The big annual European transportation convention is happening right now in Hannover, Germany, and Volkswagen attempted to steal the show with Jason Statham’s undeniable star power. I love Jason Statham and his championing of tungsten (the most baller metal), but it’s BYD and its E-VALI cargo van that I find the most interesting.
I call BYD a Tesla rival in the headline though I could have just as easily called the Chinese carmaker a Tesla supplier instead, as BYD provides a key component for many of Elon Musk’s cars: lithium iron phosphate battery packs.
These types of battery packs, for all their drawbacks, have some major advantages for cargo vans, and yet few large EV vans seem to have them. Let’s talk about the BYD E-VALI because I’m super excited about it.
It’s All About The Battery
You don’t have to be an Assistant Regional Manager to see the value of an electric cargo van. These are vehicles that are designed to move slowly, stop often, and follow a predictable prescribed route. They’re also larger, which makes packaging the typically flat batteries easier.
Right now there are two types of electric cargo vans in this largest class for sale in Europe and North America. Traditional automakers offer electric conversions of their big vans, which is how we get the Peugeot E-Boxer, Mercedes eSprinter, and the Ford E-Transit. The two main EV-only vans are the BrightDrop Zevo (now Chevy BrightDrop) and the Rivian Van, which do offer similar cargo dimensions but are slightly longer and more squat in appearance compared to the high-roof versions (though Ford offers a low-roof E-Transit).
Whether purpose-built or converted to an electric drivetrain, most of these vans have one big thing in common: lithium-ion batteries. The smallest battery in this class is the Peugeot with a 37 kWh battery, offering just 73 miles of WLTP range. The largest is the Brightdrop with the Ultium Max Range battery, capable of 272 miles of EPA range out of a 173 kWh battery.
I tested an eSprinter with a 113 kWh battery, which doesn’t get an EPA rating, but it gets 273 miles of range on the WLTP test cycle. It also has a lithium-ion battery.
There’s only one van in here with an LFP (or LiFePO4) battery and that’s the Rivian Van, which started switching over last year from the more common lithium-ion (or NMC) chemistry. This van offers about 160 miles of EPA range from a battery that’s 92 kWh in size.
The new BYD E-VALI is, as far as I can tell, the only traditionally shaped large cargo van to offer an LFP battery.
I tend to prefer LFP batteries, but it’s not like LFP batteries are a particularly newer or better battery technology than NMC. They both currently have their own specific use cases and it just so happens that the benefits of an LFP battery tend to favor the use of the tech in cargo vans.
NMC batteries are more energy-dense, so basically any vehicle you see with a huge range (like the Lucid Air or Silverado EV) likely has an NMC battery pack. NMC batteries also perform better, relatively speaking, in colder environments where less dense LFP batteries tend to lose more range. NMC batteries, being more energy-dense, tend to be lighter than LFP batteries offering similar range.
Range isn’t as big of a concern for cargo vans running local delivery routes, and with proper pre-conditioning, any battery should be able to perform in typical cold weather conditions.
This E-VALI gets an 81kWh-sized version of BYD’s latest “Blade” battery, so named for all the thin blades of battery cells stacked into the pack. This is the same technology that Tesla buys from BYD for its LFP vehicles.
For its few drawbacks, LFP tech has a lot of benefits:
- The battery is cheaper, using abundant iron instead of relying on manganese and cobalt for its cathodes.
- Cobalt itself is a problematic material and is strongly linked to “slave-like” working conditions in the Congo.
- LFP batteries can be charged to 100% more frequently with less degradation, leading to more charging cycles and a longer life.
- LFP batteries are safer and less prone to thermal runaway.
While most people might not know, or even care, that the battery in their car is one technology or another technology, for fleet operators this is a big deal. Fleet buyers aren’t purchasing vehicles for speed or, in most cases, range. Being able to have a battery pack that can be charged to 100%, every night (or morning, depending on the use case), without as much concern for rapid degradation and at a cheaper price is a big deal.
Plus, for the moment at least, it’s cheaper. As Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe said of the switch:
“[LFP] is a hedge on nickel pricing. And fits beautifully as a base-model configuration, and certainly for our commercial vehicle, fits really nicely.”
