Campervan owners gear up to switch to electric
A new study from campervan converter, CampervanCo, has found that three-quarters (75.5%) of existing campervan owners plan to switch to an all-electric campervan by 2030, which is the year the Government’s ban on the sale of conventional petrol and dieselpowered cars comes into force here.
The study coincided with the news that CampervanCo has launched its new Proace Eco Revolution allelectric campervan.
The new model has a range of up to 205 miles in the 75kW version and 144 miles in the 50kW version.
It comes with up to 930W of solar power to keep things like the induction hob, fridge, lights and zero-emissions heating going for days. In fact, the manufacturer says it has enough power to run all appliances for up to two weeks without the need for a mains hookup or intermittently running the engine to top-up the battery while parked up at a site.
The campervan’s design means the seats and kitchen can be removed/attached to allow owners to switch between a seven-seat MPV and four-berth camper.
In the study, it was found that, despite a limited number of allelectric campervans currently on the market, of 198 campervan owners asked, 14% of those are making the switch to an electric camper this year, with 6% planning to upgrade in 2024. The remaining respondents have said they’ll make the switch only when they have to.
Over 70% of the survey’s respondents believe that zero carbon emissions is the greatest feature of electric campers, 11.7% praise cheaper fuel, while 7.9% are looking forward to the ability to go completely off-grid.
However, with electric vehicles still very much in their infancy in the UK, the survey also revealed a number of concerns among campervan owners, including range (38%), higher purchase costs (25%), lack of charging facilities (26.6%) and battery lifespan (5.4%).
“The message about climate change is clearly getting through to campervan owners, with many ready to make the switch to all-electric, just to be carbon-free,” said Gary Hayes, Founder and CEO of CampervanCo.
“While legitimate concerns exist over the technology, charging infrastructure and purchase costs, many believe they are offset by the promise of true off-grid flexibility and cheaper fuel. As an industry we’re only just getting started with fully electric campervans. In the coming years, I expect many of the concerns raised in our survey to dissipate, as technology costs and efficiencies improve and the charging infrastructure continues to become more commonplace.”