Fifty all-electric Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans are to go on trial in Germany, in a government-funded deal worth around €9m. The vans are development models that will be used to gather data about the performance of the li-ion battery system in real world conditions and to investigate infrastructure requirements for such vehicles.

The aim of the trial is to reach a point where such vans can be sold at a price point and with performance that will make them attractive to commercial operators. Vans used for urban deliveries are proving to be one of the ripest markets for electric vans – their low mileage, defined routes and stop-start driving is ideal for getting the most from an electric drivetrain with regenerative braking. Coincidentally, such conditions are the least efficient and most polluting for internal combustion engines, adding to the appeal of an alternative.

The first vans are due for delivery to trial partners in 2010. Mercedes describes its trial customers as “primarily fleet operators and public bodies conducting transport operations in environmentally sensitive areas. The main emphasis here is on short-range operating profiles with frequent stops in inner-city areas.”

As forecast, Mitsubishi has announced a van version of its i Miev electric car. However, instead of just removing the seats and panelling over the windows, the clever people at Mitsubishi have managed to make it bigger, without making it bigger – they’ve increased the height of the load area and squared it off a bit. The result is a van with a load are measuring 62 cubic feet – a little less than half that of a Ford Transit Connect.

For pics and a full launch report, check out this report on Autoblog Green.

As I reported earlier this year, Mitsubishi has already entered into a partnership with PSA (Peugeot-Citroen) for them to build a European version of the i Miev car. The question is, will this deal extend to PSA producing an i Miev van?

It would fit perfectly into the urban/electric market and would give the company a valuable starting point in bringing to market all-electric vans. Given recharging concerns, electric vans often make more sense than electric cars, as vans are typically used on fixed routes, with known mileages each day and a fixed base to recharge at each night.

If you grew up in the UK, your oldest memory of electric vehicles is likely to be milk floats – those slow, crude, whining vehicles that trundled around residential streets in the early hours of the morning.

Many of those milk floats were built by Smith Electric Vehicles – the same company that has now gone into partnership with Ford to produce all-electric versions of the Transit Connect van. The company name may be the same – but the vehicles are a million miles apart, as this first drive report from the Re*Move blog shows:

The Re*Move team got to drive the first production electric Transit Connect that came off the Smith Electric Vehicles production line – you can read much more about their first impressions here. They have also written a general guide on driving electric vehicles, which is interesting reading.

Both articles are well worth a read and illustrate just how much potential there is for using electric vans on low mileage work – in towns and on set routes. So-called range anxiety is irrelevant in these circumstances, which may well give electric vans a head start over electric cars – hybrids will probably be a more popular option in the car market for the near future.

Modec Zero Emission Electric Van

The government-funded trials of electric vans I wrote about back in November 2008 look set to get started in the reasonably near future, according an article published by Fleet News today.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has produced a list of approved electric vehicle suppliers, from which participating businesses can purchase or lease electric vans. Government grants will compensate for the extra cost of the electric vehicles over their diesel equivalents. The three main suppliers are Modec, Smith Electric Vehicles and Allied Vehicles. A hybrid conversion company, Ashwoods, has also been included.

Organisations taking part in the scheme include Royal Mail, Metropolitan Police, the Environment Agency and HMRC, as well as some local authorities.

Source: Fleet News

It’s been a while since I mentioned my not so favourite fuel, biodiesel.

It’s been just over a year since I took a look at how biodiesel manufacturers were abusing a government subsidy arrangement in the USA to enable them to undercut European biodiesel manufacturers.

The European Union has now come to the same conclusion The Guardian did one year ago and started applying an additional duty to biodiesel imported from America, in a move to provide a level playing field for European producers of biodiesel.

More details here.

A while ago, I wrote about the imminent release of the all-electric i Miev (pronounced “i meeve”), due in the UK in 2010. UK motoring publications have now been allowed to test the electric i Miev in car format – here are a couple of examples:

• Fleet news i Miev road test
• Telegraph i Miev road test

I also mentioned two further i Miev related possibilities:

1. It may be made under licence in Europe by PSA and sold under the Peugeot and Citroen brands
2. It will also be available as a van in the UK in 2011

I don’t know if volume production in Europe by the PSA group might bring down the i Miev’s estimated £17-£20,000 price tag (for the car version), blamed on the poor yen-sterling exchange rate (the i Miev’s made in Japan).

