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

Affordable EV set for UK launch

Date: Friday, October 1, 2010

Costing from £30,000, including the lead-gel batteries – roughly half the price of competitor models – the XT320E offers a 60-mile range, claimed UK distributor ePower Trucks. Its payload is up to 1000kg and it will be sold as a dropside, three-way tipper, and cage tipper, all congestion charge exempt, while a box van body is also planned.
Taking eight hours to charge, the 13KwH battery pack is maintenance-free and can be swapped in three minutes using a pallet truck. The £35,000 model with a bigger pack offers a boosted range of 120 miles, but payload capacity falls to 670kg.
Based 25 miles from Venice, Alke was set up in 1992. Due to go into production in December, the XT320E will be constructed in a new purpose-built plant at an initial rate of 20 units a month.

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