Okay - been looking at replacing the old Citroen Dispatch for several weeks - just not found the right combination of size, age and mileage until now
the local commercial van and truck dealer has sourced me a 350 MWB 15 plate with 40k on the clock - so far so good but its a hybrid - I can only find minimal info on these and its a retro fit - it seems to work like kers where it stores up power then runs off the battery ( or something saving 20% on fuel
my quandaries are - 1. Has any1 used a van like this or know if its any good 2. will it charge leisure batteries to run wfp equipment
Cheers
Darran
My opinion is to stick with a basic van - diesel powered.
The marketing world want to get people involved in new technology so they can create new markets. The motor industry is very good at that. Its needs to continually reinvent itself to keep growing.
Limited info seems to indicate the voltages of these electric battery packs at around 400v. I would imagine the alternator on the engine would generate a much higher voltage than 12v.
Now somewhere in the system there must be 12v electrics to run some 'normal' systems. Personally this is just too complex for us window cleaning mortals to understand, so I would steer clear of it.
I don't care what anyone says about the future of Hybrid but if you found it wasn't suitable for your business then its going to be hard to find a buyer for it. Its an odd ball - not to be confused with Odd Bod.
You don't say if the motor is diesel or petrol. If its petrol I distinctly remember a customer bought one of the first petrol engined Honda hybrids. It had a 1400cc engine. It was marketed as very fuel efficient. If memory serves me it gave him somewhere in the region of 32 MPG on a long run. The equivalent diesel was 50MPG.
After 3 years he couldn't sell it.
I remember reading about a company who did conversions on the older Transit vans.
I found it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C38bPpMtziM
