Don’t hold your breath! Maybe you’d be better off putting a deposit down on an iD.Buzz?

 

Can’t see some battery producer not seeing the opportunity - otherwise the electric legacy will destry the environment messaging….

 

The idea that aftermarket batteries would be available to upgrade first gen BEVs has come and gone several times over. The problem is that you can’t just take out the existing battery and slot one in with twice the capacity, you need to engineer the vehicle from the ground up around the bigger battery.

The old LEAF/Zoe/eGolf/etc.100-mile first gen BEV cars still make great runabouts for people who never go further than 10-20 miles from their house (which is a surprising proportion). BEV vans always were a different level of challenge, if you want to carry heavy cargo, or travel at 60mph, or go more than 50-miles in a day, or anything else that you’d expect a van to be able to do just doesn’t work for something so big/heavy/draggy. I suppose if you’re a tradesperson who only does local work and spends all day at the one job then it’d work, but for anything else you’re stuck.

Technology is advancing though. The iD.Buzz isn’t as big as the transporter but is reported to have a 200-mile real-world range which is a radical step forward. But you can’t just take the battery from an iD.Buzz and stick it in your eTransporter it just doesn’t work like that.

 

I would echo that its probably more likely that a third party steps up and makes an aftermarket battery, but even thats probably unlikely - the Leaf, e-nv200 obviously have Muxsan but they were/are massively popular with a huge potential market so worth spending the time to develop the upgrade and then install and maintain - im not sure the e-transporter is popular enough to warrant the investment

Have you thought about using the e-transporter to buy a new van? its smaller but the Edeliver 3 is a bargain in comparison and has a massive range, or the PSA vans equally offer a great range at a sensible price

 

Hello All

Does anyone know if there are greater capacity batteries available for the e-Transporter out or planned ?

I contacted ABT and their stance is that as their partnership with VW on the Transporter has now ended, they have no plans to develop any aspect of the build !!

I am hoping that very soon, the non-proprietary market for batteries matures. I know they won’t be cheap, but getting better range would be very helpful 😀

What range are you actually getting? I get an average of 2.6 miles per kw and worst case when very cold (-5 last month for a week) 2 miles

 

If you have the 37kwh set its an empty place for putting an extra 37 on the e-transporter. It was sold with double battery but it was too expensive. Should be ably to put another one in….

 

Hello All Does anyone know if there are greater capacity batteries available for the e-Transporter out or planned ? I contacted ABT and their stance is that as their partnership with VW on the Transporter has now ended, they have no plans to develop any aspect of the build !! I am hoping that very soon, the non-proprietary market for batteries matures. I know they won’t be cheap, but getting better range would be very helpful 😀

 

Hello All

Does anyone know if there are greater capacity batteries available for the e-Transporter out or planned ?

I contacted ABT and their stance is that as their partnership with VW on the Transporter has now ended, they have no plans to develop any aspect of the build !!

I am hoping that very soon, the non-proprietary market for batteries matures. I know they won’t be cheap, but getting better range would be very helpful 😀

 

I have the same thouht. I love my 6.1 and Buzz is no truck. Please somebody make some batteri to extend the range.

 

The Buzz is nonsense.

The new Transporter will share the same platform as the Transit Custom and will be built in Ford's factory in Turkey. Reportedly you can expect 263 miles of WLTP range. Ford will have spared no expense on the development of the platform because the Custom is core for Ford and holds something like 40% market share in that segment.

 

The new transit custom does look amazing, if it’s priced as aggressively as the e-transit it’ll probably blow all opposition out of the water just as the e-transit has done in the large van market

 

Stick a VW badge on this and the UK’s campsites will be packed with them!

Ford version available to order February, VW version “sometime 2024”.

 

Stick a VW badge on this and the UK’s campsites will be packed with them!

This is one thing I never understood. For the same or even less money you can get Crafter that is way bigger, so much, much better for camper than Transporter, or you can even get Mercedes Sprinter with his chain driven engine and superior long term reliability....

 

You’re comparing apples to oranges! The big crafter/sprinter/transit vans are in an entirely different segment to the medium Transporter/Vito/Transit Custom vans.

 

Hi Everyone,
For who does not know me, I specialise in modifying aka building custom battery packs for OEM EVs.
Above I posted some pictures of the current project I'm working on - VW Transporter eAbt MY2021. It'll have a 80kWh pack at the end. Now, working on reverse engineering the can bus protocol. Looks promising.

In the pictures above, I'm taking a can bus log during a charging session.

Anyone interested in a custom pack?

 

There is possibly a big market for eTransporters with 80kWh batteries! I’ve seen new and lightly-used eTransporters for sale ridiculously cheap so there’s your feedstock. What about charging? Can you provide 100kW rapid charging?

 

Is it possible to supplement the battery with an additional battery instead of replacing the whole pack?

 

in theory yes - but all the ideas need testing. Got an extra battery for testing purposes?

 

Any estimate for the weight increase? The base van looks to be speced as 2163 kg so already 100kg more than the 75kWh Stellantis equiverlents.

 

Sorry, just noticed your message. Guess replying at 2am has a toll on my eyesight.

The new battery comes from another EV and the box is made of aluminium so should weigh ~460kg.
The original one is made of Steel and I'm sure it's > 300kg.

 

It's an OEM pack from another EV with custom electronics, hardware and software.

 

I guess the new battery weighs 350-400kg. Any adaptations to steering/brakes/suspension?

 

No mods to steering/brakes/suspension.

 

For info, as I've tried searching without anything coming up, what are the details on the larger battery version from the factory? Is it two packs side by side, or missing cells from one pack?

Is it feasible to buy a 2nd van and transfer the battery over? I'm slightly tempted, as for £12k ish for a 2nd van, move the pack over and keep the donor van for parts/sell on parts as and when. Presuming a lot of the non-electric parts are transferable to diesel vans. Crazy?

 

Hello Toomba I'm very interesting in a custom pack. Can you send me some details? Thanks

 

Hi Biuroakon,
Just monitor this thread. You'll see developments pretty soon.
I took a break from the project. Health related. I'll be back soon.

 

Hi. I am interested. Please contact me on rymer@mail.com How much?

 

Back to work.

Today, found out what the OEM battery needs to turn on the contactors.

Next step is to dive deeper into what the OEM BMS is sending to the van. This is more important.

Still, a long way ahead

 

Looks promising Toomba. Bigger battery and cruise control would be brill on these. I’ll keep watching with interest. Thanks for sharing.

 

Empty cargo area:

New battery going in:

And old battery in the back:

 

So what’s the size of the new battery? I’ve done about 25k in ours and I think it’s started to show signs of wear on the drive train. I hear the hydraulic pump a lot more than it used to and now it feels a bit judery when coasting between regen and slight coast. It also kangaroos a bit from start if your not careful.

 

is the new battery a VW part?

 

Just the new one. The old one is for backup when driving the prototype.

 

Cool. Thats pretty amazing. My lease is up in August this year (3 year) and so will the warranty. I'm thinking I ask VW to replace the bits in the vehicle that make it a little inconsistent so I get at least another 25k miles out of it. I could buy it off them for around £15k at the end of the lease and then see how you are getting on. Any ideas on cost of the new battery if you manage to develop and get it working?
Thanks again.