A new player is about to enter the hotly contested light commercial vehicle game in Europe. This is the BYD E-Vali van—a rival for movers like the Ford E-Transit.
Because of course, the E-Vali is powered by electricity. There’s a cobalt-free 80.64kWh battery that should provide a range of between 220km and 250km, and you’ll be able to spec a single-motor, rear-wheel-drive variant with 201hp or a twin-motor, all-wheel-drive unit with 335hp.
Worth noting that it’ll fast-charge at an impressive 188kW, too, so a 10% to 80% top-up takes around 30 minutes. Oh, and a heat pump is standard fit.
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We’re told the E-Vali will come in two sizes, with the smaller of the two being 5,995mm in length and the larger being 6,995mm long. You’ll get 13.9 cubic meters of cargo volume in the former and 17.9 cubic meters in the latter. Depending on size, there will also be a max payload of 1,450kg.
BYD says that the E-Vali was designed specifically for Europe. It also says that shows off “new era aesthetics,” although we can’t get over just how sad its poor little LED face looks. Won’t someone please give it a hug?
As you’d expect from BYD, the cabin is all very minimalist with a large touchscreen that gets Apple CarPlay/Android Auto compatibility and can be viewed in a split-screen format to display different information for the driver and passengers. There’ll also be electrically adjustable seats, a foldable table that pops out of the center console, an in-car fridge, plenty of cupholders, and many USB ports.
While you deliberate its merits below, we contest that the E-Vali’s nickname should henceforth be...Frank. Get it? Oh, come on, that’s gold!
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
