Battery Vehicle Society

Hi
Can anyone tell me the official UK regs concerning
1. Driving licence requirements for e bike. scooters. motorcycles cars & vans
2.MOT regs for cars motorcycles & vans
3. Insurance regs for all the above
4.How feasible & econimically sound would it be to import a chinese vehicle and completely strip the running gear and use it for a convesion
we pricred a Groupil pickup and it was coming in at approx £17500.00
it must be an economical prospect to buy a late model pickup & convert?????

Hi, "Davall".
Rather than give wrong or misleading answers, I'll let others who know answer your questions .
However, I do have a question. I don't know about Groupil Industries, and can't find anything useful on the net about them. Can you give a lead, please?
Regards, David

Hi
We had a client interested in an Electric Pick Up There were a few Groupils in the EV Album so we found out that they were produced in France by two guys previously employed in Self propelled Access Platforms
They are very hard to get a reply from and very vague about performance.
There are more details about the trim than the propulsion system
Eventually we got the info but the price proved to high I think you could get a late model Dihatsu or Suzuki,then import o Chines vehicle and do the conversion!
Regards.
David

Driving licence requirements are not affected by fuel classes. Only the vehicle type.

MOT regs. There's no exhaust check included.
An electric van does not require an MOT because the law see's it as a milk float.

Insurance. Most try specialist insurers like Footman James etc. You generally get third party only on a special.

Importing *can* be expensive if you include costs and duties. The vehicle is not transported dry. Buying new etc. Maybe try a quote off a vehicle importer?

£17,500 is expensive if your vehicle will only do 25mph. A battery set, electronics and motor etc. that is able to be swapped over might be the way to go if you can transpose it from vehicle to vehicle when the rolling box comes to the end of its life.

Aha! EValbum shows me the problem - You wanted GOUPIL, not Groupil:
http://www.goupil-industrie.eu/en/

Hi, Tim.
Thanks, that's sorted that little problem out. I've now reread this thread and realized that "davall David" is saying that Goupil is not the way forward, and is looking at converting (some standard van) from a Chinese import of some sort. That's interesting in that I've been looking at the Rudolph Spyder (http://www.rudolph-roadster.de/html/spyder_mit_elektroantrieb_-_ru.html) and wondering if there's potential for using the works in other configurations.
Regards, David

The Spyder looks to be using standard Brusa bits - good but expensive, I am led to believe. *EDIT* The Spyder seems to be a Brusa project (which explains why they are all Brusa bits). They even mention using Brusa batteries; I don't know what chemistry or sub-contract manufacturer.

http://www.eqmotion.ch/project_spyder.html

Hi
Sorry about the Groupil & not GROUPIL but it would still appear that the salage value of a chinese import might prove more economical than
A.the cost of a manufactured vehicle EG.a GROUPIL
B.The sum of the parts required for a conversion
C.the prospect of 2 individuals sharing a single shipping cost for 2 vehicles reduces the total even more!
Regards
David

My understanding was that orginally all electric commercial vehicles didnt have a MOT requirement not because they were seen as a "milk float" but due to the fact they were owned in the main by industries that already had a far more stringent servicing intervals that were carried out by their own mechanics than a MOT would ever given them and thus it was deemed they did not need such.

ChrisB

Hey, its all good

I'm warming to those Berlingo Electrico's lol