Going Electric

[Pizzaeatingking]

I'm a Sparky and currently have a 11 year old Transit for transport. Long story short it's getting on in miles and I wanted something a bit newer, smarter and ideally auto. I was going to wait until next year and the top choice was a Vito but I stumbled upon a few lease deals, one was the VW ID.Buzz which looked tempting.

Now I'd looked at electric vans the majority seemed to have around a 100 mile range on them and while I don't do lots of miles I'd like a bit more than that. The Buzz offers 260 miles of range, from a look at owners feedback they seem to be able to manage 200ish in cooler temps with heating on etc which would be plenty. I do around 250 miles a week, if I were to do 200 miles in a day I'd not be earning any money! I visited a dealer for a quick look, cab has plenty of room, rear is smaller than my current boxy Transit but it looks decent enough for my needs. It'll need some racking in there but I'm pretty organised with tools so I think it'll be workable.

Next I crunched some numbers. Nothing too scientific but comparing my current costs of fuel, VED and outlay to keep the thing on the road of £300 a month to the Buzz' costs of £60 in electric and £310 in lease costs leaves me paying an extra £75 a month to be in a new van. By this point my mind was made up and I pulled the trigger.

Delivery is due mid December which is handy because I need to replace my Consumer Unit and run a supply front to back of the house for the charger but I'm looking forward to it! I've swapped to Octopus for the EV tariff in preparation, obviously no pictures yet but this is from the lease company.



Thought I'd post up with how it goes incase anyone is interested. I'm a petrol head through and through but the van is a tool so if it's decent to drive and does the job I'm not fussy what powers it.

[Its Just Adz]

They are a great looking thing, I'll give you that.
Brother in law runs 2 of them at his business and he speaks very highly of them.

[charltjr]

Do you know if they can do vehicle to load, powering a normal 13A socket from the onboard battery?

I see contradictory info all over the web but wondered if you knew. Seems like something that would be incredibly useful for a trade and for things like camper conversions as car batteries are absolutely huge compared to most other solutions.

[Pizzaeatingking]

charltjr said:

Do you know if they can do vehicle to load, powering a normal 13A socket from the onboard battery?

I see contradictory info all over the web but wondered if you knew. Seems like something that would be incredibly useful for a trade and for things like camper conversions as car batteries are absolutely huge compared to most other solutions.

You can spec a 3 pin plug under the passenger seat, I think it's only rated to 300W though so not much use for anything juicy. Given the projects I've seen using Tesla batteries for home/off grid use it'd certainly make for a cool camper setup if you could run some bits off the battery but I can't see VW doing anything themselves, perhaps in the future a conversion/tech company might create something.

[Pizzaeatingking]

Its Just Adz said:

They are a great looking thing, I'll give you that.
Brother in law runs 2 of them at his business and he speaks very highly of them.

That's promising!

[ferret50]

I wonder if the range/aux power issues for vans and campers could be solved with a diesel powered generater?

[Pica-Pica]

ferret50 said:

I wonder if the range/aux power issues for vans and campers could be solved with a diesel powered generater?

AKA a Hybrid.

[hellorent]

I hope when you did your figures, you included the charges the lease company will try and screw
you over for when you return, ie £50/75 for every small scratch/mark on it, damaged alloys wheels etc etc

[charltjr]

Pizzaeatingking said:

You can spec a 3 pin plug under the passenger seat, I think it's only rated to 300W though so not much use for anything juicy. Given the projects I've seen using Tesla batteries for home/off grid use it'd certainly make for a cool camper setup if you could run some bits off the battery but I can't see VW doing anything themselves, perhaps in the future a conversion/tech company might create something.

Thank you

[Evanivitch]

Pizzaeatingking said:

You can spec a 3 pin plug under the passenger seat, I think it's only rated to 300W though so not much use for anything juicy.

That's pathetic! Honda e, Kia, Hyundai all offer something more usable!

Good luck with the Buzz, I think they're decent for small trades.

[Nick928]

As an electrician running one for business over the last eighteen months they are great little vans.
200 miles is quite achievable in winter with a full load and roof bars.
250 miles+ is the norm in summer.
If you’re doing 250 miles a week and charging on an EV tariff at home then you’ll be looking at about £6 a week in electric.
The driver assistance bits can be a pain but that’s going the same way for all new vehicles and compared to the new Transit it’s a paragon of reliability.

[normalbloke]

hellorent said:

I hope when you did your figures, you included the charges the lease company will try and screw
you over for when you return, ie £50/75 for every small scratch/mark on it, damaged alloys wheels etc etc

Yeah, welcome to 15 years ago. That rarely happens now, return damage charges are usually fair,especially if they are aligned with the BVRLA.

[xstian]

607kg payload would concern me, does that include the driver? Once you add some racking, roof bars and a pipe I would imagine that would be down to 500kg.

[Pizzaeatingking]

ferret50 said:

I wonder if the range/aux power issues for vans and campers could be solved with a diesel powered generater?

I'd argue there isn't an 'issue' as such now, ultimately electric vehicles aren't going to suit every single persons needs. Until now I'd not considered one because they didn't work for me at 90 miles of range. At 200 miles or real world range it becomes much more realistic, unless you load up with 1500KG of load and drive a 300 mile trip (and I'm sure some do exactly that) then the current crop of electric vans would probably do the trick for most.

hellorent said:

I hope when you did your figures, you included the charges the lease company will try and screw
you over for when you return, ie £50/75 for every small scratch/mark on it, damaged alloys wheels etc etc

No, because it doesn't tend happen. There are lots of guidelines now on what can be classed as reasonable wear and tear, they'll expect the vehicle back in reasonable nick of course but not brand new.

Nick928 said:

As an electrician running one for business over the last eighteen months they are great little vans.
200 miles is quite achievable in winter with a full load and roof bars.
250 miles+ is the norm in summer.
If you’re doing 250 miles a week and charging on an EV tariff at home then you’ll be looking at about £6 a week in electric.
The driver assistance bits can be a pain but that’s going the same way for all new vehicles and compared to the new Transit it’s a paragon of reliability.

That's good to hear! If I achieve those figures and costs then I'll be chuffed. I'd read that about the driver assists but like you say it's the way they're all going.

xstian said:

607kg payload would concern me, does that include the driver? Once you add some racking, roof bars and a pipe I would imagine that would be down to 500kg.

If I put every one of my tools in the van, with the racking, roof rack and a passenger I'd probably get close to that mark. I tent to take out bulky stuff and just chuck it in the van when I need it so day to day it wouldn't be an issue for me. I was chatting to a builder I work with and he was saying he'd be fine with the range and probably the payload most of the time but occasionally he'll need to grab a load of bricks or wood and it wouldn't work. It does go back to that situation of not working for everyone though. For most trades I think it could work though.