Originally Posted by Hamwich
One thing I haven't understood yet is why the range of EV vans is so much lower than cars. You'd think there'd be plenty of room for batteries below the floor of a VW Transporter for example, but the things only have a range of 85 miles or so.


There is plenty of space: the issue at the moment is the cost of batteries.
Also, vans are about as aerodynamic as a brick, A ford Transit has a cd of 0.45, a Tesla Model 3 is 0.23 and a flat plate is 1.1!

As speed increases drag increases with the square of speed, at 60 mph about 50% of the energy consumed by a car is needed simply to overcome drag.

So for a "White Van" with twice the cd of a car about twice as much energy capacity would be needed to give a comparable performance and range, further adding to the cost.

My opinion is that for commercial vehicles and vans the only viable source of none carbon power at the moment is hydrogen, but battery technology is improving all the time and it is possible that the cost, per kw/h of batteries will fall far enough to make them affordable for all vehicles.

Peter,
66, 2016 Porsche Boxster S
No longer driving Tarka, the 2014 Plus 8...