Interesting to see this van used in the real world. I read a review on it in a german newspaper and thought to myself: that is for a very specialized area with that low range. Now, very clever to lease it, give it back when prices on other vans drop as they will do in the next years, no problem with resale value depending on kind of lease deal either. The color is great, nobody can claim they didn't see you coming, that is like a high vis vest for the whole car, at least during the day. Personally i love electric driving. Since i do not own a car (never had a car in europe, only the USA), i simply rent electric, not to mention all those car sharing companies nowadays, many of the with partly or even purely electrical fleets, my current go to one is VWs WeShare with ID.3 and ID.4s. Have done so for the last 5 or 6 years and do not intend to go back to diesel or gas cars. Not for the environment, i just enjoy the driving style in electric cars so much more.
Orange is a great colour; I was a kid in the seventies so it makes me think of space hoppers and Bond bugs. It's also Harley-Davidson's racing colour - you'll than me for that when it comes up in a pub quiz :-)
Thanks mate , probably the best review of this van I’ve seen , I’m thinking about buying one of these, because they are so cheap now , and I’ll drive this less than 30 miles a day
Thanks Tony, I would recommend my follow up review after owning it for two years ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mVzRvJOrSJ0.htmlsi=o4rxqxHCZPkLle-q
Right attitude for driving. And an EV is so much cleaner in the cities. Once you got one you can't understand why we all find it normal to chase tailpipes! All accessories run of a 12V in the hood. An DC-DC converter charges it.
We are driving an electric cars for 4 years now (my brother for more than 10) and I absolutely agree, EVs are so relaxing to drive especially in town. It's a lot less exhausting, because you can really focus on the traffic. Well wear, enjoy the van.
the usb port use a negligible amount of power, you didnt get the green numberplate might be useful in the future , you'll save a lot in fuel if you go on a night tariff like Octopus at 5p kwh . EVs are less stressful to drive . Good move going electric
@@vanmantalks Yes im with Bulb . Martin Lewis said dont move yet , but i have a Tesla powerwall and solar so i can charge from them and the powerwall. i live alone so im only paying £6 for the staning charge a month . i did over stay at Tesco chargers and got a £25 fine LOL
My favorite color. I had custom electronics built for me and I chose a similar color. Pumpkin. Loved the intro music to the van. And I know exactly what you mean about maximizing efficiency when driving. I do exactly the same and I've had drivers yell obscenities at me because of how I drive. Congratulations on the van.
Thanks Van man, I have been curious about EVs but never got around to looking at one closely. You have lit something up in me, and I'm going to see if I can get a drive in one sometime soon.
😂😂 you would have one hell of a talent George if you can guess someones weight from there voice, i do appear in my 4k sub live stream video i done a few month back too
Really pleased for you, not just the costs but it's a good image for the business also . We came here for the politics though, Pull your finger out , we're waiting. !
You are the forth person I know with one of these vans in Brighton and possibly one of the two that have actually held onto it. The other guys were sparks and heating engineers and carrying the loads they do it chugged battery to the point they needed to charge at lunchtime. We have all decided when the Buzz launches we'll switch as Brighton is becoming so anti-tradesman with the prices of permits/parking and road layout unless 100% of your work is in Brighton it's not worth having a low range EV.
Im sorry for these guys but you really need to do your research before getting this van ( hopefully my video will help people with this) If they have heavy loads and are doing lots of jobs out of town this van must be terrible for them. I hope they did not buy it.
@@vanmantalks Yeah everyone did their research but it was a little too hyped in the beginning by VW, at only £170 a month and nothing to break the lease agreement it was a no brainer to try though. That said even with the E-Vivaro that's rated at 207 miles empty we were lucky to get 80 miles in that during winter months, just not finding EV vans good for trade businesses atm. Hence hoping the 350 mile range on the Buzz next year will finally make it worth while to swap and might even consider paying for a Traders permit for parking as currently £900 for a diesel van a year with the little amount of work that's worth while in Brighton makes no financial sense compared to a couple quid here and there or a parking ticket.
Best review I’ve seen so far - love your driving style ( mirrors mine ! ) I love 20 mph limits too as it gets me an average of 5 miles / kWh in my yorkshire VW eUP! - theres lots of negative reviews saying it only does 1.5 miles / kWh and max range only 57 miles - are you achieving 80+ regularly- they’re only about £15k used now which is a bargain for a 2 year old T6.1 to convert to a camper - love the orange - have you had difficulty reaching fast chargers looks like you need to park it sideways to reach ?
