What Van? Britain's biggest and best van buyers' guide

If you’re looking to switch to electric light commercials, then do not make the mistake of depending solely on the woefully-inadequate public charging infrastructure. Get your own charging points installed instead.

That’s the message from leading electric vans consultant Paul Kirby of EV Essentials. “Avoid the public network and charge in the workplace,” he advises.

Speaking at the press launch of the electric Iveco eDaily at the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire, he pointed to the poor reliability of public charging points, explaining that the parking spaces allocated to them are invariably too small to accommodate large panel vans, and the charges for the electricity they dispense can be eye-wateringly high.

Public charging can cost up to 79p per kWh, compared with as little as 8p per kWh if you plug in at home.

Now on the market in the UK, the eDaily portfolio of vans, chassis cabs and crew cabs grosses from 3.5 to 7.2-tonnes and neatly mirrors the diesel line-up.

It includes the 42S, a 4.25-tonner, which can be driven on a car driver’s licence as a special concession. 

Any car driver who passed their test after 1 January 1997 is not usually allowed to drive anything heavier than a 3.5-tonner. The idea of the 42S is to help firms that are willing to go zero-emission, but want more payload capacity than an electric 3.5-tonner can deliver, and do not want the car licence holders they employ to be obliged to take an additional test.

Any driver allocated a 42S will be compelled to undergo five hours of specialist training, however. Other limitations include a heavy-truck-style requirement for an MoT test every 12 months from the date of first registration.

Maximum van load volume is a whopping 19.6m³. The chassis cab has a flat chassis with the same mounting points as the diesel model, which Iveco says should make it easier to mount bodies.

The manufacturer has accredited over 20 bodybuilders to work on the vehicle, including well-known names such as Paneltex, Tipmaster, TGS and Alloy Bodies. As a consequence, it can be supplied bodied as everything from a tipper or a dropside, to a curtainsider or a traffic management vehicle.

Operators can select models with one, two or three battery packs offering 37kWh, 74kWh and 111kWh respectively, with claimed ranges extending from 68 to 186 miles, according to the WLTP combined cycle. Iveco claims an eDaily 42S with three batteries can achieve up to 248 miles on the urban cycle fully-laden.

Opt for two batteries on a 3.5-tonne van and your maximum gross payload is 1,100kg. Opt for three on a 4.25-tonne van and your top gross payload is 1,415kg; hence the attraction of the 42S.

Batteries can be added during a vehicle’s life if the operator’s requirements change. The exercise takes around two hours.

Take a battery out and you boost your payload capability by 270kg.

Depending on the charging facilities you are using you should be able to boost the range by 62 miles in half-an-hour. To help preserve the range, the vehicle can be brought to the right cabin temperature prior to departure in the morning while still connected to the charging socket.

Power comes courtesy of a 140kW motor delivering 400Nm of torque. 

Three regenerative modes are available and the system’s ability to act as a retarder means that one-pedal-driving is an option. When you need to slow down, all you have to do is lift your foot off the accelerator pedal with no need to touch the brake pedal – unless there is an emergency.

Three drive modes – eco, natural and power – can be called on. A hefty power boost can be triggered thanks to the vehicle’s Hi-Power function if you need to climb a steep hill while heavily laden, and eDaily can stop then pull away again on a 30º incline.

The eDaily has a towing capacity of up to 3.5 tonnes. A massive 153.58-tonne load was recently hauled by a standard eDaily 3.5-tonner in a publicity stunt at Blackbushe Airport in Surrey, winning it the Guinness World Records title for ‘heaviest weight towed by an electric van’.

Also worth noting is eDaily’s surprisingly-tight turning radius of from 5.5m kerb-to-kerb. Pressing the standard ‘city steering’ button gives you extra power assistance if you are manoeuvring in and out of tight spaces.

Three different electric power take offs (ePTOs) are available with an output of up to 15kW and they can be used even when the motor is switched off.

As with most electric vans, the ranges cited above mean drivers will have no option but to plug into a public charging point if they are on a long-haul intercity run. Most light commercials tend to be used locally however, the manufacturer points out. 

If you need more range on a regular basis and want to be zero-emission then remember that Iveco and Hyundai jointly unveiled a prototype Daily equipped with the latter’s fuel cell technology at last year’s IAA Transportation show in Hanover, Germany. As yet, there is no indication as to when or whether it will go on sale though.

A variety of standard and optional connectivity-enabled services are provided with eDaily through the ‘Iveco On’ portal, with software updated over the air and predictive diagnostics hopefully preventing faults leading to unscheduled halts. The services include the eDaily Routing app, which predicts the vehicle’s range, how much charge will be required for it to reach its destination and the time of arrival.

The eDaily is protected by a three-year/100,000-mile warranty, with the battery covered for eight years/100,000 miles if you opt for one, or eight years/155,000 miles if you opt for two or three.