[Perfect Windows]

Finally picked it up.  Popped up to Glasgow yesterday to collect the new van.

Drive home was long - kept the speed at 60mph to keep the range up but still had three charge stops of about 35 - 45 minutes each to cover the 440 miles. All the chargers worked exactly as expected bar the top up at the start of the journey in Glasgow at a Tesla dealer where it ran at 1/3 expected charge rate.  Gave me plenty of time to read the van manual at least. 

Van lovely and quiet (I mean astoundingly quiet) so I arrived home late but pretty much OK. Bar the next week or two, that should be the last time I ever have to use public chargers. Home charger going in shortly.

Received an insurance quote from A Plan - as expected, roughly a third more than the diesel, which will wipe out the savings on fuel.

Wife taxed the van while I was driving - £0.

Astounding pickup when you put your foot down. Interested to see what that'll be like once it's carrying the best part of a ton of equipment.

Next step, install everything but the tank ready for the switch over.



Vin

[Ched]

Good to hear it all went well. I told you the torque was addictive :-)
Interesting camera stuck on the front!
Let us know how you get on installing the kit.
Is the insurance 30% more than a diesel same year and milage or just compared to your old van?

[Perfect Windows]

Good to hear it all went well. I told you the torque was addictive :-)
Interesting camera stuck on the front!
Let us know how you get on installing the kit.
Is the insurance 30% more than a diesel same year and milage or just compared to your old van?

That's a good point that I hadn't considered. It's 30% more than a 19-yo diesel with 157,000 on the clock and worth 28p.

If you look, there are also two cameras on the sides and there's one looking back that you can't see in the pic. They all go to a seriously professionally fitted hub that I suspect has a hard drive in it. I have the supplier name, so when I have time I'll take a dekko at exactly how it works. Expensive looking kit. Van also has yellow flashing beacons inside the back doors (they can be switched on and seen when doors are open) plus the loudest reversing beeper you can imagine. Makes me think it was run by someone with a pretty professional attitude to H&S and security.

Vin

[Soupy]

I have a 2020 diesel vivaro and a 2020 electric vivaro both insured for any employee, both the same price. The only vehicle in the fleet that is any different is (was - recently sold) a 2009 navara which was the same price but not everyone could drive it - over 25 with a clean licence only.

I would shop around. I always advise to use a local broker if you can.

[Soupy]

Finally picked it up.  Popped up to Glasgow yesterday to collect the new van.

Drive home was long - kept the speed at 60mph to keep the range up but still had three charge stops of about 35 - 45 minutes each to cover the 440 miles. All the chargers worked exactly as expected bar the top up at the start of the journey in Glasgow at a Tesla dealer where it ran at 1/3 expected charge rate.  Gave me plenty of time to read the van manual at least. 

Van lovely and quiet (I mean astoundingly quiet) so I arrived home late but pretty much OK. Bar the next week or two, that should be the last time I ever have to use public chargers. Home charger going in shortly.

Received an insurance quote from A Plan - as expected, roughly a third more than the diesel, which will wipe out the savings on fuel.

Wife taxed the van while I was driving - £0.

Astounding pickup when you put your foot down. Interested to see what that'll be like once it's carrying the best part of a ton of equipment.

Next step, install everything but the tank ready for the switch over.



Vin

60mph is the speed limit 

Good aren't they.

[Soupy]

60mph is the speed limit 

Ha! Just thinking about this, you were probably on a motorway!

Closest motorway to me is about 100 miles away, which is out of range for the vans, pretty much!

The joys of being a country bumpkin / teuchter.

[AuRavelling79]

Thanks for the update Vin.

How many miles did you do between stops and what were the percentages down to when you arrived in each stop?

What was your percentage remaining when you got home?

[zesty]

I watched a review of the e tranny custom, it’s on YouTube by a tradesman, it has put me off electric somewhat. Worth a watch.

I’m really interested how you get on with this vin.

[zesty]

Is an ev van 100% tax deductible for the first year? Even if bought with part loan?

[Soupy]

Is an ev van 100% tax deductible for the first year? Even if bought with part loan?

Was for me. Speak to an accountant.

[zesty]

Is an ev van 100% tax deductible for the first year? Even if bought with part loan?

Was for me. Speak to an accountant.

How did you purchase it? Finance or outright?

[Soupy]

Is an ev van 100% tax deductible for the first year? Even if bought with part loan?

Was for me. Speak to an accountant.

How did you purchase it? Finance or outright?

The one I bought (most are/were rented) I bought with an interest free loan from the government.

[Perfect Windows]

Sorry for the delay, but the forum disappeared. Answering  the handful of questions.

Journeys between stops were about 120 or so miles. Funny how much more scared I was of running out of electrons than I am of running out of diesel, odd given the image below: all the 100kWh charger locations (100kW is the fastest the van will take charge) on the emptiest part of the journey. Top to bottom of this picture (Glasgow to Lancaster) is 160 miles or so. I suspect there are as many as there are petrol pumps on that route. But the range anxiety got to me.



