Nissan Voltia: e-NV200
What is completely silent and can fit a rugby scrum if the locks are prepared to lie down? And the referee and the linesmen? And some spectators?
It’s rather a mouthful.
The Nissan e-NV200 XL Voltia is a mouthful to say and takes a few more words to comprehend. Take the much-loved Nissan NV200 van. An efficient box on wheels, ideal for the florist, parcel deliverer or anyone who has to get awkward things delivered cost-effectively. Now make the load box higher and longer, replace the engine with an electric motor and tailor the whole package to suit the day of the delivery driver and you have the Voltia.
The Voltia’s load box has twice the volume of NV200. At eight cubic metres, 2.5m long by 1.9high and 1.5m wide, it gives you a space you pack almost anything into. And you don’t have to crouch to engage anything in it.
We are all obsessed (or bored) with Covid right now, but climate change is still there as the main threat to everything you do and hold dear. No jokes here – just think of the Aussie bushfires in January.
So an electric delivery van makes sense. European countries are aggressively attacking fossil fuels and increasingly using more renewable energy than oil or coal. So the old argument of what good is an electric vehicle is it depends on Eskom is not true there either. Neither is the question of what good an electric van can do in the greater scheme of things. Practical climate change mitigation requires small steps. This electric van is the thin end of the wedge.
Enough preaching. Even if you are a passionate petrol head, if you have to deliver stuff, you take note of the costs. Electric vehicles simply cost less to run, no matter where you live. Now add on-demand charging, common in Europe and some American states, where you can set a timer to charge your vehicle in the middle of the night when electricity is cheapest.
What about range? You can easily do 200km plus in the moving box. But the cleverness does not start there. Say you live in the UK – where the Voltia is being launched – and the winter mornings are less than balmy. Heating takes power, so does cooling, and the Voltia lets you heat or cool down the van while you are on mains power. Ditto the seats and steering wheel.
Add to that total connectivity, so your driver can find the address, deliver and report to your status network on the go. Think a bit further and some bright spark thought to make a dropdown desk on the passenger side. To do the paperwork? Without balancing a clipboard on your boep?
So a van designed to carry a maximum load at minimum cost with optimum driver comfort and efficiency. Sound like Nissan.
Until the Voltia gets here, have a look at the Nissan vehicles that are here now.