Hi Pad, I’m getting 60-70miles in the winter 80-90 in the summer I even got up to 100 when we had that heatwave last year. Most fast chargers have long enough plugs to stretch tho I have had to drive about an inch away from the charger before and once I found one that did not reach. I mostly charge at home and only charged away from home a hand full of times so can’t comment on what it’s like to deal with the charging network on a daily basis My biggest issue with the van is the advertised charger speed at home is 7kw but it’s not it’s 3kw which means on my cheap electric tariff from 12-5am I can only charge around 40miles which is a massive problem for me so I will be giving it back when the lease is up in November. Other than that I love the van drives beautifully just really wish it would charge a bit faster Maybe it might end up with you one day 👍👍
@@vanmantalks ive read leaving the van unlocked charges it faster and fully tops it up on home chargers, the range on it doesnt bother me as i live near the coast and would do for the odd night camping in one, the fact these things are mega cheap has me on the line for one, abt have a one with a 74kwh battery so it is possible for these vans to have expansion kits, its just getting hold of one
A Formula E Van, look out Brighton. Orange, you'll never lose it in a car park. When Prime Video calls and offers you a TV series, The Grand Van Tour, remember your RU-vid subscribers. Three suggestions. New shoes, (rims and tires), drop it (lower the van until it a couple of inches of the ground) and a bumper sticker. "If the van is rockin', don't come a knockin". Enjoy your van.
There's nowt wrong with orange. My first car was a Hillman Imp in Tangerine Orange. I was the only one for miles around (both imp and for being orange). TTFN and good luck with it.
All vehicle electrics, apart from the drive motor are powered by a conventional 12 volt battery. This is topped up by the main battery. Don't worry about plugging into the USB sockets your stuff uses tiny amounts. Just be aware the main drive battery doesn't like cold weather (reduced range) and if there isn't a heat pump the cab heater will chew through those watts...also if the headlights are not LED's that'll eat away at the watts too. Love the orange colour 👍
@@vanmantalks Crusher is right, it absolutly doesnt matter with those small devices. I once unplugged my brothers phone in HIS car, cause i got range anxiety. And he looked at me and asked me "how much range do you think that costs? 30 meters? maybe 40?" I felt silly after that one :-D
You should have a regular 12 volt battery, that powers things like wipers, lights, computer and USB. I am not sure if it drains the main battery during driving, but either way, you camera uses so incredible little power compared to your car, just forget about the power banks, you are probably saving 15 meter driving by not using the USB. ps. love the colour! yes, I am Dutch
I’m fairly certain your right, I will stick with the power banks as I don’t like where the charger is located, I don’t like wires hanging over the dash
@@vanmantalks If people don't use their EV for a while they sometimes got a dead (12 volt) battery, don't have a computer and can't drive, this obviously confuses the hell out of people because most people assume everything got powered from the main battery. But this is why I also think the main battery and 12 volt battery are not connected. I think ABT left it in the original place and maybe only swapped the starter battery out for a deep cycle battery.
Congrats on the new van, keep enjoying it! I recally you mentioned a steep hill in a previous video where you said you would not try that with the electric van but maybe you can give it a try some time anyway. I'm not aware of a second battery in electric cars, so whatever you connect to those usb plugs will use electricity from your main battery. Charging a phone should not use up a lot though. The battery of your van has a capacity of 37,3 kWh while a normal car battery may have 720 Wh and even a normal car can charge a phone several times, so don't worry about it. Charging your phone will use around 15 Wh or maybe 20 if it has a large battery but considering your van has 37300 Wh, it's really negligible.
Electric cars generally have a regular 12V battery as well. The high voltage traction battery is disconnected when the car is switched off, but loads of stuf still needs 12V, even when the car is switched off (door locks, infotainment etc.). If would be much too inefficient to constantly leave the power transformation circuitry on to power everything. Of course, the 12V is loaded from the traction battery (only when vehicle is switched on or loading), so in the end all power comes from the large battery. But all the electronic does not really make a dent in the charge of the traction battery. Heating and cooling on the other hand uses a lot of power.
Thanks for the review. But knew about the 80 mile range. Still cannot fathom why anyone would buy the van except for the 8by 4 sheet on edge ability to carry
Love the colour! From what I have understood about eletric cars, the ports and such goes of the secondary "normal" 12V car battery and only the eletric motor goes of the battery pack. Could be Im wrong on this spesific van ofcourse.
