every stop.

 

[Erie Fred]

You'd need a LOT of them - an unfeasibly large amount and the hassle of rigging / unrigging them every stop.

That assumes that your trying to totally recharge doesn't it ?
Charging what you can to add a few miles is a different story.

 

[Farside]

That assumes that your trying to totally recharge doesn't it ?
Charging what you can to add a few miles is a different story.

After a few journeys of that, I'd be wishing I'd just bought a bigger battery.

 

[Ubique]

A mate was going on today about how he had been looking at second hand electric vans and could not believe how cheap they were. He showed me and yes, a 21 plate, 10,000mile VW Transporter, Maxus, M.B. etc can be had from a main dealer for about 15K plus vat. Diesel ones are a hell of a lot more. Are they that bad or is the demand not there?

Both.

 

[GRW]

Fairly reliable.

Delivery/tradesman are probably some of the more suitable uses. Local delivery vans don't do a high mileage, and very few tradesmen actually do large distances.
My neighbour had 3 of the early Nissan vans with quite a limited range, and if the drivers were very frugal, they could eek out a full days delivering around Edinburgh, although lunch breaks were planned around charging points to give them a top-up.

Camper is probably one of the less suitable uses, as the weight of the battery, especially the larger batteries, eats into the payload. So unless you want a very basic camper and carry very little water/luggage, it's going to be over weight quite quickly.

The problem for trades in cities regarding an EV van- is not the emissions- its that there's nowhere they can park on the job.
I knew Generator Service guys in London, where they'd take a basic toolbox on the Tube, then have any materials needed delivered & dropped-off & any waste materials picked up later.... as there's nowhere they can park - so having a van is no use to them

 

[bricol]

I believe we are running an electric Nissan van between four sites all day, every day. Pool cars gone electric too. Which is potentially a problem - people keep saying they have been going rather faster than they thought they were - and the route between sites has a stupidly high number of cameras!

 

[DAPPH]

Given the volatility & how many variables there are in the vehicle future, with so many unresolved issues - I think that any forecasts & predictions are "taking a punt" more than in the past tbh.
The energy & materials issues are very real & very big, and very difficult to solve (& as yet they've not got a direction as to how - & once they do - its decades to construct).
The BEV market might just as easily stall-out due to the consequences of these issues as meet the forecast targets... & if the existing EV's fail to live up to the hype......
It's a lottery IMO.

I'm with @premmington & his forecast - that there's going to be movement & change, and it's by no means a done-deal that we'll all be driving EV's by 2030 (or 2040, or 2050)

Perhaps it will end up like our energy sources the more varied types available the less you have to rely on one type of fuel and suffer shortages of it all at once as a nation .

 

[GRW]

Perhaps it will end up like our energy sources the more varied types available the less you have to rely on one type of fuel and suffer shortages of it all at once as a nation .

The more varied the better IMO.
Everything dependent on electric energy is I think not a good thing for the public -it gives them no options

 

[DAPPH]

Another point you need to get is.

You can recycle lithium - but recycled stuff has be meet two defined perameters.

It has to be cheaper than the virgin stuff and it has to take less energy to be recycled.

Difficult hurdles to cross...

As requirement increases the price of recycled lithium will be a minor hurdle .

The problem for trades in cities regarding an EV van- is not the emissions- its that there's nowhere they can park on the job.
I knew Generator Service guys in London, where they'd take a basic toolbox on the Tube, then have any materials needed delivered & dropped-off & any waste materials picked up later.... as there's nowhere they can park - so having a van is no use to them

BT guys have been doing that for 30 years that I know of . the blokes usually carry their hand tools in a rucksack as most buildings are prewired at each floor area back to the main incoming cable distribution point or cable frame . Nephew allows a days parkibng fine for each days work in big cities .

 

[Ubique]

It also needs redundancy of supply, not just at grid level, but if we're to rely upon electricity, then there needs to be few single point of failiures at a more local level. That takes money, disruption and time.

