Brian in the E-Van-Guru team has had a long association with East Devon Council (EDC) having previously supplied Nissan eNV200 40kwh tipper units to them through the Link Group framework.
EDC have been moving to a full electric fleet over the last 3 years, including charging installations at all their sites and with a very rural operation throughout East Devon they have successfully embraced the zero emission solution.
So fast forward to 2021, when Link Group on behalf of EDC approached E-Van-Guru for additional units, we had to advise them that with the demise of the Nissan eNV200 product, we would need to look for an alternative electric vehicle product.
At this time our franchised dealer partners Brindley Fleet had just taken delivery of the first Maxus e Deliver 3 chassis/cabs to come into the UK and though there where a number of bodied demonstrators on fleet, they could not enter service due to delays (following Covid lockdown) to Type Approval and ULEV grants, so it would result in relatively long delivery lead times.
However, this delay was outweighed by the benefit of having a OEM built small electric van chassis ready to accept a customised body, improved 700kgs pay load (only had 350kgs on the Nissan’s), 150 mile range per charge and 2 year service intervals.
During August and September 2022, we delivered 5 x Maxus e Deliver 3 SWB 52.5kwh chassis/cabs fitted with a mix of UK Truck Bodies standard and caged tippers, all of which went through our accessory partner Vantage Vehicle Conversions for final fitout of Chapter 8, LED beacons, Reversing alarm and front grille strobes.
Link Group agreed a 5 year Business Contract Hire funding with Days Contracts and Alphabet on behalf of EDC.
This is another example of how the E-Van-Guru team’s experience supported a customer with a more cost-effective solution to their electric vehicle requirements and offered a one stop shop solution to meet their needs.
Finally, our advice to customers operating tippers who want to move to full electric, start with a clean canvas, just because you have operated 3.5t diesel chassis historically, it may be the smaller electric chassis will meet your payload demands, but a substantially lower cost.