Thx for the Review was thinking about that electric sprinter but it is bit expensive as you would expect from benz 🙄🔌😅 the energy prices are quite promising if you compare it to petrol and that huh have nice one 👍👊👌
I found this very interesting. It gives a good use case for this type of van, you showed some of the practical usage and cost involved and I could really notice from your voice you were more relaxed while driving. Not that you were all that edgy before, even while ranting above the F word, but the slight edge you'd have while driving the slow traffic in town of having to work the clutch has disappeared. Obviously you will use power from the battery when you plug a device into the USB ports, I wonder if that could be noticeable for the overall use though. Most devices won't be more than a few Watts at low Amp, while you have a massive battery to drain. You could probably plug in a washing machine and it would still be enough. The cost of energy was really surprisingly low. I think I saw 2 pounds for 25 Mi charge. That is equivalent to 2 or 3 litres of petrol I would imagine.
Great insightful video. I took delivery of my own in pure grey in advance trim on Tuesday. Love the linear power delivery and refined drive. Query - I'm only getting just over 60 miles range on the display when fully charged. Is this something you have experienced or do you see 80+ range on the display after a full charge? Mine is also loosing more range than my actual mileage. Around 10 miles real world deteriorates 15 on the display. Is this something you experience?
Hi Richard, A couple of times the range count has said 74 after a nights charge but the battery dial on the right is showing full charge also a couple of times i made a mistake on my home charge app where i had it set to optimum charge over 48hrs instead of over night, i could not work out why it was not full charged in the morning. If its not either of those i would contact VW. As for the actual range i have only experienced that on the motor way, heavy loads or lots of up hill driving, Do you do lots of these? when im driving in town 20-30 mph i always get better battery range than actual range
@@vanmantalks Really interesting. I'm not doing any motorway, just a short run in a national speed and then back into stop start stuff. It's very strange because it's also taking far too long to charge. 11h 30 has got me 30kwh overnight. I've got a project EV pro earth, the app is very complicated but after calling them, they say it's working fine. I'll see how today goes and then might need to speak to VW.
@@richardhudson2640 I’ve actually had a similar problem the last couple of days but the range is there but it’s just not showing on the dial. Are you still having problems? My email is vanmantalks@gmail.com if you want to chat
I'd love to go electric for our car, but need the prices to come down a bit first. Looks great for your needs. You're not far from Gatwick, can you get Easyjet to sponsor you?😉
It's like seeing a radio presenter and being a bit confused! You don't look how I imagined you! It took me a few weeks to realise you're not the "White Van Man". Not that that matters at all. Still like hearing your views on the crazy politics of my old home!
If you want to extend your battery lifetime (you are leasing, so not really an issue), just charge your batteries up to 80%. Fully charging batteries, next to fast charging, is what costs capacity over time.
I have heard that but like you say I’m leasing for two years and with only 82miles I kinda need it at 100% but I might do 80% when I know I’m having a shorter day
@@vanmantalks The rate of degradation is also dependent on the buffer in the battery, in your case the top buffer. You can find out how large the buffer is. And the bigger it is, less stress is put on the battery when you charge it to 100%, since it isn't 100% capacity vise, it just says so. VW typically have a substantial top buffer in their batteries, but since this is an aftermarket conversion, things can be different. But since we talk Germans here, I think they in general are on the conservative side when it comes to things like this. In my opinion, there's a trade-off to be made here for your case of usage. If you charge your battery to 100% every workday for several years, there will be degradation in the battery with less range as a result. Expect at least 10% over time depending on buffers, chemistry in the battery, general longevity of the battery and so on. Over time that could mean that your range has decreased to a level where it jeopardizes your work, because the margins are too small for you. To mitigate that, one strategy would be to only charge the battery to 90% every day (ideally 80% but that might not work for you). But even a 90% SOC (state of charge) will slow down the degradation of the battery and the loss of range. In the later stage of your lease you could start to charge to 100% in order to compensate for lost range. To figure out what is best for you given your use case is not easy. Perhaps you should talk to the dealer what could be expected from the battery over time given different charging strategies. Great that you made the transition to an EV and the color only means that we (who follows you) will stop you when we are in Brighton to say hello. I presume you’re the only orange EV-guy in Brighton :-)
@@vanmantalks I've got a Prius I love putting it in EV mode and seeing how far I can go before petrol engine kicks in. My next car will be a Nissan Leaf. Just need the cash!
