Originally Posted by Hamwich
Originally Posted by Peter J

As speed increases drag increases with the square of speed


<pedant>
Actually it increases with the cube. And of course the critical thing is CdA, not Cd, so a van with a large frontal area is even worse.

But on the other hand you wouldn't expect to go nearly as fast in a van as you would in a car. A Tesla has a CdA of around .56 compared to a VW Transporter of around 1.3, so as you say, twice the drag, but the impact would be greatly lessened by a reduction in speed. A Tesla at 70mph would need 0.5 x .56 x 30666 = 8586W, a VW at 50 mph would need 0.5 x .1.3 x 11089 = 7207W to overcome air resistance.

So yes, to get equivalent performance would be punitive, but if you accept a lower cruising speed then I can't see it would make that much of a difference, especially in a van with a comparatively low payload.

</pedant>

Interesting post. Where do you get the 30666 and 11089 from? Can you expand on the calculation please.

However, the idea of a lower cruising speed in a white van is completely unacceptable to the yoof who drive them.