Every charger I hit worked fine bar one that said it was 100kW and actually managed 66kW. I could have moved the the one in the next parking bay but it was a meal stop so I wasn't too bothered. Charge times were 35m or so to closer to an hour there. Also, they all took a swiped credit card so I didn't use any of the apps.

Can't remember what range I hit home with. I was going to log it all carefully then Mrs Vin pointed out I'm never ever going to do a trip like that again and not to be such a silly s*d. I was running it down to about 20% and up to about 80%.

Purchased outright - all allowable this year, which is nice.

Looked up the wired in camera system. Yes it records all the time to a hard drive. About £1,700 worth (which I wasn't expecting, and which is a tad irrelevant to the EV part, but a nice bonus).

Yes, Soupy, we're able to hit the heady heights of 70mph on those really big roads we have in civilised areas. And yes, the torque is utterly addictive. Feels much more like my bike days than a two ton van.

Headaches so far (one very serious) in a later post,

Vin

[zesty]

I bet the big problem is bolting down a tank.

That’s always going to be an issue with EV vans

[Perfect Windows]

I bet the big problem is bolting down a tank.

That’s always going to be an issue with EV vans

Oh yes indeed.

The tank we need to move is a Super Zero from Gardiners. Very much used as the prototype that eventually became Grippa's offering.  The way it's fitted is ingenious as it uses sliding bolts on a frame to hold the tank down.  You have two bolts through to spreader plates at the front, two at the back. These bolts can be fitted anything up to about 95cm apart at the front, 75cm at the back. So far so good.

However, the van's battery is more than 95cm wide and sits as a huge block under the (perfectly flat) van floor. So, what needs to happen is that the battery needs to be removed and dropped out. Then you drill four holes through the nice, flat van floor, fit spreaders and bolt the tank in place. Then replace the battery. Minor difficulties arise because there are cooling fluid pipes above the battery and you need to be sure that bolt heads, etc aren't interfering with them. But there's plenty of room around them.

Removing the battery is a 90 minute job, as is replacing it. It requires an IMI grade 4 EV specialist to do it (400 odd volts will spoil your day if you don't know what you're doing).  So just find a garage with a suitably qualified mechanic and get cracking, eh?

No. Most of the trained mechanics are tied to main dealers, every single one of whose attitude is "let's have a look at all the things that could go wrong; no, not under any circumstances". The independents are few and far between and their attitude is "That's an interesting problem, we'd love to have a go and we're happy to help". But the nearest I've found is 95 miles away and fully booked to the end of the month (maybe because they're helpful unlike the main dealers).

So here we are. Booked in in three weeks for a 190 mile round trip to fit the tank.

Still, it's given us plenty of time to kit out the new van all bar the tank. And the old van soldiers on undefeated.

Vin

[zesty]

Sounds pretty annoying!

[Scottish Cleaning Service]

What weight is the big Ev battery?
I guess it would be 300kgs but its all to do with the range.

[Scottish Cleaning Service]

https://www.parkers.co.uk/vans-pickups/vauxhall/vivaro/2020-vivaro-e-review/

I was surprised to read it has a payload of 1,226kgs for an EV van which is more than my VW Crafter.

[Perfect Windows]

Sounds pretty annoying!

It is, but this is the first one we've bought so we expected that all the hassles were going to come out on this one. The good news is that there's someone out there willing to help us with the job. In five years, there'll be far more people looking for the work - at the moment it's mostly main dealers and, let's face it, if they turn down our money today someone will be in to have their Vauxhall serviced tomorrow. As independents have to deal with BEVs more and more there'll be competition from people who actually want to make money and retain customers.

Vin

[AuRavelling79]

Sounds pretty annoying!

It is, but this is the first one we've bought so we expected that all the hassles were going to come out on this one. The good news is that there's someone out there willing to help us with the job. In five years, there'll be far more people looking for the work - at the moment it's mostly main dealers and, let's face it, if they turn down our money today someone will be in to have their Vauxhall serviced tomorrow. As independents have to deal with BEVs more and more there'll be competition from people who actually want to make money and retain customers.

Vin

Thinking outside the box that the majority of us use when it comes to fitting a tank in a van.

Is it possible to secure the tank other than through the floor utilising (e.g.) where the bulkhead is installed and/or sills, the cross member where the rear bumper affixes to/wheelarches etc.

Using chains/welded struts?

Obviously a professional engineer would need to be consulted.

Just something rattling in my mind in that if you were a courier and delivering say a 500L tank of juice then you wouldn't HAVE  to (legally) modify a van at all.

And for clarity - I personally WOULD want sensible fixing of a tank. More so for an employee or franchisee.