Featured Nissan 173 mile range EV van

Don't open the champagne just yet. Those are NEDC numbers. The current e-NV200 has a range of 106 miles in Europe.
Charging Range Nissan e-NV200 - Electric Van | Nissan
Since it uses the Leaf's drive train, plus a fan for additional battery cooling, those 106mi would likely be less than the 85mi the Leaf gets with the small battery on the EPA.

 

This new one has the new 40 kwh battery, but its sale in north america may not happen.

2018 Nissan Leaf vs Chevrolet Bolt EV: new electric cars compared
It looks like on us tests that battery in the leaf will get 150 miles. The outgoing one claimed 106 on a 24 kwh pack, the leaf got 84 miles on epa. Doing the math ;-) we get 150 * 84/106 = 119 mile range is likely ballpark for an epa test. If it is sold in north america, I'm not sure it will do well versus the chrysler pacifica phev. It depends how many miles per year that are done on trips over 33 miles but under 100 (chademo fast chargers are somewhat rare, so caution will probably add a safety factor in a bev, things we saw with the volt being driven as many miles electrically as the leaf). The pacifica phev sold 475 units last week, and with the diesel scandal, fiat chrysler now looks like they want to sell it, meaning future sales will likely increase with the change of corporate attitude.

Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid: A Week With The 33 Mile Plug-In Minivan
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I really don't think economics look good for a hybrid minivan without a plug in the US. The Rav4, Highlander, and Lexus RX hybrids would offer such a beast big competition.

Now the success of the prime offers a different proposition. If the pacifica starts growing sales, I could see a phev minivan. You probably need the cells of 2 of the prius primes battery packs - 17.6 kwh, to provide the oomph needed to propel a sienna like minivan to speed in all electric mode . Then the new camry hybrid engine (176 hp) provides enough hybrid power with some electrons in reserve to accelerate as fast in hybrid mode as the V6 sienna. Suspension would need to be modified, but almost all the NRE will have been done for other cars.

 

i would love to see fed ex, amazon and ups using these around here, instead of their diesel lung poisoners.

 

The NV200 is tiny compared to a UPS truck, and won't provide the cargo room needed. The nissan bev has 120 cubic feet of cargo room, 30 less than even a sienna minivan. UPS in my city uses diesel hybrid trucks and phev trucks. They just contracted to buy 3 of the new eCantor FUSO BEV trucks that are talked about on another thread. Here in Austin, I think the Hybrid or the Electric badges help them have good will as well as reduce fuel costs.

UPS Updates 125 Step Vans To Workhorse E-GEN Series Plug-In Hybrids

I'm not sure the phevs will get to Boston though, testing seems to avoid the north east. Maybe some strange carb rule likes the diesel trucks over these gasoline electric ones. ;-)

 

The NV200 is a competitor to Ford's Transit Connect. By eyeballing they both appear a little smaller than the available minivans; a third row seat may not fit in the models the US gets.

They are both marketed for commercial use. I wouldn't see an e-NV200 being cross shopped with the Pacifica by most. The NV200 is used as a NYC taxi. With access to CHAdeMO, the BEV version might work for that job. Local delivery van is a more likely use though.

 

it would be a big step-down in size from their step vans. but amazon is mostly commercial van size. i doubt we'll see anything, there isn't much environmental push in the boston burbs, too many range rover drivers.

 

+1

I guess amazon delivers differently to you than to me. Yes for your burbs the nv200e is probably big enough. I've had some stuff dropped off from a variety of cars, but most gets delivered by a a step van or my postal carrier (mail woman?).

Transit connect electric sold about 500 units but was discontinued because ford's partner to make them went out of business. These things would probably good for the cable people, and a lot of other folks if nissan can get the price down. I see transit connects, and plain old minivans for that stuff now. I have still not seen a nissan nv200 in the wild yet, it could be a regional thing, and that ford has sold a lot more transit connects than nissan has sold nv200s in the US.

With expensive electricity and not much of an environmental push in the boston suburbs though, I wouldn't expect that would be a good market for businesses to invest in small bev electric vans. I see NV200e's going to businesses that want to use the fact that they are using bev delivery vans as part of marketing. New York power authority and Southern California Edison were two of the customers that bought the transit connect bev.

 

naturally.