It stands to reason that having won the overall Van of the Year prize the Citroen e-Dispatch, Peugeot e-Expert and Vauxhall Vivaro-e also scooped the inaugural Electric Van of the Year award.
Three trim levels are available for both the e-Expert and e-Dispatch – S, Professional, and Asphalt with the Peugeot, and X, Enterprise and Driver with the Citroen. Prices, excluding VAT and including the government plug-in van grant, start at £25,053 for both the Peugeot e-Expert and Citroen e-Dispatch, and rise as high as £34,380 for both models.
The Vivaro-e is available in two trim levels, Dynamic and Elite, with prices starting at £27,723, excluding VAT and including the government’s £8,000 plug-in vehicle grant, and rising to £34,390.
Highly Commended: Mercedes-Benz eSprinter
The large van sector has been calling out for a true heavyweight electric van to pull it in from the margins and the Mercedes eSprinter looks like being that vehicle.
It comes in one body size, a medium-length, high-roof model. Capable of transporting up to 1,045kg, and with a load volume of 11m3, it stacks up to be a convincing commercial vehicle. There are two batteries sizes available, so you can either have a longer range or a larger payload. The small battery is 41kWh with a range of up to 70 miles and a payload of 1,045kg. A larger 55kWh battery increases range to 96 miles but cuts payload to 774kg.
Busy multi-drop workloads mean that quick charging times are crucial. The eSprinter gets a 20kW charger as standard, which means an 80% charge can be added in less than two hours. It will take eight hours to charge the 55kWh battery and six hours for the smaller 41kWh battery on a domestic power supply, but Mercedes has also included the option of rapid charging, with 80kW charging allowing 80% of capacity to be added in just 30 minutes.
Power comes from an 85kW (114hp) motor producing 295Nm of torque. There’s a single trim level, Progressive, which is the middle of the three options on the diesel Sprinter range.