Happy New Year Great video, so glad I am not the only orange abte out there! I'm in Suffolk so unlikely to see you about without a lot of charge stops 😂 How are you getting on with the 3.6kw home charging very frustrating with octopus go, I expected 7.2kw vw did update e up so hopefully something is possible.
Thanks for watching Steve, I have friends in Ipswich maybe i might do a 3 charge journey one day haha. Yes this 3.6kw charging seems to be a big issue for people and i understand why people are angry, for me it does not effect me, i was late to the party with the Octupus tariff, i tried getting on it but with the recent energy price hikes they are saying do not change, what ever you change to will be more expensive. I very rarely do over 50m a day and have the time to charge 7pm-7am im still yet to experience charging away from home which i will want to do at some point, is the 45m rapid charge not achievable now?
@@vanmantalks like yourself I have not yet used anything other than home charger? I do a job early in the year 30miles away (dual carriageway) so will be using it then as that will be a challenge I suspect with a van full of tools!
Have you got a mileage limit on the lease? Nice colour. I painted my series one landrover orange (quite a few years ago) red wheels so it looked like the Dinky toy and it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea Wasn’t hard to find though!
Interesting that you say that driving an electric van isn't politics... We know what you mean, but perhaps it is (?) I got a Corolla company car this time because the cost difference between it as a hybrid and Derv Octavia was over £100 pcm (other company car schemes will vary). And whilst I don't feel like a full on yoghurt knitter, my kids think it's kool and I'm certainly a convert to the pressing the pedal ever so softly to maximise the milage club. Which is arguably safer as well as greener (?). Are e-vehicle drivers statistically more polite/forgiving than chimney drivers ? Is 'chimney drivers' a new turn of abuse ? So much for you to talk about... Great review, good van, fantastic colour, nice beard.
Hi Van Man, I think you misinterpreted the green energy mode. It's not that the car can decide what kind of energy it gets or how that was generated. Also not the tarif you have to pay for. The only thing that happens is that the car laods quicker when it's very sunny or windy and thus more eco energy is in the grid. This makes only sense if you charge it normally at times where that's the case.
Abt is to VW what AMG, Schnitzer and Irmscher are to Mercedes, BMW and Opel ie they take their cars and race them in various series with more or less help from the manufacturer.
shoulda blanked out your reg plate man..curious why you didnt go for the peugot, much greater range and around 10 grand cheaper edit, i see your leasing it, still seems a tiny range tho
Why blank the reg? If anyone really wants to search it they will just find it registered to vw commercial. Pure and simply it was the cheapest by a long way to lease £200 compared to £400 pm
“Orange is the color of joy and creativity. Orange promotes a sense of general wellness and emotional energy that should be shared, such as compassion, passion, and warmth. Orange will help a person recover from disappointments, a wounded heart, or a blow to one's pride. The meaning of the color orange is stimulating, vibrant, and flamboyant.”
The energy in the grid is the same anyway. So everyone will use the percentage of green energy what is put into the grid. As non green energy. Basically it's just more expensive. It's just a contract thing where one tells the contractors that one preferres green energy and making you contract theone who produces the highest percentage of green energy...
I think I saw you today. Were you driving past the queens hotel on the front at about 1:30. Reg start with B? I’m here in sunny Brighton!!! (You were wrong about the rain hahaha)
ahh just seen the reg. Maybe it was another van. Or maybe my eyesight is shite. I'd just come out of the vegan fish and chip place No Catch. Excellent food in there.
@@vanmantalks This one had a blacked out back window on it, so it definitely wasn't you lol. I wrote this before I seen the video. Just as a heads up, you might wanna edit the reg out of your vid. You can add a blur in RU-vid Studio. Who knows what sorts of dickheads are out there. Especially ones with differing opinions to ours. :)
@@JohnsysChannel Its fine honestly if anyone can really be bothered to search my reg they will just find it registered to VW commercial im leasing it i dont own it
By not using Favour Green Energy, you've essentially gained no benefit in terms of CO2 emissions. If demand for Green energy increases more wind turbines will be activated. They don't run at full capacity all the time. Charging at night will only be cheaper if you have Day and Night meters. But yes, no doubt cheaper on fuel until the government load more tax on.
There's always one! I could spend ages pulling apart your bs Stevo but I reckon 99% of people reading your comment have already gathered it's a stupid argument?
Someone said people wanted to hand in there driving licence because of going electric driving, would be expensive and willbe feed the cost there own personal home electricity. Because they don't wanted.
