[Eaz5]

I've got a SWB 52kWh e-deliver 3 on a 5 day test drive at the moment and thought I would share my experience so far. I've had a 40kWh env-200 so will compare a few things to that.

Range - Yesterday I done a 135 mile round trip, split approx 110 miles on the motorway doing between 60 and 65mph and 25 town miles and I returned home with 4% battery. This was with nothing in the back and the weather was dry but cold, around 5-6c and I had to use the heater a fair bit which I'll come back to later. Tonight I done a journey that I've done many times in my env-200 - 129 mile round journey, 118 of that being motorway miles and 11 town miles. Same weather and load as yesterday and I returned with 10% battery. As a comparison with my env-200 I would need to charge between 5 and 15% (2-6kwh) depending on the weather to do this journey.

Considering it's a purpose built EV with a 30% bigger battery I was hoping it would result in more than a 25% increase in range over my env.

Charging - I've got a tethered type 1 charger at home so I've had to charge it via a 3 pin plug mostly but I did use a couple of superchargers just to check the charging speeds and it wasn't good. Yesterday I had 25% battery and used a local pod point supercharger - to add 22 kwh it took approximately 45 minutes. It was very cold and I was charging from a cold start so initially put it down to that but I stopped by an ecotricity supercharger tonight after my 129 mile journey and managed to add 18kwh in 30 minutes.

Interior/Comfort etc - The interior is feels a bit better than my Nissan. You get a touchscreen display with a decent reversing camera, at least compared to the pathetic effort Nissan give you and generally feels more premium. The seats are a lot more comfortable than the Nissan however the ride quality isn't. I've been driving with an empty load but still it's been very bouncy compared to my env. My biggest issue with this van is the heating situation though. The heater is either on or off, you can control the fan speed but not the temperature. I don't like being too warm and even on the lowest fan speed, after a couple of minutes the cabin became too hot that I would turn the heater off.....for 30 seconds. Tesla Bjorn made a comment about this in his review, there are air vents in the bulkhead and within seconds of you turning the heater off the cabin is cold. I'm not exaggerating but it was almost as if I had opened the window. The end result of this was that I had to have the heater on for a few minutes then turn it off for 30 seconds, back on for a few minutes then off for 30 seconds non stop for the entire journey. It seems like a minor issue but it's something that drove me mad.

Overall - I'm looking for something a little bigger (I was interested in the LWB version) and with a better range to replace my env but this isn't the answer. A 25% increase in range would become 15% in the LWB version and that's not a big enough upgrade to justify making the change. Even if the range was better, I think the heating situation would have been a deal breaker for me anyway.

I will hopefully be testing a 75kWH e-Expert next week and if the price is right I think that, the e-Dispatch or Vivaro E wil be the answer to my situation.

 

[electricdriver]

Thanks for sharing, . The heater does sound like a disaster - very poor design. Look forward to your thoughts on the other options.

 

[ManWithAeVan]

Did you try using the e con button on the dash? It reduces heater/aircon effect by 50%. So i usually start with full heater until i reach comfort temperature then i press e con and reduce airflow to 2. Works for me, been driving in around -1to5 celsius lately and the heater havent been a issue.
I'll admit the patent feels a bit stoneage though.
When it comes to range i am wondering how you manage to reach such low numbers, my estimate have been between 170 miles in mixed driving with about 200kg tools and machines in the cargo hold.

 

[Eaz5]

I handed the van back on Friday so won't be able to try the eco mode heater fix however there is one issue with that, it limits you to 56mph(?) too. The majority of my driving when testing the van was on the motorway doing 60-65mph so that wouldn't have been an option.

Regarding the range, I have a few theories as to why it wasn't so impressive. Firstly 80%+ of my driving was motorway miles (I may have crept above 65mph briefly but for the most part it was 60-65) - had it been a more even 50/50 split between motorway and town driving I'm sure I'd have got closer to the 170 miles you mention. I did only test high percentage motorway journeys though as that was the big question for me. Having the heater on 80% of the time (in non eco mode) wouldn't have helped too and finally I think there was an issue with the regen in the van I tested. In 5 days and over 400 odd miles, I experienced 1 bar of regen for a total of no more than 30 seconds. In fact the only time I got any regen was when I put the van in eco mode and was coasting down hill - once I hit the 56mph limiter, it gave me 1 bar of regen and this was with regen set to it's highest setting. Having spoken to somebody else that tested one and the dealer, this didn't seem right so I assume there was a fault there.

*I had a 100 mile journey to drop the van back, split approx 95 motorway miles and 5 town miles and I arrived with 24% battery remaining so as with my other two long distance tests, I was getting around about 130 mile total range. These were all 80-95% motorway journys, zero load and done in cold weather. As above, there was a possible regen issue on the van that could have negatively effected these figures.

 

[Thomas carter]

Interesting update on the heater discussion - this reviewer addresses the point about the heater on/off by highlighting that there is a "mild" heating button which you press to reduce the heat - sounds like in a similar way to the EcoMode does

Obviously this is still worse than having a proper heater which lets you set the heat, or full climate control, but it sounds like the heater may not be quite as annoying as having to choose between full on and full off

on the same channel is their review of the van (a 35kwh SWB model) and on twitter I asked them about motorway range and they said just over 100 miles at 70mph (manchester to blackpool and back) (not sure about heater use)

 

[Eaz5]

I wish I knew about the mild heating button when I tested this - not sure it's a real solution though.

As for the supposed motorway range, that seems very optimistic. I was barely averaging 2.5 miles per kwh doing 60-65mph in milder weather than we have now. I doubt I'd have got much more than 2 miles per kwh doing 70mph in this weather.

 

[Thomas carter]

I wish I knew about the mild heating button when I tested this - not sure it's a real solution though.

As for the supposed motorway range, that seems very optimistic. I was barely averaging 2.5 miles per kwh doing 60-65mph in milder weather than we have now. I doubt I'd have got much more than 2 miles per kwh doing 70mph in this weather.

Yes true, they did say the drive was done last year so I imagine the weather wasn’t as grim as it is now