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Lower costs, lower emissions, and lower maintenance - switching to an electric van is a great option for businesses of all shapes and sizes.
To ensure you get the most out of your electric van, Donnelly Group has complied some tips on how to make sure your van's range reaches its fullest potential.
Preserve battery life
A common mistake made by electric van drivers is charging the battery to 100 per cent and draining it to 0 percent.
This is known as a charging cycle and is the main reason for a car battery deteriorating.
Instead, consider keeping the battery life between 20% and 80% charged, and try to limit use of rapid chargers to allow the battery to cool down before recharging it.
Adapt your driving style
Similarly to fuel-powered cars, an electric vehicle’s range decreases when a driver accelerates quickly and brakes abruptly.
The optimum speed for an electric vehicle, where a driver is able to conserve the power whilst also maintaining speed, is 60mph. Therefore, adapting your driving style and aiming to remain at 60mph or below will boost your electric van’s range.
Another change that will aid in improving driving range is using regenerative braking, which is program-controlled braking that determines how much energy is needed during the braking process.
Regenerative braking reuses energy for charging that would normally be wasted.
Reduce drag
By having the windows down, an electric van driver can expect to see more energy being used for less miles driven.
This is due to wind resistance, which essentially pushes against your van and makes the amount of energy needed to power the van much more than if the windows were closed.
Remove unnecessary contents
The efficiency of an electric van is decreased when there is additional cargo weight, so in order to maximise your range ensure that you only carry what is needed.
Preconditioning
Preconditioning, which is activated using the media system in an electric vehicle or a connected smartphone, can be turned on whilst charging and right before the journey is set to begin.
This is highly beneficial for boosting the driving range of an electric van because there will be no requirement to turn the air conditioning or heating on whilst driving, which ultimately would reduce the charge of the vehicle if used.
Routine maintenance
Donnelly Group recommends that an electric van should receive a routine maintenance once a year or every 18,000 miles to ensure that the driving range of the electric vehicle remains as efficient as possible.
To discover how Donnelly Group can help you find the electric vehicle to suit your needs, get in touch today.