 

[m_c]

The problem for trades in cities regarding an EV van- is not the emissions- its that there's nowhere they can park on the job.
I knew Generator Service guys in London, where they'd take a basic toolbox on the Tube, then have any materials needed delivered & dropped-off & any waste materials picked up later.... as there's nowhere they can park - so having a van is no use to them

Ignoring cities, even the more rural trades don't usually travel big distances. I'd guess 80% of trades won't travel more than 30 miles to a job, and most probably even less than that.

I know a gas engineer who was thinking about selling his diesel T6 and buying a second hand electric one, as he reckons he'd probably make 15k out the swap.
Even though the electric Transporter has a rubbish range, he only goes as far as the two nearest towns which means his furthest away job is about 12 miles.

 

[Ubique]

 

[Nomad]

The problem for trades in cities regarding an EV van- is not the emissions- its that there's nowhere they can park on the job.
I knew Generator Service guys in London, where they'd take a basic toolbox on the Tube, then have any materials needed delivered & dropped-off & any waste materials picked up later.... as there's nowhere they can park - so having a van is no use to them

I used to work with a sparky - he had a similar idea and used a motorbike with detachable panniers as his works vehicle.
For a full house rewire in the town center he would take his car before the job to deliver tools & materials, then commute every day on his bike (no traffic congestion, easy city centre parking for free), get any extra materials delivered to the house while he working, and take the car for 1 trip at the end of the job to remove tools / unused materials / waste.

 

[not done it yet]

View attachment 414277

Not necessarily, but likely the EV driver is/was dumb? We don’t know how long ago that pic was taken (or even staged) but there is little excuse, these days, for totally discharging the battery to the point of the car stopping.

I arrived at the charging station with 6 miles remaining range, last Saturday. I could have charged previously but was confident that I would reach the chargers - even though at one point - about thirty miles away the car warned me that it had insufficient charge to reach my destination. That was at the top of a fairly long climb - it soon regained sufficient range while going down the other side of that ridge.

I have achieved 4m/kWh over the last five hundred miles or so. But last night it was a case of ‘not sparing the horses’ with a late-night dash to the hospital (an ambulance was an option, but time was of the essence). Even though the return home was rather more sedate (arrived home at 0400h), the round trip recorded only 2.7m/kWh. I wish I had thought of checking the details for the outward journey, but my attention was elsewhere at the time.

Turns had to be made gently but straights were taken at speed, so lots of hard acceleration and not much regeneration, on the outward journey. I reckon that part of the journey was more costly, on energy/fuel cost, than if the old 607 was hammered over the same journey. That does amply demonstrate the difference between high speed motoring and driving along much more sedately.

 

[not done it yet]

I used to work with a sparky - he had a similar idea and used a motorbike with detachable panniers as his works vehicle.
For a full house rewire in the town center he would take his car before the job to deliver tools & materials, then commute every day on his bike (no traffic congestion, easy city centre parking for free), get any extra materials delivered to the house while he working, and take the car for 1 trip at the end of the job to remove tools / unused materials / waste.

Nomad,

It was the typical tone of that whole sentence that hissed me off. The inference that it is a problem for EV vans, while quietly ignoring the fact that working in city centres is a problem for every tradesman van, whether petrol, diesel, lpg or electrically propelled. That makes that post totally irrelevant and really needs calling out as just plain anti-EV.

 

[Nomad]

Nomad,

It was the typical tone of that whole sentence that hissed me off. The inference that it is a problem for EV vans, while quietly ignoring the fact that working in city centres is a problem for every tradesman van, whether petrol, diesel, lpg or electrically propelled. That makes that post totally irrelevant and really needs calling out as just plain anti-EV.

My post was written not as anti-EV but as city centres being motorist & tradesman unfriendly. The fact that you take it as anti-EV and feel the need to react the way you do makes you the first person on this forum that I've felt the need to block. Life is too short and this is the only reaction you will be getting from me.

I see a pattern forming and I want no part of it - https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum...n-an-all-electric-vehicle.129812/post-2309817

I'm not Anti-EV but won't have one as they don't suit my lifestyle, that doesn't stop me explaining my reasons and sharing relevant info when I see it Thanks to OP and eveyone else on this thread, it's been educational hearing real world experiences