Crusader Vans likes to think we are clued up when it comes to all things vans and van leasing. However, when Stellantis recently announced that it is planning to offer a conversion programme that would take an existing vehicle and convert it into an electric van we wondered if it would ever really take off. Electric Vans in the UK have had a bumpy ride to date with poor range, slow charging and various other concerns and challenges. While we appreciate that Diesel is dirty and not the way forward, is converting these to electric vans really the answer?
So, what is Stellantis planning?
In a nutshell, owners of Stellantis group vans would be able to take their van with 100,000km (62,000 miles) on the clock into Stellantis and the company would retrofit a battery and electric motor for less than the cost of a new vehicle, thus extending the life of the van. The initial plan is to offer the scheme on the brand’s medium vans, so the Citroen Dispatch, Peugeot Expert, Fiat Scudo and Vauxhall Vivaro.
The goal is to offer access to electric vehicles at a more affordable level, said Stellantis’ senior vice president for commercial vehicles, Xavier Peugeot.
Swap done via dealers
The conversion would be done via your local dealer, who would then send it off to a Stellantis facility to do the work.
Although the finer details are yet to be ironed out, and could be different in respective countries, the intention would then be to offer the same aftersales experience as if a van had come in for other work. This means that the motor and battery should be subject to the same warranty and coverage as an original electric vehicle.
However, it is not clear whether Stellantis would extend this cover to any of the other, potentially heavily used, parts of the vehicle.
The retrofit would provide an electric range of 120 miles, which is down on the range offered by a brand new electric medium van from Stellantis’ four brands, which was 211 miles before the recent updates and is now 224 miles. The payload on offer will be 900kg.
The plan is to launch the scheme in France to start off with, with the first vehicles going out in late 2024, but Stellantis has said that it intends to extend to other markets ‘including the UK.’
The decision to bring it to the UK, and other markets, will be driven by customer demand.
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