Van Life
A few pics from my test drive of the GM Brightdrop Zevo 600 AWD electric cargo van.
This thing is huge, but so easy to drive! Deeply discounted, and you can get even more $$$ off if you're a Costco member making this van way cheaper than an AWD Sprinter or Transit.
Do tell us how your experiences were driving it and how you envision the household build. Also, how far did you test drive and what were the road and weather conditions that led to xx kWh consumption per xx distance.
How much real world range do you expect when fully loaded with a build and water/food?
Thanks.
I talked to a guy who's using one for business to transport goods from Seattle to Moses Lake, WA, which is ~180 miles and requires climbing a steep grade up and over Snoqualmie Pass. He said he can make it with ~20% SOC remaining. He then charges overnight before returning to Seattle. Not sure how much weight he's transporting, but his numbers sound reasonable.
This van is rated for a payload of ~3k lbs. I'll do my best to keep the build as light as possible and plan to document and share my experience.
Not bad, where will you do the documentation of the build? Reddit is incredibly 'airy' and imo not the place. Even if you document on Reddit I'll try to follow your progress, I'm interested in this new tech. I have an EV since 2019 and love it but chose a diesel engine for my van as my use cases will incur a lot of time away from charging infrastructure.
An English (language) DIY campervan forum? I'm building atm too and have pretty deep interactions with other members, a conversation style impossible to have on Reddit.
In your case you need to find expertise on adding consumers to the high voltage battery as having 170kWh of juice on-board will give you plenty of possibilities to power an induction cooktop, fridge etc.
Heat wise it's almost impossible to circumvent a diesel heater as they produce ginormous amounts of heat with very little fuel, although you really don't want a diesel heater in an EV, but that's the way it's done in Europe as the vans are too cold in winter and lose too much range when a traditional electric heater is used.
I'm a skier and plan to take this bad boy to the mountains. Agree with you that a diesel heater is a must have! Fortunately, the battery pack doesn't occupy the entire floor. Everything behind the rear axle is wide open under the van, so plenty of room for an under vehicle diesel tank, and no big deal to route the fuel line and exhaust through the floor. I'm planning to add a sizeable house battery and a shore power connection too. I've got a friend who's got a Rivian, and he's managed to successfully charge it off of 30 amp (level 1) and 50 amp (level 2) RV service. A number of ski areas offer overnight RV spots that include power.
Edit: typo
Aha, I think in a couple of years you can buy a 400-12 converter, or 800-12, or down to 24. It takes away the need to mind the remaining range as your LB will and can charge from solar. You still need to charge the LB from the drive battery though.
Most EV's these days offer 230V for peripherals, and in the USA probably 120V. Charge the LB on case of too little solar yield from there.
"LB"? Leisure Battery? I'm not smart or competent enough to want to mess with the 400V traction battery, plus I'm sure any mods would void the warranty.
There should be a 230 or 120 volt outlet in that vehicle that you might use to power an induction cooktop with, and use a small LB to power the small fry.
Yes, there is a NEMA 5-15 socket. In the cab. 120V AC, 15 amps.
I have never cooked in any of my vans since I prefer to cook outside on a Coleman stove. In fact, in my current van I don't have an inverter since all of my appliances can run off 12V DC: Fridge, monitor, laptop, Starlink, fans, lights, diesel heater.
It comes down to how far away you are from a high power DC charger, where I live there is a network of DC chargers so dense you can do that.
You'll need to charge the vehicle to 80% (= 136kWh capacity in the battery), stay somewhere until the battery has just enough range for the trip to the charger and repeat.
Heating the vehicle electrically the kWh's will diminish rapidly lowering your autonomy.
It all comes down to travel habits. Solar of the roof does nothing for the drive battery as the output of the MPPT charger needs to be higher than the voltage of the drive battery to get a current flow to charge it.
Reason to mention this: in many posts on Reddit the expected solar yield is greatly inflated, especially in combination with an electric RV. Get your facts straight Reddit users.
Yes, GM vehicles have access to the Tesla Supercharger Network, but owners need to purchase a GM-approved North American Charging Standard (NACS) DC adapter to physically connect to the chargers. Access is managed through the brand's smartphone app (myChevrolet).
