Earlier today a maxus in DPD livery parked up just outside where I was getting a coffee. Apparently DPD put in an order for 750 of them a few years ago. I expect they'll still be kept for a few more years before they're moved on.

 

There's maxus bands at my work, amongst other brands, and the drivers like them as much as the others.

 

I'd expect they are bought to do urban/suburban deliveries so 50-100 miles per day wouldn't be unusual.

Never heard of any horror stories around durability.

 

Yes no bad reports unlike the Stelantis vans which definitely had issues with the ac compressor failing making it undrivable. Also a danger of on board charger issues like all the Stellantis cars. I belive underlying tech is similar to the mg cars as its the same parent company. Mg5s have a reputation for being bombproof which is promising.

 

I have the eDeliver 3 on my radar but can't help but notice that all Maxus vans, including eDeliver 9's and ICE versions on classified websites are very low mileage, ie below 50k miles.

Forged about it, they are crap. Get rebadged Toyota, the best of the best 😂

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So I went to check out a Maxus Edeliver 3 today.
It's a 2022 model with 9000 miles on it.

Ad here: ② Maxus e3 delivery Elektrisch/Automaat/AIRCO/15000km — Bestelwagens en Lichte vracht — 2dehands

This was a Belgian car salesman who mostly sells ICE cars and he pretended that he doesn't know much about EV's.
The van looked immaculate and I was ready to fork out 12.5k EUR for it, about 10k EUR excluding deductible VAT, a price it seemed worth paying for. More people would be on their way to seeing the car, no margin for bargaining and I would have to decide quickly. Mmm I know that trick, something's fishy.

Being a seasoned EV driver, I would be foolish to put money on the table before sampling the cow, or in EV terms, checking out the battery.
No OBD options here, so I asked for a test drive to a rapid charger and a charging test at my expense.
He didn't know about a rapid charger anywhere in the neighborhood, so pulled up the Shell Recharge app and found one not far away.

Pulled up to Allego Alpitronic HPC and did the test.
Initially I was only planning to add 10% but it added 10% SOC on just 3.5kWh. It was so bad I decided to let the test run longer. This was so bad I had to check if this was a 35kWh or a 50.2kWh and weights on the paperwork confirm that it's a 50.2kWh version.

The result was shocking.
By my estimates the degradation is a whopping more than 25% over just 3 years and 9k miles.
Below you can find the picture of the charging session.
17% to 44% or a 27% SOC increase was achieved with merely 11kWh and that's including charging losses.

Bjorn Nyland's charging test is an amazing reference in this case, adding 14kWh between 17% and 44% instead of just 11kWh.

I showed the result to the car salesman and he shrugged it off by saying that this was not the result they obtained on a test done yesterday. So now he is telling me about a test that they had done previously that he didn't feel the need to tell me about before. Fishy turns to scammy. So why did he pretend that he didn't know where we could find a rapid charger??
Now he started to suggest I could ask to have the battery replaced under warranty. No thanks.

So it looks like he knew all about it and I was almost scammed.
It would be so easy to scam an EV novice like this.

Could they have swapped batteries with those of a 35kWh van? Unlikely as the final capacity sems to be around 38-39kWh, which is more than a new 35kWh battery.

So it seems that this has a defective battery after barely any use and I may have an answer to "what is wrong with Maxus vans".

I've lost confidence in the Maxus eDeliver 3 and SAIC for now.
At this point I think that I'm going to look for a Env200.

 

At this point I think that I'm going to look for a Env200.

If you know LEAFs, an e-NV200 will be familiar. Limited range; the 40 kWh versions from mind-2018 onward had only a 36 to 37 kWh useful capacity when new, but by van standards it is economical (i.e. energy-efficient). It's big advantage will be that a used e-NV200 should be cheaper than an eDeliver 3.

Strut top corrosion is a Leaf thing and does not affect e-NV200. But get the reduction gear oil changed and expect all the features of Leaf brakes.

 

Have a look at this video for the ED7

 

Despite the obvious limiter that’s been fitted, how’s he legally going to do 70 mph (as he says he likes to) in that?

 

Limiter will be an option.

 

It will be good if he gets one. His use case clocks up serious miles and we should get to know if he has any issues with it.

 

I believe at the end of the video it says they are getting one.

 

I found that these vans are way overrated, including by Dave & Kate who initially gave the eDelivery 3 a very good rating, saying it's much better than the eNV200

Here are my red flags:
-The eDelivery 3 is overpriced while owners seem eager to get rid of them very early on, young and low mileage
-An example with such low mileage having battery issues on such a low volume model.
-The seats were meh, looked cheap, they won't last 50k miles especially in a delivery operation
-The dashboard is from another era, the trip computer is a joke
-No navigation? What is this, did the Berlin Wall not fall yet?
-There is no indication of the SOH whatsoever
-The cargo area while larger than the eNv200, seems very eager to dent, with thin walls made of soda can grade steel
-The front hood is a weird design that you need to remove completely when you access it, they couldn't be bothered to put a hinge and a stick to keep it raised
-The doors feel extremely fragile, the sliding door feels like a problem magnet that probably needs frequent lubrication and gentle handling
-There is no glove box
-It charges at 40 to 50kW which is rather poor for this battery size.

This is a very cheaply built van that is way overpriced and the eDelivery 5 and 7 are even more expensive.

I would steer clear.

A decent electric van at an acceptable price, is that too much to ask?
I don't find many options, only people complaining about the Mercedes eVito 41kWh and the electric Transporter. I wouldn't touch the Stellantis ons with a pole, not even with a Toyota badge on them.

I don't understand that Nissan couldn't be bothered to redo the eNV200.
They could have stretched it, given it a stronger chassis and put in the 62kWh battery. They also could have sold it as a tight 8-seater, it would have been extremely popular as taxi or airport shuttle van.

 

I don't understand that Nissan couldn't be bothered to redo the eNV200.

My guess is that it would have been expensive for Nissan to do this. The e-NV200 was based on the 2008 design of its diseasel ancestor, and was, I suspect, running out of opportunities for selling it on its grandfathered safety certification. Its NCAP certificate was to 2014 standards (3 stars) and it might have needed some significant structural changes to get a new approval rating less embarrassing than the Zoe's zero stars. I think if it had sold as well as the Leaf, Nissan might have improved it, but with only about 20% as many made, it presumably looked like too much investment would be needed.

The stupid mistake was ending production (and demolishing the factory a few weeks later) when they had no successor, the smallest Townstar (same vehicle as Renault Kangoo and something unmemorable with a Toyota badge) going on sale only after a gap of a year or more, and an e-NV200-sized version even later.

The e-NV200 was a very popular London taxi, as the Dynamo. Mechanically that needed not much changing apart from steering, to get to the taxi regulations for turning circle. (Its turning circle is good but not fantastic, for a small van or medium car, and I'm not sure how much Dynamo changed, whether just the steering rack, or whether CV joints and suspension geometry had to change too.)

For an economical small van, a cheap old 24 kWh e-NV200 and a battery upgrade to 50 kWh with a kit from China might even be cost-effective.