How do I plan the best route with an electric van?

There are many advantages to using electric vans for your business. For instance, charging and maintenance costs are lower than for a combustion engine car and electric vans are a lot more environmentally friendly. Still, there is one thing you need to get right, and that is planning the (delivery) route for an electric van. Indeed, due to the limited range of electric vans, this requires a different approach than for fossil-fuelled vans.

RouteLogic is an expert in planning logistics routes, thanks to our innovative route planning software. We have therefore collected a number of tips for you on how to effectively plan routes for your electric van and optimise your routes. Precisely because an electric van has a limited range, it is important to plan your delivery routes well. That way, you can make the most of both the battery and your drivers' time.

Understanding the limitations of an electric van

When we talk about electric vans, the range is very important. This indicates how many kilometres you will be able to drive with a full battery. The driving range of an electric van often still lags behind that of an internal combustion engine van, but thanks to the popularity of electric vehicles, this is being developed more and more. On average, then, today's electric vans have a driving range of around 300 kilometres.

It is important to understand the limitations of an electric vehicle in order to maximise the range of your vans. This is because there are several factors that affect the range, such as weather or loading. Tip number one for maximising the range is therefore calm driving behaviour. Hard acceleration and braking demands more from your battery than a calmer, smoother driving style. In addition, it makes a difference where you drive an electric van. This is because in a city, the range is a lot greater than on the motorway. This is because an electric van stores the energy from braking in the battery pack. Because you brake more often in a city, your battery pack will therefore last longer there.

Finally, there are factors that affect the driving range that you can do little about yourself. This is because the outside temperature can make a big difference in the driving range of your electric van. You can lose as much as 15% battery capacity in very cold or very hot weather. The ideal temperature for an electric van is between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius.

Planning a route with electric vans

It is important to choose the right route when using an electric van. This will ensure that you can get everything out of your van that is in it. You obviously want to be able to serve as many customers as possible in as little time as possible, while putting as little strain on your battery as possible. To plan a route for an electric van, a number of things matter. For instance, you will need to contrast the length of the route with the vehicle's range. Here, also keep in mind that if you fully load your van, the range will decrease. So it is not always better to plan a huge number of stops on a route, as this is likely to cause you to lose time on fast charging in between. For fully recharging the van afterwards, you need to take into account the normal charging time when scheduling drivers on certain routes. This can range from 3.5 to 7 hours.

A number of scenarios are conceivable:

scenario 1
Travel a longer distance to the area where you do many stops in a row and then drive back to your location or depot.
Chances are you can manage this on one battery charge. You won't lose time charging on the road because you can have your vans recharged overnight for another day.

scenario 2
Start close to your catchment area and deliver many orders in a small radius.
This often works on a single battery charge. However, you naturally do not have a depot or location at every catchment area to have the vehicle started and recharged.

scenario 3
In some cases, you will not only be able to serve city centres (areas where you often have many stops together). If you need to combine rural and urban distribution in your routes, you face a bigger challenge. You won't be able to avoid recharging along the way to cover your range needed to drive the entire route for that day.

These are just a few scenarios that are conceivable. In this article, we have outlined many options on how to deal with the upcoming zero-emission zones in city centres (in 2025, as it will be in 1.5 years). One of the main things to watch out for is that when creating routes, you get a new challenge, the range.

Optimising the route with electric vans

To help you optimise route planning for an electric van, it is advisable to let the technology work for you. Of course, you can use a standard navigation system for this purpose. This will easily show you the distance to your next destination and where any charging points are located. You can also adjust the route to free up time for fast charging in between, for example.

If you really want to optimise your routes to perfection, we recommend our route planning software. In fact, at the touch of a button, RouteLogic calculates the best route for your electric van based on, for example, service time on location, vehicle capacity, range and driver speed. You keep full control over route planning and can, for example, easily determine the start and end time, automatically schedule return orders and combine orders from several companies or customers.

Practical tips on the road

On the road, there are a number of things you can do to avoid running out of battery early. For example, always make sure the tyres have sufficient profile and are properly inflated. This will prevent the car from slowing down unnecessarily. In addition, energy from the battery also goes into heating or cooling a van. Using seat heating, when possible, is a lot more economical in this case. As mentioned, driving in the city is more beneficial for range than a drive on the motorway. When you do go on the motorway, make use of cruise control. This will ensure that you always drive at a constant speed, which will benefit the range.

So there are a lot of factors to consider when driving electric and planning the delivery route for an electric van. Some factors are within your control, such as the load of the van and the number of stops on the route, but other things, such as the weather, are beyond your control. This is precisely why it is important to plan the route for your electric van as well as possible. Our professional route planning software can make all the difference here. Are you curious what RouteLogic's software can do for your electric fleet? Simply request a demo from one of our logistics experts.

We have even more information available to help you make a careful decision, all of which can be found via the links below.