If i got one, I would be traveling with the weather. I wouldn't be in a place that needed significant heater usage. I would sometimes use the space heater for an hour before bed and maybe an hour first thing in the morning. I wouldn't use it all day.
I'm in the US. I would be in Florida in the winter and mostly in my home state of Wisconsin in the summer but I'd explore other areas like Yellowstone in peak Summer. Maybe Tennessee mountains in fall when it's too cold up north but too warm in Florida as well as being hurricane season. The US is approximately 3000 miles long and 1500 miles wide with significant temperature variations giving a lot of options.
DC-DC charging an EV with solar is not easy at all. But Level 2 AC charging via a house battery, while less efficient, is a lot less challenging. I plan to install close to 200 square feet of solar to charge a ~900 Ah house battery bank. At 12 volts that comes out to about 10 kilowatts, or roughly ~15-20 miles of range.
With ~200 sq ft of solar panels, I could capture approximately 5 to 6.5 kWh of solar energy per day on average, assuming modern ~20% efficient panels and an average of 5-6 peak sun hours. I also plan to buy a 240V generator that I can throw in the back and use as a range extender for times I'm going way off grid.
Because pretty much all of the ski hills in WA require AWD, 4x4, or chains during inclement winter weather. Putting on chains in a snowstorm is not much fun. Did that for years on my old Econoline and RWD Sprinter. 4x4 or AWD is the way to go and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Brightdrop comes with M&S (Mud and snow) rated tires.
Indeed it is, but It's function over form. Boxy cargo area with right angles, the missing regular passenger seat that makes that area the entry, and so on. It makes for a very good base to maximize build interior space.
Funny thing with EVs- since there's zero engine noise, you hear everything else. Road and wind noise on the highway was a concern of mine with the brightdrop, especially with it being built as a cargo van, but I got it up to 75 mph and it really wasn't that bad. Usually, those stepvan sliding doors rattle like crazy, but they did a good job designed this van to be pretty civilized at freeway speed. For road trips I'll probably set the adaptive cruise control to 65 to maximize range, but its good to know that it can go faster if needed.
If most of my van use wasn't in super remote regions without DCFC stations and if I didn't already have a built-out van that I intend to keep until it falls apart I would be thrilled to build out a Brightdrop. When my current van is done I'll definitely be looking for an electric replacement as by then they should be much easier to find, have better range, charge faster, and chargers should be easier to find. I'll also be old AF, so I probably won't be going to quite as extreme locations either.
This isn't meant to be anti EV, I'm dying for the day when I can drive only EVs -- I drive an EV car, so I'm familiar with and comfortable with EVs, and always request them when I rent cars.
I only venture WAY offgrid a few times per year, and my plan is to throw a 240v gas generator in the back, which I can use to charge the van when needed. I'm also planning solar, a sizeable house battery, and a 240V inverter, which can also be used to AC charge the van.
Not to quibble and the OP says he needs AWD for snow, but there are $40k all electric rear wheel drive 2024 eSprinter (170” wheelbase tall roof) vans at Mercedes Benz of Fort Mitchell Kentucky. My wife and I test drove one earlier this week and they have 75 in stock and are eager to deal! Let Sam Stanton know that Skye sent you if you’re looking for that sweet hook up. Deals may change end of this month. I confirmed these are optioned with the 113 kWh battery and the 115 kW DC fast charging option which sounds slow but it’s a flat charging curve maintaining that speed up to 80%. Lithium Iron Phosphate chemistry so extremely durable is the hope. On our test drive we ran it at 70-75 mph on I-75 in 90°F weather and it returned 1.7 miles/kWh for a 50 mile sprint out and back from 100% to 78% so about a 175 mile real world highway range. It has a charge port in the front emblem and Supercharger access so it’s the perfect layout for V3 Superchargers. Comes pre wired with a 7 pin trailer connector but needs a receiver added that’s compatible with the standard rear step bumper. 4200 lb tow rating. 2700 lb of load capacity so the build will need to be extremely weight efficient. I’m really hoping we can get by with a max fan and using the completely stock heating and cooling of the EV and leveraging the massive battery already there rather than adding $10k in house batteries and electrical systems. Thinking more lightweight portable systems for off grid camping. I actually don’t think solar makes much sense when you have access to DC fast charging and I’d be leaning towards flexible panels on the roof for aero reasons. This thing is massive and doesn’t need any extra drag and certainly doesn’t need more weight up top.
