there are firms retrofitting such as Ashwoods, Iveco and Chevrolet are trialling hybrid vans. Quite a few local authorities have bought retro fitted hybrids. I would imagine that van fleet buyers in the comercial sector are a quite conservative bunch so as to keep their jobs, so convincing them is the problem.
East midlands electric used to have a fleet of electric vans, from a ciommercial POV they were expensive to buy and very limited in the use , you cant just fill them up and go , they are also very heavy so limits the load carrying capacity, the range is also limited using the lights and wipers used to reduce the range considerably , it wasnt uncommon for them to have to be towed in because of a flat battery
Last petrol van I had did around 22mpg. On a good day...
Perhaps you meant diesel/electric?
This might work OK for small vans, but would only have limited application for larger, Transit-sized vans.
Space is money in a van, and the amount of space that sufficient batteries for a larger van would need would impact too much on the load area. The cost would be too high also.
A small van used exclusively in a city, for multi-drop work might be better as a hybrid, but I doubt it would be a workable solution for anything else give the present technology limitations.
In East London I often used to see electric CF bedfords used by the local electric company. There are still a few around with some very enthusiastic owners.
I've still got my Enfield 8000 'Moke' and had quite a good relationship with the key tech at the Electricity Council who ran a fleet of the more traditional saloon versions (looked a bit like a Mini Clubman) in the City and at various bodies around the country as part of a feasibility study.
I think they were 'looking good' during a petrol shortage / price hike but as soon as the petrol price came down again ... ;-(
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What I've got (the Moke not the 'lady'). ;-(
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8 x 6V 600AH Lead acid monoblocks, wired in 4 x 12V series pairs and connected to the compound would motor via some solenoid / contactors. On the flat and cruising at tope speed (30 mph) it draws about 200A.
I chose that over the saloon because:
It was a 4 seater.
It used a flat, windscreen (so easy to replace).
It was easier to get to the batteries than on the saloons.
Milk floats have been around for a good few years, running pretty basic / acient lead-acid technology and could carry around 3 tonnes I'm told (often seem fully loaded around Xmas). ;-)
A bag of oats in its nose bag, in the case of delivery men, circa 1940s. :) I do have an inkling, lady friend's granddaughter has two, one she uses for gymkhanas and one she had when she was younger, which is a pet now, she can't bear to part with him..
Mind you, it looks like we might be going full circle with localised Internet > grocery / home deliveries?
As we do now again it seems, by electric float (much to my surprise as well).
Hey, the next bright idea someone will come up with is putting milk in re-useable glass containers. Then what would we do for material to make micro fleeces with. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
p.s. One of the biggest 'shock' (excuse the pun) I generally observed re new passengers in my plug-in EV is the 'engine' coming to a halt (silent) as the vehicle did (as if it had 'stalled'). The second shock is when it silently pulls away again without being 'started'. ;-)
p.p.s. My boss also had a shock when we were out in the Moke with it's top down / sides off, I did a u-turn and nearly lost him out the side! Hillman Imp front end ... ;-)
To be fair it does say "The top speed of the E8000ECC was 70 mph (113 km/h) to 80 mph (129 km/h), depending on driving conditions.[citation needed]" ;-)
And what if the 'driving conditions' were 'down a very long hill' .
My Moke version was only ever good for 30 mph with the wind up it's chuff so ...
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