LDV Australia has its focus on the fleet market with its new eDeliver 7 electric midsize van, which it says offers a better total cost of ownership than the traditional diesel vans it competes with.
The eDeliver 7 has four derivatives to choose from, priced from $59,990 plus on-roads for ABN holders. That starting point is about $10-$15K higher than rival diesel midsize models like the Hyundai Staria Load, Ford Transit Custom and sales-leading Toyota HiAce.
LDV Australia general manager, Dinesh Chinappa, claims that while the buy-in cost is higher, the ongoing costs won’t be compelling for fleet buyers.
“I think eDeliver 7 enters into the medium-sized business [category],” he said. “We now fall into Douglas Hanley Moore pathology, Rentokil Initial, Wormald Security – the smaller, but still important, big businesses. They’re not the mega brands of Australia, but they’re big businesses,” said Mr Chinappa.
“We fall now into that category where fleet managers can actually sit back and look at this thing and say ‘this is the right price for us, we can actually justify commercially buying this thing and operating it, and we can also start to achieve our climate change responsibility, our social responsibility corporate objectives’,” he said.
The numbers add up, according to Mr Chinappa, with LDV offering a six-year/90,000km servicing plan that costs just over $1165 for the entire period – as much as some diesel models would cost to cover just 30,000km. And then there’s the cost of electricity versus diesel, and for onsite recharging at back-to-base facilities, less paperwork and lost time for refuelling at service stations.
“This car, mathematically, has the right to expect to sell in the hundreds per month. Mathematically, financially. When you look at the commercial viability of the van, you’re looking at a premium to a Toyota HiAce, circa 15 per cent, right.
“As soon as you run your eye over the cost of fuel versus the cost of electricity, servicing costs – electric versus diesel maintenance costs, service intervals of two years… as soon as you start doing the algorithms around the cost of ownership, you’ll start to see that serious fleet operators are going to be able to say, you know what, this is starting to make sense,” said Mr Chinappa.
Mr Chinappa even reckons some fleets with utes will be drawn to the merits of this van.
“We’ve already got a business that has a fleet of utes that wants to electrify their fleet. And we’re talking large numbers, and they have asked and are going to be evaluating a van as a potential replacement for their ute fleet – hundreds of vehicles,” he said. “Fleet is interested in electrifying, they want to do it sooner rather than later. They are prepared to look at the van to perform the task. If it performs the task, they’re willing to consider switching out of utes and into vans.”
The company already offers a larger electric van, the eDeliver 9, which Mr Chinappa says “sells to top-tier blue-chip corporates, people like Coles, Woolworths, IKEA,” but the cost (from $116,537 plus on-roads) prevents medium-sized businesses from choosing it.
Mr Chinappa said that owner-operator courier drivers may be drawn to the idea of the eDeliver 7, but he’s realistic that $60K or more is too much for that type of customer – who is usually a used van customer.
“We haven’t got the pricing and entry-level down at that level yet, where an owner-driver operator would buy the car,” he said. “But his corporate client is going to look at this thing and say, you know what, this works for us, and we can make it work. And that’s what we’re already finding here. So it will transition, and it will transition progressively over time,” said Mr Chinappa.
Executive chairman of Ateco Group, Neville Crichton, said the eDeliver 7 van shows that LDV is serious about its fleet and volume aspirations in the market.
“That’s the first car that’s actually designed, ground-up, as an electric car,” said Mr Chrichton.
“We’ve got the pricing right, we think we’ve got the package incredibly good. And as Dinesh said, the volumes, I think you will be astounded,” he said.
The brand offers the eDeliver 7 electric van range with two battery pack options (77kWh and 88kWh), two wheelbase choices (SWB and LWB), and two roof height choices (Low Roof and High Roof). There are four derivatives total, with pricing ranging from $59,990 to $66,990 plus on-roads for ABN holders.
