Electric Van News: ePower Trucks Sole UK Distributor For GEM Electric Vehicles

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GEM Electric Vehicles has appointed ePower Trucks of Oldham, Manchester, to be its sole UK distributor.

The deal means that ePower Trucks now offers 35 EV (electric vehicle) models, including 10 which are road legal.

Jerry Hanss, Managing Director of ePowerTrucks, said: “Our goal has always been to offer customers freedom of choice when selecting electric vehicles. After securing the GEM dealership, ePowerTrucks now offers the widest range of EVs in the UK.”

Many people assume that electric vehicles are relatively new – but in fact the market for specialist electric vehicles has been evolving for some years. GEM was founded in 1997 and has sold 45,000 electric vehicles to date – providing an indication of the scale of the EV market.

You can see ePower Trucks’ full range of electric vehicle by visiting the company’s website.

Electric Cargo Scooters Offer Novel Alternative

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Here’s a type of electric goods vehicle that I haven’t seen before – the electric cargo scooter:

GOVEC GO! T Series Electric Scooter with cargo box

GOVEC GO! T Series Electric Cargo Scooter - the ultimate pizza delivery machine?

If the manic buzzing of scooter engines characterises your business delivery vehicles, then why not consider something a little more refined, cheaper to run, and much less polluting?

German company GOVECS’ new range electric scooters offer speeds of up to 80km/h (50mph) and a range of up to 100km (62 miles) – enough for the vast majority of urban delivery applications. The scooters’ integral cargo boxes means that goods or packets to be delivered can be kept safe, secure, dry, and away from prying eyes – ideal for postal work, urban couriers, pizza deliveries and much more.

GOVECS say that loads of up to 175kg (including the driver) are possible and box capacities up to 170 litres are offered – plus the ability to mount existing boxes. GOVECS’ top of the range T Series model even has regenerative braking to extend battery life.

All models can be charged to 85% battery capacity in two hours from a standard 13A household socket, using the integrated charger that’s built in to each scooter.

GOVECS GO! T Series scooters will be available to order from 1st October and will cost from €4445 (approx. £3850) each.

I wonder how long it will be before van rental companies start offering electric van hire?

Visit www.govecs.com for more information.

 

New Fiat Doblo Work Up Offers Dropside Option

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Fiat has launched a new version of its Doblò light van – a dropside version. It’s a model never offered before by a major van manufacturer for this class of van (the Doblò is broadly the equivalent of the Citroen Berlingo or Ford Transit Connect).

Fiat Doblo Work Up - dropside

The Doblò Work Up is a fraction under 5m long and has an impressive payload of up to 1000kg with a load area of 4m² (2.3m long x 1.82m wide). This makes it reasonably compact for urban use but surprisingly capacious – it can take 3 Euro pallets or 33 fruit boxes. It should be ideal for a wide range of jobs – although I don’t imagine it is likely to appear in many van hire fleets.

The Doblò Work Up comes with a choice of two Euro 5 diesel engines – a 1.3 MultiJet 90bhp and a 1.6 MultiJet 105bhp. Both feature a Start-Stop system as standard, along with a diesel particulate filter. The cab comes with a glazed bulkhead window with protective metal grill as standard and there is a tool storage compartment concealed under the rear load bed.

The new Doblò Work Up costs £16,065 (basic) for the 1.3 MultiJet 16v Euro 5 and £17,065 (basic) for the 1.6 MultiJet 16v Euro 5.

Long-Term Van Hire – A Good Alternative To Leasing?

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The traditional way for companies to operate vans has been to purchase them outright (or on finance) or to lease them from specialist leasing companies.

However, both of these approaches require medium-term financial commitment. Given the current economic uncertainty affecting many European economist (including the UK’s), many business owners are shying away from new commitments of this kind, especially given that finance is harder to arrange than it used to be.

At the same time, businesses are anxious to meet existing demand and exploit new opportunities – which may require additional or replacement vans.

Long-Term Van Hire – A Better Solution

If your business requires vans with few modifications from stock, the best solution might be a long-term van rental. Companies such as Europcar offer Month+ hire schemes aimed at providing you with long-term use with no onwards commitment.

Europcar will invoice you monthly and you can change – or return – your van at any time, without penalties.

You can either book for a set period – perhaps 4 weeks – and renew at the end of every four weeks, or you can book for several months ahead – to cover the busy Christmas period, for example.

To get a Month+ quote from Europcar, simply enter your requirements into the booking engine and choose the van (or car) you are interested in.

Toyota To Discontinue Hiace & Exit UK Van Market

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Toyota has announced it is to discontinue its Hiace van and exit the UK van market at the end of 2011, due to the impending requirement for all new vans to meet Euro 5 emissions standards. The Hiace’s current 2.0l diesel unit doesn’t meet the Euro 5 standard – and somewhat surprisingly, Toyota cannot or will not come up with a suitable replacement.

Although it is not a very major player in the UK van market, I’ve always liked the Hiace and it does have a steady following amongst tradesmen and other owner-drivers looking for an alternative to the VW Transporter.

Hilux drivers need not fear that Toyota is going to abandon the commercial market completely – the company has already announced an updated Hilux model for 2012.

Moving Abroad? A Place In The Sun Live 30/09/11-02/10/11

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Holiday villaIf you are thinking of moving abroad or buying a holiday home in the sun, you will have a lot of decisions to make and questions to answer before you can complete the deal and take possession of the keys to your dream home.

