How the Volkswagen e-Transporter makes a convincing case for electric vans

Did you know that van drivers spend around 27 hours a week in their vans, on average? That’s more than five hours every working day. No wonder many say they feel like they live in their vans more than they do their own homes. 

You want your van to make your life easy, then. To be as reliable, dependable and hassle-free as all of your other tools. You want something that’ll ease your stress when you climb aboard, not magnify it. 

So of course, you might be wary of considering an electric van, especially if you’re unfamiliar with charging. But actually, an electric van doesn’t have to be a pain in the backside. In fact, choose well, and it can be quite the opposite.

Find out more about the Volkswagen e-Transporter

The look of love

Take the Volkswagen e-Transporter, for example. Good-looking van, right? Even the entry-level models get smart-looking body-coloured bumpers and LED lights, front and back. 

But if you’re going to sit in your van for five hours every day, you want it to feel like a nice place to be. And it’s here that the e-Transporter sits head and shoulders above its rivals, with high-quality plastics, crystal-clear LED displays, and thick, supportive seats. 

The equipment list, meanwhile, is generous, to say the least. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto come as standard, along with heated seats, cruise control, a rear-view camera, parking sensors, and even road sign detection with a wrong-way warning on one-way streets – for those mornings when you haven’t had your first coffee yet. There are loads of USB chargers and storage bins everywhere for your (and your passengers’) gear, too. 

“Yeah, but I’m no fool,” you’re thinking. “I’ve clocked that you’re trying to big up the good bits so that you can avoid talking about range and charging.”

Au contraire, Rodney.

Home on the range

But before we get onto that, just have a think about how many miles a day you actually do in your van first. And be honest. After all, research has shown that most vans don’t actually travel more than 31 miles a day from their home base.

With that in mind, the e-Transporter’s 200-mile WLTP range should be more than enough. And if you’re worried about that being a pie-in-the-sky official figure, EVdatabase, an independent electric car authority, reckons a 155-mile real-world range is a realistic expectation – and that’s factoring in motorway running. But the thing is, EVs are much better around town, where regenerative braking helps them to eke out a greater range – and that’s where most vans spend the majority of their lives.

And here’s the thing: in official tests, the e-Transporter pulled out a whopping 258-mile city range. Which means your average van driver doing an average 31 miles a day around an average town should only have to plug in, on average, around once a week.

Mind you, if you do need to go further afield, an electric van can still hack it. The e-Transporter, for example, can take on charge at a rate of 125kW – which means on a rapid charger capable of matching that, it’ll get from 10 to 80 per cent in little more than half an hour. Just enough time to plan your next job and see off a bacon bap and a cuppa, in other words. 

Rear of the year

Whatever you’re hauling, and however far you’re hauling it, then, the e-Transporter will have more than enough range to get the job done. 

And it just so happens that it’s pretty good at hauling, too. One of the reasons What Car?’s van testers loved the e-Transporter so much is because it's got so much room in the back for big, bulky loads. 

The cargo bay is long enough to take three whole Euro pallets, giving you maximum flexibility when it comes to loading up. And with a payload of more than 1,000kg, you won’t have to worry too much about heavier loads, either.

That’s not the only reason our testers loved the e-Transporter, mind you. They highlighted the impressive ride and handling. To put it another way, this is a van you’ll love to drive. 

And one of the joys of ditching diesel is that you also leave behind the smell and noise, too. By contrast, the way an EV drives is effortless, with near-silent running, no gearbox to worry about, and instant grunt on tap from the electric motor. 

Coining it in

You’ll never have to go near a petrol station again, either. In fact, going electric can end up making a serious dent in your overheads. You see, if you’ve got a home charger and an EV tariff, fully charging an e-Transporter can cost as little as a fiver at today’s prices. 

That works out at around 3p a mile* – which should leave more than enough left in the kitty for a couple of extra pints at the end of the working week. 

But that’s not the only way an electric van can actually be an improvement on its diesel equivalent.

Imagine the scene: it’s the middle of winter, it’s 5am, and it’s freezing outside. But you can feel smug as you climb into your e-Transporter, because it’s been pre-set to start running the heater 15 minutes before you leave. 

Not only is the cab nice and toasty when you climb aboard, then, but all the ice on the windscreen’s melted away, too; no need to rummage around in the dark for that ice scraper you last saw under a pile of rags in the back, six months ago.

Then there’s the nightmare of getting half-way through a job to find your power pack has run out of juice. Well, no worries there, either, because with optional vehicle-to-load charging, you can plug your tools straight into the van, and use them or charge them from there. See? The e-Transporter’s got your back.

The easy life

In more ways than one, too. You see, Volkswagen knows that what with the price of everything going up and up, van drivers in particular are feeling the squeeze. That’s why it’s come up with the 5 Plus Promise. 

Put simply, what it means is that you get the first three consecutive services, the first three MoT tests, five years of roadside breakdown assistance and a five-year, 124,000-mile warranty (whichever comes first) – all thrown in for free with every new e-Transporter. 

In other words, this is a van that’s been designed from the inside out to go above and beyond for you – making your life easier in loads of different ways. Indeed, going electric might just prove to be the best business decision you take. So isn’t it about time you made an e-Transporter your home-from-home?

Find out more about the Volkswagen e-Transporter

*Based on a charging cost of 9p per kWh and a range of 200 miles.