Electric Motorhomes at Scale, Can't be Far Away Now.

[eddie]

How much does a typical off grid capable electric installation weigh?

A couple of lithium batteries, all the various controllers/charging systems and solar panels must add up to a significant weight.
I assume most of that would become redundant although some kit would be needed to provide 12v DC and possibly 230v AC.

Very interesting to see how this evolves.

A lot less than you elude too, the biggest reason is typical lithium gives up twice the capacity of a traditional battery at half the weight of a traditional battery

So, say a couple of 100 amp leisure battery weighing circa 25Kgs each could be replaced with one, 100 lithium battery weight 13Kg and would have pretty much the same “real life” usable power

 

[enark]

So you buy an electric MH, going to cost say £100k?

At present depreciation rates for EVs and the vans, its now worth £30k after a couple of years?

Surely not? Also i guess many MHs are purchased through loans/pcps? Will the banks take this risk?

 

[dunnah01]

Why bother with an electric Moho when you can flog £200k vans with windows all day long

 

[PaulW2]

But the link I posted with the new educato ststs shows they are not much better with payoad using the longer range battery & if you go for the smaller battery then you need perpetual charging. add in they cannot tow which probably rules out at least 50% of all customers here.

Apart from no;2 the rest are "inducements" rope-a-dope,to scam people in to buying them.Similar as unearned income.

read the link in post #31 the "larger" ;that means normal , battery takes up 440kgs of the additional 750kgs..

It is a bit like here in spain where they build refrigerated vehicles on 3500kgs chassis , because no one has a C licence for over 3,5T, & you end up with a usable payload of 200kgs & so everyone runs overloaded

Assuming one has the larger battery and a starting payload of 1,445 kg (1,885-440), and one then does a conversion, what is left? Let's say about half - 700 kg. That sounds like it could be workable. It wouldn't suit my usage patterns, but may work for some.

 

[Tombola]

Would they be able to produce it with a higher GVW R

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[dna]

A lot less than you elude too, the biggest reason is typical lithium gives up twice the capacity of a traditional battery at half the weight of a traditional battery

So, say a couple of 100 amp leisure battery weighing circa 25Kgs each could be replaced with one, 100 lithium battery weight 13Kg and would have pretty much the same “real life” usable power

Thanks Eddie, I will declare i'm not in the market for an electric motorhome but interested in watching the technology evolving.

It looks like the saved electrical kit doesn't weigh as much as I thought it might. Are there any other components that would be significantly lighter eg electric hob vs gas hob, 1 fuel instead of 3 fuel fridge ete, or no fixed gas installation?

 

[martin2603]

Having watched Steve Radford struggle around the NC500 in his Buzz, lack of working charging points was the main problem, his range 180miles ish. When the night temperatures dropped to -5” so of course did its range, and of course he struggled to keep the van warm at night. Still a lot of work in progress in the MH development, especially with weight problems. On the subject of weight problems, a City council up north purchased some E Double deckers, didn’t twig that they were too heavy for some of the Birdges in the area, Break outs the Deisel again! In Canada one of the big cities went all e bus only to find that as soon as the first cold snap arrived the buses refused to move. I know this to be true as it came from a friend over there.
So I won’t be parting with m’y DEISEL MH just yet.

 

[nicholsong]

Will a B2B/DC-DC be able to top-up the EV batteries?

 

[Googlebot]

Will a B2B/DC-DC be able to top-up the EV batteries?

No, they are so big it wouldn’t make much difference.

120KWH of battery woukd take weeks to recharge off a 70amp B2B.

I also never realised that the car has a charger that has to convert AC at home to DC to charge the batteries. Fast charge points are usually DC for this reason.

The on board charger on our Peugeot can only do 7KW max at home. Direct DC charging it’s 100KW, that would charge us up in about 30 mins with an empt battery or about an hour and 15 minutes with a 120KW van battery as the original post said it came with.

Some chargers are up to 200KW which is massive and would be done in less than an hour.

I was sceptical before getting an EV, as I have said, I won’t be going back to ICE if I can help it. Just sort the range and battery technology out and off you go.

All this rubbish about the grid not taking it is funny as well. We always have excess electricity at night, that’s why Octopus only charge us 7p a KWH at night. Most EV charging is done at night. Combined with smart meters and smart chargers, it’s easy to balance what’s needed and that’s without the car being able to chuck electric back into the grid which is coming.

The fossil fuel lobby have been amazing at convincing us that EV is crap, it worked on me till I took the plunge, they aren’t crap, they are better in every aspect except range. Once sorted with that, why would you ever buy an ICE car again?

