Designing My Dream Campervan: Part 1 – Picking a Van
What electric van options are there for my dream Campervan build?
For quite some time now I’ve been wanting a campervan. It all started back in university when I started designing a small broadcast truck for one of my assignments. My thought being, Well… if I’m redesigning this van why not make it dual purpose. For my assignment, I kept it as a broadcast truck with little to no modifications (you can see my latest iteration here). Today I’m going to look at converting a van into a fully fledge camper, and may in the future work out some sort of hybrid.
It’s been kind of difficult to write this post, all due to one thing, there aren’t many electric vans on the road yet. So look at petrol or diesel van I hear you say. Nope. by the time I can actually afford to convert my fan I probably won’t be able to get hold of an internal combustion van and if current price hikes are anything to go by, the got of petrol & diesel will be astronomical, not that they aren’t already.
There is an added benefit to having an electric van that you can convert to a camper. Vehicle-to-Load (V2L)! Quite a few of the new electric vans coming to market actually have the option to plug-in devices and use the massive battery pack already in the vehicle. The most difficult part will be rerouting the cabling to a fuse box of sorts that can then be used to split the power throughout the camper.
Electric Van Options
So what options do I have when looking for an electric van. I’m going to break this into a couple of sections, On the Road & Pre-Production. There are only a few vans suitable for conversion already out and about on the roads just now so whilst I’m here I wanted to have a look and see what is about to be released to the market. So without further ado let’s have a look at the van options.
On the Road
Nissan ENV200 Combi
The Nissan E-NV200 Combi is Nissan’s Electric people carrier version of their popular NV200 panel van. It has a range of 128 WLTP (combined) and is, to be honest, on the small side. It has 1.36m standing room inside, it’s 1.5m wide and whilst it’s 4.56m in length not a lot of that is usable in the back maybe 2.5m if you are lucky. This is a good option for a minimalist person who doesn’t need much and will be staying on sites with facilities such as shower blocks but if you’re the type who likes to find themselves in the middle of a muddy field then the Nissan isn’t for you.
Vauxhall Vivaro e
The Vauxhall Vivaro e comes in three models the largest of which (the L2H1) has 1.4m Standing room, is 2.86m in length and is 1.66m wide, so overall a bit bigger. The range is also better as the L2H1 has a 70kWh battery giving it 208 miles of range. So whilst you may have a bit of room to squeeze in a camping toilet in the back the Vauxhall isn’t that much bigger than the Nissan.
Maxus eDeliver 9
The Maxus eDeliver 9 is the largest of the 3 vans but because Maxus don’t have the interior dimensions available anywhere you’ll have to take my word for it. If it helps the Vauxhall had a cargo Volume of 8.6m2 whereas the eDeliver 9 has 11m3 on its LH Model. It comes with an 88.55 kWh battery giving you 219 miles of WLTP range So it’s bigger and has a longer range than all of the others but, just like the other 2 it has one very important thing missing, V2L.
So those are the three vans that have been made popular by other EV Camper enthusiasts over the last few years. Whilst the Maxus is by far my favourite it’s still missing the V2L, something I hope they fix in future releases. To me, it really is a key part of a camper van conversion. So let’s have a look at the Vans that have yet to be released.
Pre-Production
VW ID California
You may have heard of the VW California campervan, it has been around for years and VW has announced they are going to be making an electric version based on the long wheel based VW ID Buzz Cargo. This is amazing news, the only downside is we don’t know anything else about it yet. On the plus side, We know that the ID buzz cargo has V2L thanks to a number of reviews on YouTube. It’s unlikely we’ll hear anything more until 2023 though.
Ford E-Transit
Everyone Loves a Transit Van. I mean when you think of a van the first thing that pops in your head is most likely the words Transit Van. Ford a releasing their ground-up electric van in every shape and size possible. For a Camper, your going to want tall and long and Ford has you covered with their L4H3 version of the E-Transit giving a load space of 4.22m (L) x 1.74m (W) (1.39m between wheels) x 2.03m (H) if the current van sizes are anything to go by. The Transit also have 2.3kW V2L which should be more than enough to run some light, the hob and the TV. I almost forgot to mention the 196-mile range which should be more than enough to get you where you are going.
Initial Interior Design
I’ve not spent much time putting this together (literally an hour) but one thing I do know is that I would like a proper mattress and bed frame rather than a rock and roll bed. So It doesn’t take up space when we don’t need it we can put it on some actuators to raise it out of the way and give us access to the back of the camper. I’d also like a proper sink and some actual workspace to put an induction hob on and somewhere to sit and eat or work.
Rather than having extra chairs that take up even more space, we can swap out the seats that come with the van for swivel seats and have a removable work surface that can be stored when we are not using it.
This initial design is nowhere near where I want but unfortunately, I just don’t have the time at the moment to spend working through different revisions but at least this gives me something to start with.
In the future, I’d like to add a toilet and shower as well as design the lighting and solar system. As the Ford transit looks to have the F2L system at the back left-hand side (as looking at the pic above) I’ll need to create an electrical cupboard that can have the hardware to house the fuse board, solar inverter and whatever tech I end up finding to get the solar into the main battery.
It may not be much but at least I’ve managed to narrow down my choice of van and made a start on the interior design. Now it’s just finding the time to put a design together that actually works for the interior. I’m still researching what items I want in the camper and space-saving tricks I can use.
I think I’m going to need some inspiration for this project so feel free to put any ideas you have, or YouTube recommendations down in the comments below.
