Item: Volkswagen e-Crafter electric van
Rating: 5
Author: Steve Huntingford

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Volkswagen e-Crafter electric van

Introduction

Performance & drive

Interior

Passenger & boot space

Costs & verdict

Volkswagen estimates that most van drivers only cover between 40 and 60 miles per day – and those figures come from analysing more than 210,000 different driver profiles from 1500 customers. Providing you have a regular place to charge&nbsp;the e-Crafter, then, its official 100-mile range is unlikely to&nbsp;be an issue.

Crucially, costs are also competitive, particularly when you consider monthly contract hire rates relative to other large electric vans. If you buy outright, however, the e-Crafter will cost you about double the price of a diesel-engined Crafter. Once you've made the purchase, though, you'll benefit from reduced operating costs and lower maintenance. It's also worth remembering that various government grants can lower the e-Crafter's cost by as much as £8000.

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The Crafter was already an&nbsp;excellent van to drive, and&nbsp;adding a&nbsp;35kW battery beneath&nbsp;the floor – and therefore lowering the centre of gravity&nbsp;– has only made&nbsp;it feel&nbsp;even more planted and stable.

As in the diesel version, the steering is sharp – if a little light – and the ride is velvety soft. In fact, it's&nbsp;the most comfortable&nbsp;large van in the business at the moment.

The biggest giveaway that you're&nbsp;driving an electric vehicles is the absence of noise, because&nbsp;diesel engines in vans are usually quite noisy things.

The upside of them is that they help to drown out the noise of the road and the wind, but neither of these things are overly intrusive in the e-Crafter.

The e-Crafter's 134bhp motor&nbsp;is bang in the middle of the regular diesel range in terms of power output. And, incidentally, it's the 138bhp&nbsp;engine we recommend you buy&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/volkswagen/crafter/van/review/n18277">diesel&nbsp;Crafter</a>&nbsp;with.

The e-Crafter also benefits from not having a gearbox;&nbsp;the uninterrupted, instantaneous torque from its motor&nbsp;makes it quick and smooth. In many ways, it’s the ultimate urban van, although that's just as well, because it's&nbsp;limited to 56mph – part of the reason why a&nbsp;range of more than 100 miles is possible.

Charging takes 5.5 hours from a wall charger, but the battery is capable of rapid-charging to 80% of its capacity in just 45 minutes. The final 20% will take a further&nbsp;20 minutes.&nbsp;

When the Volkswagen e-Crafter was unveiled as a concept at the huge commercial vehicle show in Hanover in 2016, it wasn’t a question of if the electric large&nbsp;van would be made&nbsp;but when.

Two years later, and the first vehicles entered into trials across Europe, most tellingly with important UK customers including Heathrow Airport&nbsp;and the London Borough of Southwark. Those trials concluded and&nbsp;the e-Crafter is now on sale – but there’s a catch.&nbsp;You have to sit on the wrong side of the van, because&nbsp;it's currently only being made in left-hand drive&nbsp;form.&nbsp;

That potentially troublesome problem aside, the e-Crafter is everything you’d expect of a big electric van, and is actually more powerful than its arch-rival, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/renault/master-ze/van/review/n20172">Renault Master ZE</a>.

The official range stands at 107 miles, but bear in mind that it's likely to be less in&nbsp;real-world operation.

The interior of the e-Crafter is almost exactly the same as that of the&nbsp;regular Crafter.&nbsp;There’s not even a stitch or a badge to mark it out; the only difference is&nbsp;the instrument dials. It actually has the same readouts as you&nbsp;find in the <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/volkswagen/golf/hatchback/review/n17165">Volkswagen e-Golf hatchback</a>.

But having the same interior is no problem, because it means storage is plentiful, with three open-top compartments, two cupholders and a central storage compartment in the spilt-level dashboard.

It also has large door pockets suitable for water bottles and there’s a fold down tray in the back of the central seat that doubles up as extra storage.

The e-Crafter also gets a heated driver's seat, which is increasingly common on electric vans in order to save using the heater, which would adversely&nbsp;impact&nbsp;range.

The VW Group famously spends more money on research and development than any rival – and as a result, perhaps it should be no surprise that our testers rate its cars so consistently highly.

The fact that many of those cars use the same underpinnings also helps, because it means that if they get it right once, they have the foundations to keep on getting it right.

However, the Volkswagen brand faces plenty of tough competition, often from within, because the rapidly rising Seat and Skoda brands that are also part of the group have access to the same technology.

VOLKSWAGEN

e-Crafter

The first electric large van designed with electrification in mind, and that makes a big difference. It drives brilliantly, can carry a big payload and load volume and has a sensible range.

Volkswagen e-Crafter

Just one size of e-Crafter is available, rather than the three lengths and three roof heights of the regular Crafter.

The e-Crafter is a medium-wheelbase, high-roof van capable of transporting 10.7m3 with a maximum load length of 3450mm, width of 1380mm and loadspace height of 1861mm.

Payload is 970kg for a 3.5-tonne van, but there are higher-capacity vans at larger gross vehicle weights, giving a maximum possible payload of 1750kg.

In comparison, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/renault/master-ze/van/review/n20172">Renault Master ZE</a> models has a 975kg payload and the option of six different body lengths, providing capacities from 8m3 to 13m3.

The Volkswagen e-Crafter is the first electric large van designed with electrification in mind, and that makes a big difference. It drives brilliantly, can carry a big payload and load volume and has a sensible range.

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Volkswagen e-Crafter electric van review

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The interior of the e-Crafter is almost exactly the same as that of the regular Crafter. There’s not even a stitch or a badge to mark it out; the only difference is the instrument dials. It actually has the same readouts as you find in the Volkswagen e-Golf hatchback.,But having the same interior is no problem, because it means storage is plentiful, with three open-top compartments, two cupholders and a central storage compartment in the spilt-level dashboard.,It also has large door pockets suitable for water bottles and there’s a fold down tray in the back of the central seat that doubles up as extra storage.The e-Crafter also gets a heated driver's seat, which is increasingly common on electric vans in order to save using the heater, which would adversely impact range.

Review of Volkswagen e-Crafter electric van interior by the expert What Car? team. Compare in car entertainment system, driving comfort and visibility with similar cars.

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