 

[Tony and Andree]

Another thing to think about is that the Maxus vans (the name comes from the old LDV the fore runner of which was the Leyland sherpa van) have a 12 volt battery as well for things like lights, wipers and also the heater and blower and the traction batteries are also liquid cooled which requires another pump. having looked at a bare (oo er missus) chassis cab there is not much room underneath for waste water tanks as the battery packs are large and weigh somewhere in the region of 500kg in fact in the workshop they have a special lift to remove the batteries as they are so heavy. coincidentally there is a big charging station being built on the A34 at the A272 just north of Winchester by Instavolt and will have 44 charging bays see attached link https://instavolt.co.uk/plans-for-new-ev-super-hub-approved/
Tony

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[Dorwyn]

You can just use a diesel generator to charge it up surely?

So thats a great idea!! Tow a genny with you to be sure you can get back!

 

[Diabalo]

I'm ahead of the game, just cleared out the shed and installed this for charging my Ev motorhome, it's old but should do the trick nicely.

 

[eddie]

So thats a great idea!! Tow a genny with you to be sure you can get back!

Apparently they've cured "range anxiety"

One of the free with every EV

 

[Dorwyn]

Apparently they've cured "range anxiety"

One of the free with every EV

You could even rent it out on site

 

[enark]

Having watched Steve Radford struggle around the NC500 in his Buzz, lack of working charging points was the main problem, his range 180miles ish. When the night temperatures dropped to -5” so of course did its range, and of course he struggled to keep the van warm at night. Still a lot of work in progress in the MH development, especially with weight problems. On the subject of weight problems, a City council up north purchased some E Double deckers, didn’t twig that they were too heavy for some of the Birdges in the area, Break outs the Deisel again! In Canada one of the big cities went all e bus only to find that as soon as the first cold snap arrived the buses refused to move. I know this to be true as it came from a friend over there.
So I won’t be parting with m’y DEISEL MH just yet.

Yes agree with range and going where you wish.

Coventry now have mostly e double decker buses though, and they are fine. But thats a completely different equation as the bus follows a set known route. Coventry - Leamington - Coventry then recharge?

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[busby]

This is typical of anti EV media talk

We can recharge at the equivalent of 1000 miles / hour, so 15 mins will add 250 miles on a good charging point

More than enough to get us on our way when ready

You will never convince me..BUSBY

 

[autorouter]

On a campsite you could plug into a 16A EHU point, and recharge at 3.5kW, so that's 40kWh in 12 hours, or 80kWh in 24 hours. I appreciate some changes would be needed to allow all pitches to do this all the time, but it's a step change, not a completely off-the-wall scenario. Even a 6A supply would give you 33kWh in 24 hours.

Many people do fast, long-distance travel to reach their area of interest, then slow down and spend days exploring an area in more detail. They could use fast chargers on the fast journey, then slow aire/campsite charges once they were in their destination area.

 

[dunnah01]

Ass

On a campsite you could plug into a 16A EHU point, and recharge at 3.5kW, so that's 40kWh in 12 hours, or 80kWh in 24 hours. I appreciate some changes would be needed to allow all pitches to do this all the time, but it's a step change, not a completely off-the-wall scenario. Even a 6A supply would give you 33kWh in 24 hours.

Many people do fast, long-distance travel to reach their area of interest, then slow down and spend days exploring an area in more detail. They could use fast chargers on the fast journey, then slow aire/campsite charges once they were in their destination area.

Assuming you don't need to have any other EHU things running. Also it would take a day to get enough juice into a Ducato EVan to do 150 miles and cost about £40 which is more expensive than a diesel Ducato. This would undoubtedly end up adding £20/night onto the EHU cost for everybody

 

[Wicketter]

FIAT Professional has started production of the all-electric E-Ducato at its Atessa plant in Italy, marking a significant step toward sustainable mobility in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) sector.

The Ducato leads Europe’s RV market, with 70% of motorhomes built on its platform and a 16-year streak as “Best Camper Base Vehicle” by Promobil readers. It holds strong market positions across Europe, with a 24% share in Italy and notable rankings in France, Poland, Spain, and Portugal.

The E-Ducato, designed in-house, features a 110-kWh battery delivering a range of up to 424 km (WLTP), rapid charging, and versatile configurations suited for logistics and service industries.

Atessa, Europe’s largest LCV facility, produces up to 1,200 vehicles daily, exporting 80% to 75 countries. This milestone underscores FIAT Professional's commitment to Italian manufacturing and the shift to electric mobility.

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I'm sure campsites will be ecstatic, not

 

[Jim]

I'm sure campsites will be ecstatic, not

I'm sure they will. If one day we are all in leccy vans then charging them will eventually become another source of income for campsites.