The BYD E-Vali Is Great On Paper, Or Perhaps To Deliver Paper
The Europeans nailed it with this specific van configuration, which is why you see the classic American Econoline and Savannah slowly being replaced by LCVs (Large Cargo Cans) like Transits, ProMasters, and Sprinters.
Of all the vans built to be large cargo vans, the E-VALI is the only one that looks like the classic European model. It’s tall and upright with a short front and tall rear doors. BYD says the van “combines minimalistic elegance and quality craftmanship.” I think that’s a way of saying it’s quite simple in appearance, but not in a bad way.
When it goes on sale, the van will be available in 3.5t or 4.25t size (Gross Vehicle Mass, though we’d call it GVWR here in the U.S.), offering up to 155 miles of range and a payload of up to 3,200 pounds. The vans are default RWD, but a smaller front motor can be added for an AWD version, and both will charge to 80% from 10% in just 30 minutes.
Being a BYD, there’s also a lot of technology on board:
The cabin has a high-tech feel, enhanced by a modern instrument panel and large touchscreen. This creates a focal point of the interior, forming a control hub for infotainment and BYD intelligent 4G connected experiences including Apple CarPlay, Android Auto with Over The Air (OTA) updates as part of the iCloud service, with the benefit of voice recognition. The touchscreen can be viewed ‘split screen’ mode so the driver can focus on driving, while passengers can still enjoy their preferred infotainment. There is also the accompanying BYD App which provides a host of features and remote functionality, for monitoring vehicle status.
The dashboard has flowing contours and is designed to ensure that controls are within easy reach. The console integrates various functions such as mobile phone wireless charging and gear shift lever, saving a lot of space in the vehicle.
BYD says explicitly that this van is made for Europe, which means that in order to avoid tariffs it probably has to be built in Europe or in a country with a friendly trade deal. It’s possible the vehicle could be built in BYD’s new Hungarian plant. My guess? Turkey has a sweet trade deal with Europe so I think it’s quite possible that the van will be built in BYD’s new plant in the country.
If priced well, this van should also do well in Britain, especially Slough, where there are no reactive tariffs in place against China.
Small correction – LFP is still a lithium ion battery; Li containing salts are still dissolved in the electrolyte, therefore Li ions are still moving from cathode to anode and back as the cell is discharged & charged. The big difference is the cathode material – for LFP it is… drumroll please… LFP, Lithium Iron Phosphate, LiFePO4, versus some combination of Nickel (usually the predominant element from 60-90%, Manganese, Cobalt, and Aluminum (generally in the 5-20% range), which together could be called “High Nickel” Li ion cells, and all have substantially higher energy density than LFP.
That van looks like it really need to take a nap
Android Auto? Car Play? Sheesh. Now these drivers are going to start expecting air conditioning!
Technologically, these days China reminds me so much of Japan in the ’80s. Sony thrived, Zenith died.
This is just an obtuse observation and nothing more.
You’re not wrong.
You are quite correct, with multiple generation of engineers, they are less copying and more and more innovating.
The big difference, with Japan in the 80’s being their hegemonic foreign policy and being a dictatorship, plus a quite bad human rights record.
This van really looks like a Winnebago-style classic American Class A camper to me, and I’m not quite sure why.
I don’t take issue with the description, but rather the abbreviation.
You’re kinda wrong. The eSprinter has a LFP pack, but it is made by CATL instead of the BYD packs. Those CATL packs are in general slightly worse performance, but the 30kwh extra should more than make up for it. The eSprinter isn’t RHD though (yet) or as cheap probably.
The guy who gave you the press car should kinda have told you this tbh (look under high voltage battery and charging)
I still Think all of these EV mfrs are short sighted when the NIO group is doing what should be done from the start. agree to a basic battery size and make them swappable. Pay for the car, not the car plus the battery. Maybe the MFR has a small 50 mile onboard battery to get you to the battery store or as a reserve, but that is it. I watched a Rivian van sitting in the grocery store parking lot at 7:30 while the driver sat there and smoked. That seems like a waste of unnecessary OT.