One way of speeding up this process is to get all the information you need in one place – and the best way to do this is to visit a large overseas property exhibition. A Place In The Sun Live is one of the UK’s biggest overseas property shows and it is taking place at the Birmingham NEC this weekend (30th September – 2nd October)

A wide range of exhibitors from all the popular overseas home markets will be at the show – Spain, Portugal, Florida, Turkey, Cyprus and more. Of course, the presenters of the A Place In The Sun television series – Jonnie Irwin, Jasmine Harman and Amanda Lamb – will also be there with advice and tips for overseas home buyers.

Remember: If you are planning to buy (or sell) a home in Europe, we have a number of unique resources on vanrental.co.uk that will help you arrange the move abroad:

  • Van Hire To Spain – our unique guide to the UK companies which offer one-way van hire between the UK and Spain
  • European Van Hire – many UK van rental companies allow you to take their vans across the Channel – find out more here
  • Book A Ferry – our ferry guide talks you through the information you will need to book your hire van on a ferry and shows you all the most UK-Europe ferry routes, including direct sailings to Spain and Ireland.
  • Finally, don’t forget to check out our guide to driving a van abroad.
To find out more about A Place In The Sun Live, visit the organiser’s website.

Overnight Van Hire & One-Way Van Hire from Europcar

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Overnight Van Hire

If hiring a van by the day doesn’t fit in with your schedule, why not hire one overnight, instead?

Europcar is currently offering a new Overnight Van Hire service which allows customers to hire a van from 5pm to 9am the following day from just £29.

Most Europcar branches are open 8am – 6pm or longer, so choosing to hire a van overnight allows you to finish work, collect your van, use it, and then return it on your way to work the next morning.

To find out more or book overnight van hire, visit Europcar’s website.

One-Way Van Hire

One-way van hire is a surprisingly popular service and one which requires little explanation.

One-way van rental allows you pickup your hire van at one rental location and drop it off at a different location. Obviously one requirement of this is that the company you are hiring the van from has branches in both locations – that’s why large van hire companies with national networks of branches have a big advantage offering this service.

Two of the biggest companies offering this service in the UK are Europcar and National. These two well-known rental brands actually share a network of branches in the UK and have more than 180 branches nationwide, making one-way hire a realistic proposition in most areas of the UK.

To find our more or book a one-way van hire, visit Europcar’s website.

Automatic Van Hire in the UK – Is It Available?

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Vans and other commercial vehicles have traditionally had manual gearboxes, meaning that drivers who can only drive automatics have been unable to drive rental vans. The good news is that automatic van hire should become more common in the next few years.

At present, there are still very few van rental companies in the UK that will guarantee to provide you with an automatic van – we only have one company in the vanrental.co.uk database, Bucks Vehicle Hire in High Wycombe, that offers this service. Other hire companies may sometimes have automatic vans on their fleets but they do not guarantee to provide an automatic – not much use if you can only drive automatics.

The Technical Stuff – Automated Manual Transmission

Most vans are now available with automatic gearboxes, albeit at extra cost (hence why most hire companies don’t provide them).

These automatics use a relatively new technology that has improved hugely over the last few years. This new breed of automatics is known as Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) and they work by using a conventional [manual] gearbox combined with an automated clutch and gearshift.

This means that drivers just have to put the gearbox into Drive or Reverse and then use the accelerator – there is no clutch and although it is possible to manually select gears, it is not necessary.

Automatic vans usually offer slightly better fuel economy than their manual equivalents – although this can depend on the driver and how the van is used.

Many drivers are sceptical when they first try an automatic van, but most, in my experience, are rapidly converted. I suspect that automatic vans will become much more common over the next 5-10 years, perhaps even becoming the standard choice, as is happening in the HGV market.

If your van rental company offers an automatic van hire service and you’d like to advertise on vanrental.co.uk, please contact us for more details.

Sixt Van Hire: Exclusive Discount Code & Autumn Special Offers

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vanrental.co.uk EXCLUSIVE Discount: Sixt Van Hire from just £29/Day

Don’t forget that we are currently running an exclusive Sixt discount code providing van hire from just £29 per day at selected locations. This deal is only available through vanrental.co.uk.

This deal applies to weekday hire (Mon-Thur) at the following locations and is valid until 15th October 2011:

This offer has now expired.

Bishops Stortford
Bristol South
Bromley
Cardiff
Edinburgh
Edinburgh Airport (EDI)
Epsom
Feltham / Hatton Cross
London Battersea – Vauxhall
London Bow
London Fulham / Chelsea
London Heathrow Airport (LHR)
London Ilford
London Kings Cross
London Shepherd’s Bush
London Stansted Airport (STN)
London Victoria Station
London Walthamstow
London Wembley
Manchester Airport (MAN)

Click on the banner below to get a quote using our exclusive discount code:
Sixt.co.uk

Westfield Stratford City – London’s Olympic Shopping Centre Opens

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A new, giant, shopping centre has opened in Stratford, East London. Billed as the gateway to the Olympics, the Westfield Stratford City shopping centre will be the physical gateway to the London 2012 Olympic Park and it is estimated that 75% of the expected 10 million visitors heading into the athletics venues will pass through the shopping centre – a whopping 7.5 million people.

It seems a strange way to enter the world’s premier sporting competition, although I suppose that it this one way to try and ensure that the London Olympics is one of the rare Games that turns a profit: funnel all the spectators through Europe’s largest urban shopping centre.

Stratford will be at the heart of London’s Olympic venues, hosting the majority of athletics events. It is expected that London van hire companies will experience a peak in demand during the 2012 Games – shortages are quite likely, so advanced booking is essential for business and private van rental customers.

A similar rush in demand is likely for minibus hire firms all over the UK – so booking ahead is essential if you are planning group trips by minibus to the 2012 Olympics.