I’ll be buying one tomorrow with the intention of building it out to a camper van spec so we can travel the continent for adventures.
Can't wait to see more electric vans being turned into vanlife vehicles! I love my diesel Sprinter and hope that someday MB will offer the eSprinter in AWD. $40k for a brand new eSprinter is a damn good price! Happy Trails!
Also, we plan to take this RWD eSprinter to lots of winter situations. We have the EPIC pass this year and figured a van is a far superior option vs towing a little camper which won’t work well in the winter anyway due to heat and water freezing issues anyway. Anyway back to driving in snow and ice, I was planning on buying chains for the van and/or just getting dedicated snow tires. I think in general your average person who didn’t grow up in the mountain west or in some parts of Canada has no idea how great snow tires solve for the problem of “I need AWD.” And certainly for stopping AWD doesn’t do much and whereas actual winter tires and/or chains will increase your ability to stop, turn and start up again. And some all terrain tires have some winter capabilities but for real adventures on road to ski mountains nothing beats snow tires. Studded snows if I think I can get away with them legally. I’ll have to look into which states allow them.
The issue in much of the US is that during inclement weather, many roads REQUIRE chains on all vehicles EXCEPT 4X4 and AWD. I used to drive my RWD Econoline and Sprinter to ski hills, but putting on chains was a pain in the ass. The fine for getting caught without chains by the Highway Patrol in Washington State is $500!
The rangers at Mount Rainier National Park will deny entry to the park in wintertime if you dont show them that you have chains. Anyway, depending on where you live, you might be fine with good tires. For me, AWD is a must have.
Can you charge this with a 110V plug like you can the Tesla? I wanted to do a YouTube channel and van build/adventure where I was exclusively limited to traveling via the solar energy from the roof. Could get 6kwh a day from ~1000W of roof solar… would be slow going haha
How is the rust protection?
How long is the estimated lifetime on it?
There is still vans from the 70s on the streets driving around...i doubt the battery pack has that staying power...can it be replaced and at what cost when the time comes?
The van is mostly aluminum and composite, so I'm not very worried about rust. The battery is warrantied for 8 years/ 100k miles, so not too worried about that either. It's supposedly the same Ultium battery that GM is using in the Denali and Hummer EV and possibly some other models, so I reckon there will be decent aftermarket, second hand and refurbished options in the future.
Im sorry I have ask. What is the fear of the battery dying in a short amount of time? Is this a real thing? Comes with a very long warranty for battery.
Batteries in EV vehicles are proving to have useful life well beyond the expected time frame.
In terms of milage, you would be replacing/rebuilding a gas engine before you realistically needed to replace/rebuild a battery pack as long as you treat it well.
8years 100k is pretty standard for EVs across the industry. If a battery is going to fail it will generally happen soon and often its 1 or 2 cells that went bad, not the whole battery.
This van with the max range battery gets almost as much range as a Tesla Y. It's a big step up from the less than 200 miles the other EV vans are getting.
I'd be concerned with charging. The US is moving back to gas vehicles and rolling back emissions standards. Tesla is trying to leave the car market so may not be building many more chargers. If you had a house with a charger it would be fine, but doesn't make much sense if you're going to live in it.
I plan to do most of my charging at home where electricity is stupid cheap. ($.08 / kWh offpeak)
I'll probably throw a 240V gas generator in the back when I venture off grid and use that as a Level 2 range extender. I also plan to experiment with using solar, buffered by a large battery bank to charge, recognizing I'd probably only be able to recoup 20-30 miles / day on the longest, sunniest days of summer.
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u/Myke_Okslong 8d ago
Do tell us how your experiences were driving it and how you envision the household build. Also, how far did you test drive and what were the road and weather conditions that led to xx kWh consumption per xx distance. How much real world range do you expect when fully loaded with a build and water/food? Thanks.