If you can have sufficient range without swapping packs, why would you add that infrastructure.
I’m not sure what the last comment has to do with anything though, sounds like an employee taking a smoke break outside their place of work.
Swappable batteries are a good idea for some vehicles, but you do pay a hefty engineering price for that ability, it’s not a panacea, especially as charging gets faster and faster.
Also, why you gotta dog a poor van driver? He’s just trying to get through his day.
Sometimes simple design is just better design.
You shouldn’t be giving Wernham-Hogg free publicity, after they helped the BBC crew with that stitch-up job against one of their own managers all for the sake of “reality” TV drama, or whatever.
Extra points for The Office references. Nice.
It is hard to get excited about any EV that doesn’t have access to the Tesla Supercharger network. This van’s battery might be superior to other EV batteries, but it isn’t that helpful if you have to charge at places like Electrify America (at least theoretically if it were sold here in the US; hopefully off-brand charging networks are better in Europe?). I know a lot of people hate Tesla and that is fine, but charging a Tesla on the road is easy and convenient. Charging non-Tesla vehicles is frustrating and difficult. My janky ex-rental Model 3 may only go 150 miles between charges at highway speed, but at least I know there will be functional charging stations along the way.
That’s almost completely irrelevant for “last mile” delivery vehicles, as they’ll always return to base within their range. It’s a different thinking with fleets.
We do similar with transit buses. Even diesel powered, they’re set up to only be able to fuel on property, so routes are designed to make sure they make it home before running dry.
Even if the range is shorter than current vehicles they have, they’ll just re-map routes to work with the range they have.
That’s a valid point.
I presume at least some of these vehicles will have to be charged away from the fleet garage, though. I also wonder if fixed use somewhat negates the benefits of LFP batteries. NMC batteries presumably lose range faster than LFP batteries, but if you are using fixed routes that are well within the vehicle’s capabilities, losing 10-20% of range probably isn’t a huge deal. I’m not sure battery longevity or the ability to charge to 100% is a major barrier to EV adoption in any application.
I’m not arguing that LFP batteries aren’t superior in this application, but I would challenge the idea that they are somehow a “killer feature.” They seem like more of an incremental improvement.
What is a killer feature for one application, doesn’t automatically make it good for others. The new postal vehicles are killer for their application, but that only really applies to their very specific use case.
Although better defining battery tech to usage case probably is more incremental as you say.
Yeah, the Saturday Evening Post used a fleet of 1910s CTC electric trucks to haul giant rolls of paper from the rail yard to their printing plant and make local deliveries to newsstands, where a common sight in Philadelphia up into the mid 1960s, when they retired them after 50+ years of continuous use. Didn’t go fast, or have much range, but they never left the city and returned to the Post’s depot for charging every day after finishing their rounds, so it didn’t matter. Over 52 years, those trucks probably paid for themselves several times over
Well it is hard to say if BYD will have a deal with Tesla to use their network but if they make that happen with the CCS plug as shown they will work since the European Superchargers use CCS not J3400. However as The Drunken Wrench notes last mile delivery will charge at the depot, not at public chargers.
In my experience, this doesn’t matter much here in Europe, or at least in Germany (though I’ve made similar experiences in the Netherlands, France, Austria and Italy, at least). Tesla’s network is worse here, and there’s other players providing better services. You’d probably be able to traverse the continent on Ionity chargers alone, though they tend to be pricey. Fastned also has an extensive network, as do some national champions (EnBW in Germany, for example).
But all of this doesn’t matter, as practically every charging card includes roaming, so you can just get access to all of them.
Quite right, the expansion of the network picked up speed in the last 6 months. I live in France, and the last year has been quite significant. Of the two charging cards I have (ChargeMap and Izivia) I only use the Izivia one nowadays. The other thing, is the obligation for charging stations to accept credit card payment with no need for a plan of any sort, akin to petrol (gas) stations where you can pick whichever brand you want without subscribing.
> You don’t have to be an Assistant Regional Manager to see the value of an electric cargo van.
Perhaps, but as an Assistant to the Regional Manager, having you point it out is invaluable for me!
Came here to say that.