- Renault has opened the order books on the fully electric version of its popular Trafic van, available in a choice of two body types and heights.
- After the UK’s £5,000 Plug-in Van and Truck Grant is accounted for, the new Trafic E-Tech is available from just £34,500 before VAT, or £42,400 after VAT.
- This makes the electric van a comparable price to its diesel-powered sibling – and that’s before you get to the associated reduced running costs of an EV.
Are we reaching price parity in the electric van space?
Order books for the updated electric van have gone live in the UK, and with the equivalent diesel-powered Renault Trafic starting at £35,590 after VAT, the EV option gets seriously close on price to its diesel equivalent, once the £5,000 Plug-in Van and Truck Grant is taken into consideration. The Trafic E-Tech joins the smaller Kangoo E-Tech and larger Master E-Tech in Renault’s electric van portfolio, with this new model offering 186 miles of range from a 56kWh battery, and the ability to rapidly charge the battery from nought to 100% in just one hour.
Price parity between electric vans and their diesel counterparts is being seen across other manufacturers, too. A recent deal on the Vauxhall Combo Electric means businesses can pick up the electric option on an identical monthly rental price to the diesel-powered Combo. Provided that the £5,000 electric van grant continues in the UK, we can expect more and more businesses to be convinced to switch to EV, particularly as EVs will continue to get cheaper.
The grant lies in contrast to the passenger EV grant, which was discontinued in the UK back in 2022. The removal of such grants in many countries has been seen as premature, an issue that was raised during the recent UK EV SUMMIT.
