electric van and when to make the change?

FWIW, if my experience is anything to go on, the 12-18 months before the "selling new diesel cars" ban comes into play we will see second hand diesel prices rocket.
 
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I have a medium wheelbase panel van as a tradesman. I only work locally so my total annual mileage is about 8000miles. It is never going to make business sense to spend £50k on a van. I think diesel vans will be knocking about for a good while after 2030. Unless they become much cheaper then a lot of businesses will never afford them. There's a lot of money pit vans about but I imagine an average tradesmans van is probably worth about 5k. If legislation outlaws diesels then be prepared to start paying an awful lot more for any kind of work to be done. A lot of people would rather splurge the cash on a nice car for personal use rather than a works van.
 
My wife and I have been talking about this of late. I Love keeping oldish cars running and in good order, as IMO, most of the 'damage' is done during manufacture.

We have a 2005 VW T5 that we've converted into a camper; it's the 2.5l 5 cyl and has done 170k. It''s mint. It does an actual 40mpg on a run to wales/wherever and does about 10k a year. We've looked at all the journeys we do in it and can't get electric to come close. it has a real 600 mile range and we often (same as JB) do a long run and park for a day/week places that don't have charging points. we never spend time or money in motorway services.

I have a 60 mile a day commute and I looked at electric for that. based on the cost of even a cheap electric car, I'd have to add 3K to my motoring budget each year to make it work.
 
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see all this is convincing me that i either should keep my van till at least 2028 or if business is good consider another new one in 2024/5
 
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I think it's too early to tell, until manufacturers actually have something usable & affordable in the market then people wont crossover. Post Brexit most brands will be dearer anyway. I can imagine diesel will still be available for a good while but the tax on it will be pushed up high enough to discourage use. My 12 year old Toyota van only has 120K on the clock so should be good for another 880K if it doesn't rust away first. I was going to change for something newer but will be holding back now to see what's available in the next few years. Good chunk of CovidTax on all vans currently. Looking at the figures on the carbon footprints of producing these EV's it's all a bit hypocritical. I only hope it spurs on a rebirth of the British motor industry.

Roll on home ethanol brewing & cooking oil processing.
 
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out of interest i just looked up the VW T6 ABT vans, their first electric van , current range is 82 miles!! what use is that unless it's for local trips?! it's just not viable, if i drove to north wales in that the trip is about 4 1/2 hours normally where i like to ride, i would have to stop atleast 3 times with a rapid charge time of 45minutes each assuming i could find a rapid charge place so it'd be a 6 plus hour trip!

also, no prices yet, but i was told today to expect £60,000 as a start point

i think if i was gonna do it i'd downsize to a caddy as the car size vehicles have a better range by far.
 
I'd be keeping the diesel van for 10 years like you said , and seeing what the situation was then, things are moving fast (just look at E-Bikes progression!) so perhaps by then the E-Van ranges will be more viable.
At the moment the commercial e-vehicles seem a bit crap, or expensive, or both.
I guess when fleet/lease companies start buying the electric vehicles that might be the point where Joe Public might make the switch too, the company I work for is still all diesel though, I've not heard any rumours of changing to electric just yet.
 
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