[This article was first published on businesstimes.com.sg]
The Citroen e-Dispatch delivers savings as well as goods, and feels like the Rolls-Royce of vans.
ELECTRIC cars are hot in Singapore, with their population looking set to double to 2,400 by the end of this year. But commercial vehicles that run on batteries are looking even hotter.
Numbers from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) show that we started the year with just 103 electric light goods vehicles on the roads, but ended October with 320 of them. That's more than triple, albeit from a low base.
Electric van sales were actually nowhere in the first quarter of the year, but took off once the Commercial Vehicle Emissions Scheme (CVES) kicked in this April, providing tax incentives worth up to S$30,000 for the cleanest machines.
The Citroen e-Dispatch is one such van favoured by the CVES gods. It can haul nearly a tonne of stuff around (985 kg, to be exact). Crammed to the ceiling, its cargo area can take 5.3 cubic metres' worth of your latest online splurge. The cabin is wide enough to seat three abreast, which I'm sure is to accommodate the number of people needed to do the job of two people, according to French union rules.
All of that makes the e-Dispatch slightly less capacious than the Toyota Hiace, a popular combustion van. That makes the two informal rivals, meaning the Citroen and Toyota are proxies in the war for market share between the new and old.
How do they stack up? The Hiace costs S$55,000, according to Toyota's local website, while the Citroen lists for S$79,999. Here's where it gets complicated, however. CVES rebates aren't given up front, but are returned to buyers in the form of cash rebates over three years. Effectively, if you buy an electric van the LTA will give you a cheque for S$10,000 a year for three years. Net of that, the e-Dispatch costs S$49,999, or less than its Japanese rival. In other words, this is a van that hits the pocket slightly harder at first, but eventually refills it handsomely.
Beyond that, the efficiency and lower running costs of electricity tend to pay off with time. One study by Cycle & Carriage Leasing shows that running an electric van can cost several thousand dollars less a year than a petrol or diesel one, once servicing and fuel are accounted for.
While all that gives the company's accountants something to chew over, the drivers would almost certainly pick the e-Dispatch over a diesel machine. Not having driven too many vans myself, I'm no expert, but it strikes me that the Citroen might just be the Rolls-Royce of commercial vehicles.
Being a proper electric vehicle, it has all the virtues of one. The acceleration is seamless, and up to a point, the van is quieter than a Cadillac. That point is 69 km/h, above which a speed warning device chimes annoyingly away in the background, which must be why so many van drivers turn their vehicles into mobile dance clubs.
Keep to the speed limit, however, and the e-Dispatch is practically silent, and more like the kind of place to play classical music instead of thumping dance tunes. The contrast with a combustion machine here is especially stark, because a diesel engine sometimes sounds like an army of tin soldiers having a punch-up. More so in a commercial vehicle, in which sound insulation isn't a priority.
If you care about your company's drivers' ears, that alone would be reason enough to consider the e-Dispatch, or other electric vans.
Yet, people sizing up the vehicle seem to have broader concerns. "We've been quite surprised by the response to the e-Dispatch, actually. This electric version has had a more positive reaction than the internal combustion version," says Dawn Pan, the director of operations at Cycle & Carriage. "We are seeing enquiries from multinational logistics companies who have a sustainability agenda."
That makes the e-Dispatch and vans like it potentially irresistible: great for a company's image and its green ambitions, more comfy for its drivers and healthier for its bottom line. In some ways, a fleet of them is as impressive as a fleet of Rolls-Royces.
Book a test drive to do it all in Electric with the new ë-Dispatch now!
[Source: Businesstimes.com.sg © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Permission required for reproduction. ]
