Crafting an electric future...

The actual battery is one currently used in the e-Golf hatchback and VW engineers are confident it will prove as equally efficient in the bigger Crafter van where it can carry between 970kg and 1.72 tonnes of goods.

The electric battery is tucked away underneath so there’s no intrusion either in the cab or in the load area where there remains the standard width of 1,380mm, height of 1,861mm and volume of 107 cubic metres. What’s it like to drive? For a start the driver will obviously notice how quiet it is as it slips away from ‘its moorings’ at the depot and immediate fears that it won’t have enough power are quickly dispelled because acceleration is swift enough.

It means that the driver will still be able to nip around in the same style as if there was a petrol or diesel engine underneath but driving is really so much quieter as I discovered on a run making it such a far more civilised experienced too.

Sit inside the cab and it’s just like sitting in the latest Golf hatchback because that’s where all the switchgear, furnishings and fittings have come from although naturally the driver’s seat is in a higher position which does help when parking and manoeuvring the van.

As one would expect on any van there’s plenty of hard, durable plastic surfaces and on the test van there was no rear view mirror so drivers have to rely on the ‘double’ wing mirrors on either side and the rear view camera when reversing.

Driving the e-Crafter, which has a power output of 134bhp and 214lb ft of torque, is in many ways much the same as driving the conventional internal combustion engines versions because there’s just one dashboard mounted gearstick with the usual choice of P, R, N, or D and it really is an easy van to drive.

Naturally a ‘hardened’ van driver moving into electric mode will initially find it strange expecting to hear the petrol or diesel engine when accelerating but there’s really nothing to worry about – the electric motor responds quickly enough and naturally is deceptively quiet when accelerating.

It’s still early days for fully electric powered vans and further development will see the battery range no doubt extended futher but key for fleet operators will be that in the long term the cost of ownership will fall considerably.

The only current downside for the e-Crafter and other rival makes is the purchase price which is considerably higher than the conventionally powered vans – this e-Crafter (now on sale in Europe) currently would cost around £63,000 if it was on sale here now.

By the time it does arrive i the UK later next year from its specially built VW factory in Poland this will undoubtedly have come down helped too, as all manufacturers expect, by a new cash incentive from the government for environmentally friendly vans making them much cheaper.

First drive impressions of the e-Crafter are quite simply impressive and clearly the future for white van operators to travel.