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Dear Stw borg minds,
I need your advice. We live in Norway and out ICE car is out of action, so we are looking at buying a leccy van/ people carrier/fun bus. Probably the env200 as that is the most available and cheapest. I’m leaning towards the 40kwh battery pack evalia 7 seater. We tend to do mainly local trips to the city or beach (15km each way) with occasional trips to the mountains skiing (up to 170km). As a family of four we have many boys toys including surfboards, paddleboards, skis, and snowboards which we would want to throw in and not faff about with.
So does anyone have an env200 and can share their experience? Is there anything else in the 30-40k euro range we should be looking at instead? Also it seems that env battery upgrades aftermarket are available, has anyone tried to extend the range?
Many thanks for any info you can share!
No experience of any of this, but I'd be a bit concerned about any aftermarket battery upgrades...those 3 words just seem to have alarms bells going off in my head.
I really like the idea of the Ford Custom hybrid, as not only is the Custom the best mid-sized van it's (I think) the only hybrid (1L petrol engine onboard as generator) available, and whilst the vast majority of my journeys would be within full electric range, having an ICE for long trips would be great. I'll probably not get one yet though as, they're still too expensive for me, I don't have solar yet, and following the Ford-VW team up & massive investment in their European factories for EVs I expect the gen 2 vehicles will be a lot better!
The battery upgrade seems perfectly legit. Muxan is the company in Holland that does it, with another company in Glos who can also provide the same.
We’ve just been to see a Skoda Enyaq and the new Zafira e-life and am tempted but not convinced yet.
Cheers for the feedback so far, though I’d love some first hand opinions of the env200 as a family car.
I've no experience of the env200 but I've had a nv200 for the past couple of years which has been great.
The battery upgrades have been around for a while as the range was pretty terrible when they first came out around 10 years ago - less than 70miles iirc. I looked into them helping to buy a fleet for a company.
Nissan quote the range as between 120 to 180ish miles, which means it potentially will be less than that, especially in a Norwegian winter with all your toys in the van.
I’m all for EVs but just make sure it will do what you want/get you where you want.
How’s the charging network in Norway, much better than ours I’d guess??
Are you getting the PSA (Peugeot/Citroen/Opel/Toyota) vans anywhere near your budget? 50kWh minimum battery, much quicker charging and better battery management, so on a long trip you're not likely to get slow charging after a few rapid charges.
env200 seems decent within it's limits - bearing in mind you're getting a 2009 era van with 2011 electric drivetrain plus a later battery upgrade. I'd be tempted by a 40kWh one as a family bus but there's hardly any secondhand in the UK and those that are fetch really strong money. Hoping the newer options this year and next persuade some to upgrade and put more on the market.