I know this is not really an electrical topic, but more of a financial topic surrounding electrical vehicles;

wow - I'm very temped to get my electrician an electrical van - he can then drive me around half the time and save my Van and fuel costs.....

I've considered it for a long time now, and Nissan seem to do a good electrical vehicle for a good cost???

VW - (My preference of Van historically) etc seem to be retrofitted electrical vehicles on existing chasis; bit of a design in progress maybe? A lot of ignorance in play here. 

Does anyone know of any official financial figures for electrical vehicles? That I can install my own charge point is an additional attraction. 

Do any of us here use an electrical van and what do you think of them? Any makes/models to be recommended? 

Off the top of my head though - I'll make these figures up roughly on my real life needs - 

if - using the above articles stated costs - it costs circa £10 per 200 miles to charge up, it'll cost me £25 per week to get to and from my jobs (500 miles a week).

I filled up the transporter yesterday and I do this sort of weekly, - it cost me £116 and it wasn't even complaining it was empty yet......!!

I'd imagine I'd save - what - £90 a week - £3600 - £4680 a year? 

A nissan electric van

Nissan E-NV200

cost circa £28 000+VAT

I'd add 72 000 miles on the clock over three years - whats a three year old electric vehicle resale value at that age and milage? 

I'd save maybe 12 grand over three years in fuel??? or am I barking up the wrong tree here.....

My current Van costs me £600 in services a year (It gets done twice a year) - how often do electrical vehicles require servicing? 

I change my current Van every three years so there a financial loss that needs to be taken into account there between new and second hand - are electrical vehicles any worse? Could I keep an electrical vehicle - realistically -for the next 10 years and have any hope of a resale value? 

There's small use, I recon in asking a salesman as he's only going to give me the official line, and make it sound like I'm buying a good investment and vehicles for an electrician are never a good investment; just an overhead of varying proportions......

But I'm half way attracted/sold to the electrical vehicle idea. I'd only ever need the home charger as work is seldom more than 100 miles each way (200 miles return)and I could use the Transporter for any longer - further away - projects if necessary. 

I'm also a great skeptic of the climate saving potential of electric cars and their all round awesomeness......so I'm undecided.

My partner looked at getting an electric van but after seeing some reviews where tradies were saying that were getting around 50 miles from one charge in the colder months, he decided it wasn’t a good idea. He’d have to charge the van (more importantly FIND somewhere to charge the van) multiple times a day. It’s not unknown for him to do a few hundred miles in a day going from site to site and general running around for supplies and client meetings etc. 

Given that in the colder/darker months you’re using the heating, seat heaters, windscreen and mirror heaters (if fitted) as well as headlights etc then the advertised range of 200 miles drops considerably! 

The electric VW Transporter van has a range of 82 miles, you could not complete a days work without recharging at a public charger or a customers premises if you average a 100 miles each day.

So buying the VW would be a stupid thing to do.

The Nissan Is smaller, but at least you could complete a days work before it required recharging, so wins hands down.

Do check carefully the specification of any electric van you're looking at.  Some manufacturers seem to be making only token efforts at the moment.  They take the battery pack out of a car, shoehorn it into a van that was never designed to be electric, and fit a cheap slow charger.

The end result is a van with a miserable range when fully loaded, and no rapid charger if you ever want to go on a longer journey.

Going down the motorway this morning I passed two artics loaded with new unregistered Vivaro vans that did not appear to have exhaust pipes all painted in British Gas blue, so I assume they are electric vans going to be fitted out and sign written ready to join the British Gas fleet.

I’ve got a Nissan Leaf car , and if you know where to charge it’s free , other than that I charge over night on the cheap tariff and am very very impressed in the savings I’ve made .

been looking at a van , maxus do a e deliver 3 that’s supposed to do 189 miles a charge on 50kw batt , but only one side door and one passenger seat puts me off 

the merc Vito and vw are a waste of time , 35kw bath and only a range of 89 miles 

whats got my attention is the dispatch variant by Vauxhall , 75kwh and 230 mile range , but it’s circa 42k plus the vat .

found one the other day that’s a demo van for 31k made enquires etc etc and phoned santandar buisnness for a loan.

we don’t do buisssness loans anymore im afraid  was the reply , pardon , a business bank that doesn’t do business loans , yes she said it’s come from high management that small business with less than 35 employees  are now to much of a risk .

iys not your credit status she said just that all products have been pulled overnight she said .

if the banks are worried what’s ahead , it makes you think shall I take on a loan at this time .

A self-employed Romanian delivery van driver who has settled status and lives in Birmingham with his wife and two daughters that want to train as doctors bought himself a ex-demo Hi-roof LWB VW Crafter to replace his old van, because he and his family are planning to be in the UK for life and Birmingham Council we’re launching the low emission zone with its charges as were other cities.

He phoned his insurance company and they said he could not do deliveries into Mainland Europe anymore, because they and other insurance companies won’t insure a van worth more the £30K to do deliveries into Mainland Europe.