Small EV Van?

[V8 Stang]

So looking at a company van from my employer.

Have been looking at leases available within the budget, and have come across the Nissan Townstar EV in Tekna spec which looks fantastic value.


So im a in house (workshop - motorsport trailer manufacturer) electrician, so rarely off site other than picking up parts locally. Or if something has broken on a job i might very rarely go off around the country.

I live 16 miles from the workshop.

Im also a mountain biker so would use it on the weekends for that, but thats prob max of 80 miles each way once a weekend.

However i cannot charge at home, as there is no power by my driveway, however there is a Tesco with charge points 200 meters down the road, and it would be mainly charged at work for free!

So i think it could actually work quite well, and would suit the job nicely.


On the rare occasion i need more range i guess its a case of stopping at a motorway service station for a 30 min charge, it can charge up to 80KW on a DC charger.

Do most motorway service stations have these DC superfast chargers?

Is the stated range of 183 miles realistic? (its never having any real weight in it) if driven sensibly?
TBH if it makes 120Miles before a quick recharge that would be acceptable to me.


So anyone have one in similar usage?

Is it a good idea or should i stick to petrol/diesel?

What do we think?

Cheers

[V 02]

Really if you need a van and can deal with a larger one the Ford e-Transit is by far and away the best EV van available and is available with ridiculous discounts at the moment. The bigger battery can do a WLTP 196miles and actually is powerful!


If you need a small van only I would look at the Peugeot ePartner or Citroen Berlingo.

There’s a new Ford Transit Custom EV out soon as well (236mi), but the longest range van you can actually but today is the Peugeot eDispatch at 210 miles

Edited by V 02 on Saturday 16th December 10:34

[V8 Stang]

V 02 said:

Really if you need a van and can deal with a larger one the Ford e-Transit is by far and away the best EV van available and is available with ridiculous discounts at the moment. The bigger battery can do a WLTP 196miles and actually is powerful!


If you need a small van only I would look at the Peugeot ePartner or Citroen Berlingo.

There’s a new Ford Transit Custom EV out soon as well (236mi), but the longest range van you can actually but today is the Peugeot eDispatch at 210 miles

Edited by V 02 on Saturday 16th December 10:34

Thanks, I only need a small van, the biggest thing to go in it will be my MTB.

Im not too worried about performance, if it gets nicely up to 70 thats fine. As long as it cruises around nicely, being auto should be a bonus for a small van!
Its not like petrol/diesel small vans are exactly rocket ships anyway!

Had a look at the Peugeot/Citroen variants, but can get the Nissan on a Pre-reg for less than £200/month, compared to £300+.
And the Nissan looks higher specced.

[V 02]

V8 Stang said:

Thanks, I only need a small van, the biggest thing to go in it will be my MTB.

Im not too worried about performance, if it gets nicely up to 70 thats fine. As long as it cruises around nicely, being auto should be a bonus for a small van!
Its not like petrol/diesel small vans are exactly rocket ships anyway!

Had a look at the Peugeot/Citroen variants, but can get the Nissan on a Pre-reg for less than £200/month, compared to £300+.
And the Nissan looks higher specced.

I think the Nissan is just the same thing rebadged. In that case, go for it!

[mabosh]

V 02 said:

V8 Stang said:

Thanks, I only need a small van, the biggest thing to go in it will be my MTB.

Im not too worried about performance, if it gets nicely up to 70 thats fine. As long as it cruises around nicely, being auto should be a bonus for a small van!
Its not like petrol/diesel small vans are exactly rocket ships anyway!

Had a look at the Peugeot/Citroen variants, but can get the Nissan on a Pre-reg for less than £200/month, compared to £300+.
And the Nissan looks higher specced.

I think the Nissan is just the same thing rebadged. In that case, go for it!

It's a rebadged Renault Kangoo.

[C G]

V8 Stang said:

V 02 said:

Really if you need a van and can deal with a larger one the Ford e-Transit is by far and away the best EV van available and is available with ridiculous discounts at the moment. The bigger battery can do a WLTP 196miles and actually is powerful!


If you need a small van only I would look at the Peugeot ePartner or Citroen Berlingo.

There’s a new Ford Transit Custom EV out soon as well (236mi), but the longest range van you can actually but today is the Peugeot eDispatch at 210 miles

Edited by V 02 on Saturday 16th December 10:34

Thanks, I only need a small van, the biggest thing to go in it will be my MTB.

Im not too worried about performance, if it gets nicely up to 70 thats fine. As long as it cruises around nicely, being auto should be a bonus for a small van!
Its not like petrol/diesel small vans are exactly rocket ships anyway!

Had a look at the Peugeot/Citroen variants, but can get the Nissan on a Pre-reg for less than £200/month, compared to £300+.
And the Nissan looks higher specced.

You'd probably be better to get up to 60 and stay there, rather than up to 70. Makes a significant difference to driving range.

[ncbbmw]

V8 Stang said:

Thanks, I only need a small van, the biggest thing to go in it will be my MTB.

Im not too worried about performance, if it gets nicely up to 70 thats fine. As long as it cruises around nicely, being auto should be a bonus for a small van!
Its not like petrol/diesel small vans are exactly rocket ships anyway!

Had a look at the Peugeot/Citroen variants, but can get the Nissan on a Pre-reg for less than £200/month, compared to £300+.
And the Nissan looks higher specced.

