Silence of the vans
Electric Vivaro makes deliveries clean and quiet
Everyone is guilty. This week I’ve already had three deliveries by van and another is due tomorrow. That’s four noisy diesel vans idling outside the house kicking out particulates.
If there’s a perfect vehicle for electric power, it’s a van. Dairies knew this and started using electric milk floats after the Second World War. And this week we’re testing one of the best electric vans on the market today – the Vauxhall Vivaro-e.
As you’d expect, the electric Vivaro is based on the regular diesel van. Where the engine usually lives is an electric motor, inverter and charging gubbins that’s exactly the same hardware that’s used in the Corsa-e and Peugeot e-208.
There are two battery sizes to choose from, offering 50kwh or 75kwh. Whichever of those you choose, the van is powered by a 136PS electric motor that drives the front wheels.
The batteries live under the floor so none of the cargo bay – which is exactly the same size as a Vivaro diesel’s – is used up. You have a choice of two panel van lengths and also a five-seat double cab version. Vauxhall also makes a minibus version of the Vivaro and a camper conversion is on its way – both of which can be bought with this electric powertrain. Electric camper van, hmm, perfect for well-heeled surfers.
The beauty of a milk round, or even an Amazon Prime delivery round, is that it’s not difficult to work out a likely daily mileage.
The Vivaro-e’s range with the 50kwh battery is a maximum of 144 miles and with the bigger battery 205 miles. We were testing the latter.
I love vans. When I raced motorbikes I had a Renault Trafic with a six-speed gearbox, air conditioning and sat nav. It could do 90mph all day and was relatively quiet. I’ve been trying to replace it ever since but Mrs Goodwin is having none of it. I’m hoping the Vivaro-e might sway her.
Modern diesel vans are even quieter than my 2003 Renault, but nothing like as silent as this electric Vauxhall. Drivers are going to love them. We loaded up this one with a couple of mountain bikes and set off for the
Surrey hills. Wet and windy but not the icy cold that we’ve had for the last week or so down south. And it’s just as well the temperature wasn’t in the minuses because the Vivaro-e used a lot of electricity motoring down the A3 at 70mph.
By the time we’d got to our cycling spot half the range had been used up, not so good considering that we’d only gone 40 miles. It required some very gentle driving and careful route decisions on the way home.
Clearly the Vivaro-e, and
particularly if it’s got the smaller battery, is most at home in towns and cities. Which is fine.
Our Vivaro-e came in Elite spec which means alloy wheels and painted bumpers, sat nav and rear parking sensors. The Dynamic is the more fleet-focused version and has steel wheels and grey bumpers.
At £35,028 plus VAT but without the £8,000 plug-in van grant, the Vivaro-e Dynamic is about £10,000 more expensive than its diesel brother. Factor in running costs and the difference shrinks considerably.
Electric vans like this one will be commonplace within a couple of years and that can only be good news.
JUST eight per cent of small business owners feel they have the support they need to help them through the coronavirus crisis, research shows.
Specialist lender Nucleus Commercial Finance also found that half of small to medium enterprise (SME) owners feel worried or depressed about lockdown, while 38 per cent said they were stressed.
More than a quarter of SME owners said their negative state of mind is affecting the running of their business and Nucleus chief executive Chirag Shah urged them to seek out support.
“We often think about the financial impact lockdown is having on the SME nation but we must also consider the emotional impact,” he said.
“Businesses need access to support, whether that be financial, mental health or practical, to help them through the tough times ahead.” On
Tuesday the Office for National Statistics is expected to say that the unemployment rate rose to 5.1 per cent in December, its highest since March 2016. Given the severity of the lockdown and the wider impact Covid19 has had on the economy, that rate is expected to rise even further.
Michael Hewson, analyst at CMC Markets, said: “With the ever-tighter restrictions, a number of struggling businesses may well decide that it’s no longer worth keeping workers on furlough if they can’t re-open soon.”
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said: “The Bank of England thinks that the jobless rate could peak at around 7.5 per cent later this year so there is still plenty for Chancellor Rishi Sunak to ponder as he prepares his Budget in March.”