Nissan Townstar 90kW Acenta Van Auto 45kWh L2

Review and road test of the Nissan Townstar Electric

Despite the government delaying the ban on the sale of new cars and vans to 2035, the ZEV (Zero-Emissions Vehicles) mandate still came into force this year and will increase on a sliding scale. For vans that means that 10% of all new registrations in 2024 will need to be electric.

Whilst electric commercial vehicles have been with us for some time there are significantly more challenges to mass adoption that with passenger cars. The key considerations are with range, payload, and acquisition cost.

Electric Commercial vehicles uptake

There has been some large-scale uptake of electric commercial vehicles, with British Gas, Royal Mail, Amazon and DPD electric vans being common sights in our towns and cities.  Apologies to other large electric fleets missed off the list above!

The landscape for electric vans is however about to change with the need for manufacturers to hit 10% penetration. With pricing incentives and with every new model and model year upgrade, comes increased expected range.

Our customer base is heavily bias toward agriculture, construction, and associated services. Whilst uptake of electric vans has been minimal in these areas, discussions around their transitions are well underway. 

Will such a backdrop we are embarking on a series of test drive reviews of electric vans to better understand them, and the proposition they present to our business customers.

Test Drive of the Nissan Townstar

First up is the Nissan Townstar 90kW Acenta Van Auto 45kWh L2 which is now the entry level model but in large volume format.

The Townstar replaced the old NV200 which was one of the pioneers of small electric vans and whilst a functional vehicle. I think it’s fair to say it wasn’t the best looking of vans. 

The Nissan Townstar however is in contrast a good-looking van, even more so should you opt for the range topping Tekna + with alloy wheels and colour coded bumpers.

Given that these vehicles are generally “workhorses” the standard equipment of our Acenta demo was rather generous and included the following:

• Automatic LED headlights,
• LED fog lights,
• Automatic wipers,
• Twin side loading doors,
• Automatic dual zone air conditioning,
• Cruise control,
• LED lighting to the load area,
• 8” touchscreen with Apply Car Play / Android Auto.

 It still makes me smile that displays and screens are quoted in good old fashioned imperial inches!  The front and rear parking sensors or reversing camera are both factory options and we’d certainly recommend one or the other.

The cabin is comfortable, very quiet and being electric the drive is very responsive. Overall, a great package for operators looking for a smaller van that isn’t tearing all over the country.

Nissan Townstar range

Our demo arrived with a full charge and although still wintry weather it was showing a respectable 150mile range, against WLPT (Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure) combined range of 177.  

Our initial journey was to our second site 15 miles away which is a mix of dual carriageway and A roads.  Our 30-mile round trip depleted the range to just under 110 miles, which is not unreasonable given the type of road. Being the first time, we tried the Townstar we can neither admit nor deny there was any rapid acceleration just to see how good the van picked up speed.

There are a lot of small van operators that don’t do high mileages and therefore don’t need to rely on the public charging network during the working day. As with cars we are still at the point of deciding whether electric vans can work for “the business”. Once electric vans are deemed feasible, the Townstar then becomes a serious contender in the smaller van space, and the Acenta model has pretty much everything you’d need.

Nissan warranty and peace of mind

All Nissan vans come with a five warranty. This should give you peace of mind for most holding periods and the incentives available currently make the acquisition of the Electric Townstar very attractive – resulting in some very favourable contract hire and finance lease rates.  Add in the predicted lower maintenance costs and where home or base charging is regularly achievable then this electric van becomes more than viable.

This year see’s manufacturers needing to hit a mix of 10% for electric van registrations and with products like the Nissan Townstar it should be easier for companies to make the switch. 

If you’re in the market for new vans and not sure if electric can work or would simply like to talk through the myriad of choices ( including fit-outs and funding options) then speak to the team @ TYSONCOOPER businessdrive – simply email us at getintouch@tysoncooper.com and we’ll call back at a time convenient for you