Are we being forced to go electric?

[Alex321]

On the good news front, there is supposed to be a redevelopment of the road to put in cycling infrastructure to link Walton / Weybridge and Cobham. I think this has been delayed due to the huge works to redo the junction of the A3 at Cobham.

By the time it appears my kids will have left school :-(

Yeah, but their kids might not have

 

[CXRAndy]

And as with all E-Vans the range is abysmal, fine for local work, useless for long distance, Ford state 195 miles, Parkers real world test get it to just over 100 miles, their review of the Citroen E-dispatch is not quite as disappointing, but not great, claimed 211 Miles, real world 140 Miles, so for a lot of service vans travelling all over, you get to site and any chargers are for the directors only, and even if you are allowed to use it, no where near where you're working, so a pain as the van is your workshop, so ideal for last mile couriers, service engineers no good at all

But I know quite a few trades and nearly all do less than a 100 miles a day. So E-vans are perfect. The same comments came from the trades that tried out the ford Transit EV, mostly local . It would help significantly if most transition to EVs and longer journey vehicles be at worst some hybrid propulsion

 

[icowden]

But I know quite a few trades and nearly all do less than a 100 miles a day. So E-vans are perfect. The same comments came from the trades that tried out the ford Transit EV, mostly local . It would help significantly if most transition to EVs and longer journey vehicles be at worst some hybrid propulsion

The 2024 esprinter will purportedly have a range of 300 miles or thereabouts...

https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/2024-mercedes-benz-esprinter-ev-to-nudge-500km-range

Although I'm sure there will be a builder somewhere moaning that he has a 300 mile journey each way and no charging on site...

 

[figbat]

Will existing ones run on these e-fuels without modification?

It depends on which particular hydrocarbon(s) they decide to synthesize. It's likely that it will be possible though.

 

[DRM]

The 2024 esprinter will purportedly have a range of 300 miles or thereabouts...

https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/2024-mercedes-benz-esprinter-ev-to-nudge-500km-range

Although I'm sure there will be a builder somewhere moaning that he has a 300 mile journey each way and no charging on site...

But that will plummet when fully loaded, and be worse in winter, E-Vans are fine for local stop/start traffic local deliveries and collections, hopeless for long distance couriers and service engineers where they will be up and down motorways, ime there is no where to charge on site, especially when you need the van near to where you are working, all chargers are outside reception for the exclusive use of the directors, the plebs don't get a look in.

 

[DRM]

But I know quite a few trades and nearly all do less than a 100 miles a day. So E-vans are perfect. The same comments came from the trades that tried out the ford Transit EV, mostly local . It would help significantly if most transition to EVs and longer journey vehicles be at worst some hybrid propulsion

Most self employed tradesmen I know do not buy £48,000 brand new vans, they usually buy the ones that have been on lease to large companies at 4 to 5 years old, then run them into the ground, so not really perfect are they, the price tag of any new van means they have to be making a seriously large amount of takings to just pay for, or lease the thing.

 

[figbat]

Just back from Hamburg. When I got to the taxi rank at the airport the three cars waiting for fares were two ID.4s and a Tesla. When a car becomes a taxi fleet favourite it’s pretty much made it.

 

[DRM]

Just back from Hamburg. When I got to the taxi rank at the airport the three cars waiting for fares were two ID.4s and a Tesla. When a car becomes a taxi fleet favourite it’s pretty much made it.

This is very true, round here the choice of Taxi/Private Hire car seems to be Toyota Prius, Auris or Corrolla Hybrids, Various Skoda diesel models were popular, but seem to be getting swapped for Toyota's, way back when it was the Datsun 180B Bluebird.

 

[icowden]

Most self employed tradesmen I know do not buy £48,000 brand new vans, they usually buy the ones that have been on lease to large companies at 4 to 5 years old, then run them into the ground, so not really perfect are they, the price tag of any new van means they have to be making a seriously large amount of takings to just pay for, or lease the thing.

But by 2030 these vans will be the ones that have been on lease to large companies at 4 to 5 years old, so gradually the old diesel sprinters will disappear. Mercedes are planning to stop making any new models of Mercedes that are not EV by 2025.

From 2025 onwards, all newly launched vehicle architectures will be electric-only and customers will be able to choose an all-electric alternative for every model the company makes. Mercedes-Benz intends to manage this accelerated transformation while sticking to its profitability targets.

The future is electric and slowly the diesel and petrol engines will disappear. This is why I have been advocating for a while that buying a hybrid is a bad idea. Pretty soon pump prices will go up as demand decreases.

 

[cougie uk]

Just back from Hamburg. When I got to the taxi rank at the airport the three cars waiting for fares were two ID.4s and a Tesla. When a car becomes a taxi fleet favourite it’s pretty much made it.

I remember a taxi rank in eastern Hungary not too many years back.
At the head of the rank is an old red lada. Rest of the cars are modern VWs - but the Lada is at the front.
I wasn't in a massive rush so I killed some time looking round the train station. Came back 5 mins later and nothing had moved so I had to take the Lada.

Only seatbelt was like a floppy rucksack strap but it was so underpowered that I wasn't too worried.

Then we had to overtake a horse and cart and it barely could do it.

Slowed down at the next junction and the headrest flops forward into my head.

That Lada is still probably doing business today!

 

[DRM]

But by 2030 these vans will be the ones that have been on lease to large companies at 4 to 5 years old, so gradually the old diesel sprinters will disappear. Mercedes are planning to stop making any new models of Mercedes that are not EV by 2025.


The future is electric and slowly the diesel and petrol engines will disappear. This is why I have been advocating for a while that buying a hybrid is a bad idea. Pretty soon pump prices will go up as demand decreases.

I very much doubt they will, estimated 23% depreciation on £48,000 van is £36,960 resale value, for a 5 year old van, I doubt many will get sold, or they will end up losing much more residual value in order to get rid of them.

 

[icowden]

I very much doubt they will, estimated 23% depreciation on £48,000 van is £36,960 resale value, for a 5 year old van, I doubt many will get sold, or they will end up losing much more residual value in order to get rid of them.

So esprinters are so much better than their diesel equivalents that they retain 77% of their value after 5 years? Presumably that means the life of one of these is much longer, so it might take 10 years before they become the affordable old banger ?

 

[fossyant]

So long as Merc can fix the rust, an eSprinter will be a good option, otherwise you'll have a battery after 5 years and no van.

 

[DRM]

So esprinters are so much better than their diesel equivalents that they retain 77% of their value after 5 years? Presumably that means the life of one of these is much longer, so it might take 10 years before they become the affordable old banger ?

Estimated value, they won't be available until 2024, as @fossyant points out, in most cases all that will be left in 5 years will be a battery, as they seem to dissolve before your eyes

 

[DRM]

So long as Merc can fix the rust, an eSprinter will be a good option, otherwise you'll have a battery after 5 years and no van.

So very true!