Electric van, public charger

QrizB

Bigwheels1111 said:

QrizB said:

Neil49 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

What is the nature of the activity that the charity undertakes?
It strikes me that for 2k miles per year, acquiring an EV van will be an expensive option and tie up a large amount of capital.  The charity may need to demonstrate that this is the best use of funds.

I have to agree. I would be reluctant to donate time or funds to a charity only to see them squander the money on an EV regardless of the fact that it is in line with your credentials.

OP seems to think there's a grant available for an electric van, and presumably not for a petrol/diesel/LPG one.

Bigwheels1111 said:

Unless a van is a must I would get an MG5 Estate as will do 200 miles on a full charge locally.

Or Citroen e-C4 as are very cheap, one year old cars have lost 12k-15k in value.

I'm not sure how the OP is meant to fit a fleet of bicycles into either of those.

I think I read the post, just read it again, no push bikes, fridge freezers or ovens mentioned.

What about:

ericonabike said:

Fair point. But it ties in with our credentials as a disability cycling charity. We use the van to take our fleet to schools, care homes, hospice etc 

I'm assuming it's a fleet of bicycles, although I guess it could be a fleet of ships-in-bottles?

Aretnap

Bigwheels1111 said:

Complete madness going EV, especially a van. Without a home charger it’s to expensive to charge and run.

Though if it's only doing 2000 miles per year, the cost of charging it is going to be small change compared to the cost of buying it, regardless of where you charge it.

I would argue that at this mileage getting an old-ish diesel van is greener as well as cheaper. While there are still a limited number of electric vehicles out there, the greenest way to arrange transport is to leave the electric vehicles for people who will do 20,000 miles a year in them. Meanwhile buying an old diesel and only doing a couple of thousand miles a year in it is almost as good as taking it off the road entirely.

Grumpy_chap

Aretnap said:

I would argue that at this mileage getting an old-ish diesel van is greener as well as cheaper.
Meanwhile buying an old diesel and only doing a couple of thousand miles a year in it is almost as good as taking it off the road entirely.

For such a low mileage, it may be better to look out a petrol van.
I know they are rarer, but a diesel doing very few miles could be prone to DPF / EGR type issues.

I still agree that an EV van would rather seem like a bit of a vanity spend for the charity.

Ectophile

Check if it will do rapid DC charging.  If it only does "fast" AC charging, then it's not worth bothering.  Even if you can find a local charger that isn't broken, it will take hours to charge.

If it does do rapid charging, then is there a decent charging hub nearby with multiple chargers?  Single chargers can easily be busy out of order.  The way forward for public on-the-go charging is hubs with several charging bays.

ericonabike

Thanks for the comments. We currently have a 2010 Luton with tail lift, cycling es range up to 1.2m width x 1.8m length. Looking for lowloader with ramp, to prevent possibility of falls. Money, if successful, will come from National Lottery bid, rarher than donations. Model we are looking at is Renault Master. Another issue is having to keep engine running whilst using tail lift as heavy load on battery. Not ideal in school playground, for example. 

forgotmyname

Simple job to add batteries for the tail lift on a petrol or diesel vehicle,  used to fit 4 batteries and 2 alternators on some
British Rail vehicles.

An electric vehicle will require similar feeds or drain the main battery so lose/lose?

ontheroad1970

ericonabike said:

Fair point. But it ties in with our credentials as a disability cycling charity. We use the van to take our fleet to schools, care homes, hospice etc 

@Bigwheels1111 in a later post but before your post

Herzlos

ericonabike said:

Fair point. But it ties in with our credentials as a disability cycling charity. We use the van to take our fleet to schools, care homes, hospice etc 

There's a disability cycling charity near me that does the same, but they just hire a van for the days you need it. For 2000 miles a year that'll be a much cheaper and more environmentally friendly option.

Another option would just be to buy a box van trailer - you'll get as much in it but will be able to tow it with one of the staffs cars and it'll cost you maybe 10% of the outlay.

sevenhills

ericonabike said:

Thanks for the comments. We currently have a 2010 Luton with tail lift, cycling es range up to 1.2m width x 1.8m length. Looking for lowloader with ramp, to prevent possibility of falls. Money, if successful, will come from National Lottery bid, rarher than donations. Model we are looking at is Renault Master. Another issue is having to keep engine running whilst using tail lift as heavy load on battery. Not ideal in school playground, for example. 

Our works minibuses wont allow the tail lift to work with the engine running. The tail lift consumes very little electricity.

Car_54

sevenhills said:

ericonabike said:

Thanks for the comments. We currently have a 2010 Luton with tail lift, cycling es range up to 1.2m width x 1.8m length. Looking for lowloader with ramp, to prevent possibility of falls. Money, if successful, will come from National Lottery bid, rarher than donations. Model we are looking at is Renault Master. Another issue is having to keep engine running whilst using tail lift as heavy load on battery. Not ideal in school playground, for example. 

The tail lift consumes very little electricity.

A quick Google finds the design spec for a 750kg tail lift requires 200 Amps on a 12-volt system. So I guess it depends what you mean by 'very little'.