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[PhilMary]

Out of interest, the Openreach Engineer was sent to my house yesterday to locate a fault in the group of houses where I live ??? anyway, he rang at 08.15 to say was running late and was expecting to be with me about 09.00, I asked him were he was travelling from, 6.5 miles his gps told him. "what's the problem" I asked. " I have to charge my new van as it's in limp mode on min charge. He arrived after 10.00 "Well, what happened?" He told me the first charging stop he is allowed to use was not working, the second allowed charging spot (one charger for commercials !!) had two other BT vans waiting, as it was now an emergency he went to Sainsbury in the local town and got a top up to 25% and came to my house.
He was with me almost 15 mins to prove the fault was in the local exchange, but he was happy as this allowed him more time to return back the "recommended" charging station to get his van charged for his afternoon appointment which, ( you are not going to believe this), was in the local exchange where our little enclave of dwellings all get of now faulty broadband from.

You just couldn't make it up could you ??

 

[The Wino]

I'm sure they will. If one day we are all in leccy vans then charging them will eventually become another source of income for campsites.

If of course they do any charging at the campsite. Not many campsites sell diesel but it doesn't put people off. People have a funny idea that everywhere and EV stays overnight has to have a charger why?

 

[Googlebot]

If of course they do any charging at the campsite. Not many campsites sell diesel but it doesn't put people off. People have a funny idea that everywhere and EV stays overnight has to have a charger why?

It helps us as the range on ours is quite poor. If we could charge at campsites we would be tempted to take the car as well.

If the Motorhome was electric, it would be amazing. I am a thorough convert to EV, once they solve the range and charging issue it’s going to be amazing.

 

[autorouter]

It helps us as the range on ours is quite poor. If we could charge at campsites we would be tempted to take the car as well.

If the Motorhome was electric, it would be amazing. I am a thorough convert to EV, once they solve the range and charging issue it’s going to be amazing.

If there was a charger within say 20 or 30 miles of the campsite, you could arrive at the site with well over 80% in the EV battery. Then go for a tour round based at the site, and come back to the site via the charging station. And very likely there would be a charging station a lot nearer than 20 or 30 miles.

 

[Googlebot]

If there was a charger within say 20 or 30 miles of the campsite, you could arrive at the site with well over 80% in the EV battery. Then go for a tour round based at the site, and come back to the site via the charging station. And very likely there would be a charging station a lot nearer than 20 or 30 miles.

You are right, the issue I can see is the fact that the rapid chargers take a lot more power to reduce charge time.

Even a 13 amp plug overnight can charge our car up to nearly full so can be charged anywhere. Even better is a 7KW one like we have at home, they can be installed anywhere with an adequate 32amp supply like lots of campsites. The max AC for most cars is 7KW.

The rapid chargers are at least 100KW and DC so require a very expensive transformer and installation. I suppose this would limit them to places like a forecourt and the price per KWH is very high.

The rapid chargers are about 80p per KWH, at home we pay 7p per KWH.

Sorry if you know all this, which I suspect you do. I am trying to say it’s probably cheaper to charge slowly on a campsite every night than bung in a rapid charge every few days, both for the price of the electric and the installation charge.

Zapmap even shows home owners who will let you charge up for a fee.

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[Jim]

If of course they do any charging at the campsite. Not many campsites sell diesel but it doesn't put people off. People have a funny idea that everywhere and EV stays overnight has to have a charger why?

Why wouldn't they, they are supplying electricity anyway. If we are all in leccy vans they would be dumb not to Who wouldn't want to leave a site fully charged.

 

[autorouter]

Even a 13 amp plug overnight can charge our car up to nearly full so can be charged anywhere. Even better is a 7KW one like we have at home, they can be installed anywhere with an adequate 32amp supply like lots of campsites. The max AC for most cars is 7KW.

The rapid chargers are at least 100KW and DC so require a very expensive transformer and installation. I suppose this would limit them to places like a forecourt and the price per KWH is very high.

As well as the 13A plug chargers and the 7kW (32A) type there is the 3-phase 22kW charger that runs from a standard 3 x 32A 3-phase supply. One of those would probably be easy for a campsite, but if you wanted half a dozen or more then probably a new supply would need to be installed.

 

[Googlebot]

As well as the 13A plug chargers and the 7kW (32A) type there is the 3-phase 22kW charger that runs from a standard 3 x 32A 3-phase supply. One of those would probably be easy for a campsite, but if you wanted half a dozen or more then probably a new supply would need to be installed.

I didn’t know they went up that high on AC.

On our Peugeot e208 the on board charger is max 7KW though I have heard others with bigger chargers.

It’s a fascinating subject the way different manufacturers are sorting it.

 

[autorouter]

I didn’t know they went up that high on AC.

The 'Type 2' connector has 7 pins: 2 data pins and 5 power pins: Live1, Live2, Live3, Neutral and Earth. Using the data pins, the car and charge point decide what power, and whether to use single phase or 3 phase. There is even a method for the charge point to determine how thick the cable is.

 

[LostInSpace]

I am a thorough convert to EV, once they solve the range and charging issue it’s going to be amazing.

In the meantime ......

Only a decade, or so. now.

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