Just make sure the van is at least the Acenta Spec as the Visia version doesn't come with the ability to rapid charge it, max charge on the Visia is 11kw rather than 80kw Rapid.

https://www-europe.nissan-cdn.net/content/dam/Niss...

[Nick928]

V 02 said:

Really if you need a van and can deal with a larger one the Ford e-Transit is by far and away the best EV van available and is available with ridiculous discounts at the moment. The bigger battery can do a WLTP 196miles and actually is powerful!


If you need a small van only I would look at the Peugeot ePartner or Citroen Berlingo.

There’s a new Ford Transit Custom EV out soon as well (236mi), but the longest range van you can actually but today is the Peugeot eDispatch at 210 miles

Edited by V 02 on Saturday 16th December 10:34

The current longest range is the ID Buzz Cargo at 250 miles and from experience that is accurate.
Also goes very well indeed and is probably a better size for getting the bike in the back.
Priced from about £41k plus vat the price isn’t much different to the new Transit.

Edited by Nick928 on Monday 18th December 21:12

[V8 Stang]

Thanks, so went with it and got it ordered in Tekna spec.

Seemed a pretty amazing deal. 15K miles per year over 2 years, £215+vat per month with 6 month deposit.

Its a pre-Reg on a Dec 23 plate. Told should have it in around 4 weeks, once all the paper work is sorted!

Looks a nice spec, nothing else comes close at this price point?

Now got to sort out a car charger for the workplace!

[colin79666]

We have one at work (L2), arrived a couple of months ago and replaced a e-nv200. The range is more like 100 miles if you are lucky. Might improve in summer months. Nice cabin (for a van), we will have whatever the lowest spec is. Some weird spec things like power folding mirrors but no reverse camera as standard.

Edited by colin79666 on Tuesday 19th December 21:06

[Sheetmaself]

Hi, just wondering if any more info on these? My employer is getting me one, will be fairly empty but im expected to travel from Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire all the way up to milton keynes in one. Will have the option to charge during the day but will eat into my work time a bit.

Any user experiences will be useful will be at least the second spec or up as i know it has the rapid charger and maybe even the third one as believe it has the dash board phone holder.

[colin79666]

Sheetmaself said:

Hi, just wondering if any more info on these? My employer is getting me one, will be fairly empty but im expected to travel from Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire all the way up to milton keynes in one. Will have the option to charge during the day but will eat into my work time a bit.

Any user experiences will be useful will be at least the second spec or up as i know it has the rapid charger and maybe even the third one as believe it has the dash board phone holder.

Fully charged ours is showing 90 mile range and it’s only 6 months old with 2k on the clock. Otherwise it’s pretty good but the rubbish range makes it unsuitable for more than short runs with a charger at each end.

[Sheetmaself]

This is my main concern due to the mileage i will be doing in it. The other option was a Skoda Enyaq which seemed altogether more sensible but this is cheaper for the company and whilst I have been there a while it is a brand new role with a brand new manager. Hopefully with four of us doing the job across the majority of the company if we all have the same issue we can get it changed.

[Zero Fuchs]

Nick928 said:

The current longest range is the ID Buzz Cargo at 250 miles and from experience that is accurate.
Also goes very well indeed and is probably a better size for getting the bike in the back.
Priced from about £41k plus vat the price isn’t much different to the new Transit.

Edited by Nick928 on Monday 18th December 21:12

Was thinking the same thing.

I'm not a huge fan of the Buzz but it's a decent package with the best range. The transit is basically the same thing as Ford worked with VW but oddly it has less range.

It goes surprisingly quick considering it's not fast on paper. Looks good on the road.

[V8 Stang]

colin79666 said:

Sheetmaself said:

Hi, just wondering if any more info on these? My employer is getting me one, will be fairly empty but im expected to travel from Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire all the way up to milton keynes in one. Will have the option to charge during the day but will eat into my work time a bit.

Any user experiences will be useful will be at least the second spec or up as i know it has the rapid charger and maybe even the third one as believe it has the dash board phone holder.

Fully charged ours is showing 90 mile range and it’s only 6 months old with 2k on the clock. Otherwise it’s pretty good but the rubbish range makes it unsuitable for more than short runs with a charger at each end.

Im guessing that gets driven pretty hard?

Full charged mine is showing around 150 miles, and averaging 3.6 Miles/KWH. I tent to stick to around 60-65 on the motorway which really helps efficiency.

Other than motorway driving i always use the B3 mode/max regen which adds up to a decent amount of recuperated energy.

Have racked up 2K miles now and really like driving it, so much nicer to drive than a manual diesel van!

It accelerates really well up to around 40mph, then tales off a bit, but absolutely no problems getting up to motorway speed etc.

It would be nice if it had a slightly bigger battery, around 60AH would be perfect, but im not aware of any small vans out yet with bigger batteries?


I have a 22kw charger at work, from around 10% to 90% takes 2 hours.

If im a little short on range its litteraly a 5 min stop at a ccs for an extra 5kw etc, its really not a big deal.
Or around 30-40 mins up to 80%.


The only problem i found was when it was around -7 the other week, the heater struggled to heat - compared to a combustion car, but above -2 etc it works fine, and gets warm air flowing within a minute.


For my use, it works out great.