Electric Pixi.....

If I was to tell you that we just took delivery of something small, mobile, black and battery powered would you expect me to be talking about the latest Profoto “B whatever” flash system?  

How about if I said it was black but also green, would that give you a clue?

Still stuck?

Well try a quick google search of Electric Pixi and see what you get.

 Ok I’ll save you the effort, this is what Google think’s an Electric Pixi is.

That’s probably the best clue as to what I’m talking about that I can give and if you haven’t guessed by now, I may as well tell you.

 Pixipixel transport, or some of it, has gone green and we’ve gone electric too!

 Yes, we now have our first electric delivery van, and it’s a bit nicer than the Electric Pixi above thankfully. We picked the Nissan E-NV 200 and on paper it seems a good choice (not that I’m an expert on electric vans you understand). Apparently, it has a 40kw battery which is cool but won’t accept V locks or Bebop’s as a top up which is a shame, I shall write to Nissan shortly requesting they make a V lock battery plate to suit. Nissan say this van has a 60% increase in range and uses the same technology as the award-winning Leafe car, so it can’t be bad.

Obviously, we have got this van mostly for environmental reasons, but it also fills a gap in our fleet. We have delivery vehicles of all shapes and sizes but have not had a smaller van for some time. The E-NV200 fills this gap perfectly. Its small but still has loads of room for kit, it gives off zero emissions (with the possible exception of the driver)  and is silent, cheap to run and can go into areas we can’t go with a conventional van. Although we would love to be all electric it’s just not possible at this stage, as you can imagine we have some pretty large trucks in our fleet today, still it’s a great first step for Pixi and a giant leap for Pixikind.

One cool feature I like the sound of is that you can start the climate control up by a smartphone App, so the van will be nice warm or even cool when you jump in and that’s great.

And the last thing that stuck out to me when I read the brochure is the regenerative braking feature, this sends power back to the battery when braking or coasting and helps increase the range. With London being what it is we should never have to  charge the thing up as the brake will be the most used pedal anyway.

I’m giving this van a 10 out of 10 coolness rating as anything that helps stop global warming must , by definition, be cool. Keep an eye out for it around the city as you won’t hear it coming,

It seems like we are in good company too as our local pound shop seems to have purchased exactly the  same van, albeit in a different colour combo!