It’s also possible that for a van used exclusively in London, the extra cost of purchasing the i Miev might be cancelled out by having zero road tax, congestion charge or MOT costs and much lower fuel bills – Mitsubishi estimate that the i Miev will only cost 45p/100 miles to run. I don’t have the figures but instinct says that the loss of a diesel bill might be enough to make the whole life costs roughly equal – although resale value could be a big unknown.

Even in a best-case scenario, the i Miev still only looks useful to niche, city-only markets and drivers who don’t do more than 70-80 miles a day and can hookup their cars or vans to mains electricty every night.

(Thanks to SimpleMotoring.co.uk and CarHirePlace.com for the road test links.)

Huddersfield-based Kirklees Council has just become the organisation to run a van powered by the waste it collects!

The van, a Smith Electric Vehicles Ford Transit, is completely electric and is being used to collect garbage from a number of rubbish bins in the Huddersfield town centre area.

This rubbish is then taken to the council’s Energy from Waste plant at Emerald Street, Huddersfield, where it is converted into electricity.

The electricity generated by the Emerald Street EfW plant is then used to charge the electric van overnight – completing the circle and creating a zero emission vehicle.

A little while ago, I mentioned the possibility of the Mitsubishi i Miev electric car coming to the UK in electric van format – providing a very small van ideal for urban use.

This outcome seems a little more likely now, as news has emerged that Mitsubishi will be entering into a licensing deal with PSA to sell the i Miev under its Peugeot and Citroen brands.

Given PSA’s expertise with small vans, it would be unsurprising if it produced a van version of the i Miev that would sit neatly below the Peugeot Bipper/Citroen Nemo small van that they introduced this year.

Mitsubishi would benefit from PSA’s much greater presence in the European market – so everybody would win. Watch this space…

Marks & Spencer Modec Electric Van

Bearing the slogan “This vehicle has switched to electric”, Marks and Spencer’s first Modec electric van is a clear statement of its intention to ‘green up’ its (considerable) transport operations.

The electric van, which has a range of 70 miles and a maximum speed of 50mph, will be used for urban deliveries in London. In addition to its near-silent, zero-emission operation, it offers a number of other benefits:

• No road tax
• No tachograph requirement
• No MOT
• No congestion charge

The Modec went into operation in December 2008 and should single-handedly reduce M&S’ CO2 emissions by around nine tonnes per year. It forms part of the company’s Plan A climate change plan, which aims to make its operations greener. The overall goal is for the company’s UK and Irish operations to become carbon-neutral by 2012 – an ambitious but impressive target.

I imagine another element of the plan may be the increased use of teardrop-shaped, streamlined double-decker lorry trailers. Replacing the old box-shaped double deckers, these are reckoned to reduce fuel consumption by several percentage points.

The RAC is currently trialling the an aftermarket hybrid conversion kit on two of its Ford Transit patrol vans.

The RAC have chosen the Connaught Engineering Hybrid+ solution, a bolt-on, aftermarket hybrid conversion which uses a 48V electric motor and promises fuel savings around the 20% mark.

RAC Quality Manager Steve Lydon explains how it works: “The Hybrid+ system is bolted on to the engine of the vehicle. When you pull away, it kicks in and turns the engine using the electricity it has stored, as opposed to fuel. ”

The Hybrid+ solution uses capacitors to store energy, rather than heavy batteries. This means it does not affect the payload or weight of the vehicle. It’s simple retro-fit nature also means that it can be completely fitted in one day and according to Connaught, does not affect the manufacturer’s warranty.

At present available for Ford Transits, fitting the Hybrid+ system only takes one day, causing minimal disruption to vehicle availabilty. Check out Connaught Engineering’s website for more details.