Volkswagen to premier all-electric ecrafter van in April

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is to premier its new all-electric van in the UK this month.

The ecrafter, will be making its UK debut at the Commercial Vehicle Show at the NEC in Birmingham from 24-26 April, ahead of real-world testing with UK customers in May.

Four UK customers are taking part in the tests: Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport, City of London Corporation and the London Borough of Southwark.

John Hole, fleet manager at Gatwick Airport, said: “We are delighted to be able to test the ecrafter ahead of launch and interested to see how the vehicle performs in everyday conditions and operations. Sustainable transport is an important focus for Gatwick across our entire business, including alternative-fuelled vans and it is great to see such innovation in the supply chain.”

Like the conventionally fuelledcraft er, volkswagen say the ecrafter was designed in collaboration with customers whose vehicles cover between 70 and 100km per day, involving multiple starts and stops.

These parameters apply to around 85 per cent of the trips made in an urban setting according to analysis of more than 210,000 driving profiles with over 1,500 customers. and the ecrafter has been tailored precisely to these typical city operations with its 100kw power output, range of around 160km and top speed limited to 90kph.

The ecrafter’s lithium-ion battery is completely integrated into the underbody, meaning the standard vehicle’s entire cargo volume (10.7 m3) is fully usable. A maximum payload of between 1.0 and 1.75 tonnes is available.

At a CCS charging station supplying the battery can be charged to 80 per cent in just 45 minutes.

From a wallbox, charging time to 100 per cent is around five and a half hours.