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Does a Reva G-Wiz fit inside a Ford Transit?

Last month after helping a customer relocate to London, my “Ethic Ranger” friend and some times helper, decided to make the most of the empty van space back to Dublin and in the interest of promoting the use of electric cars in Ireland, put his mind at winning an auction on Ebay for a G-Wiz Reva electric car, his bid was the winner so off he went to the UK in a regular Long Wheel Base, High Roof Transit 350, with two ramps which I usually use for Piano transport and straps in tow.

The same night he won the auction, the car was already posted for sale on some popular Irish classified sites and he had a buyer lined up before he even disembarked back in Dublin. It was probably the best value in its class available in Ireland, after all, this wasn’t a venture for profit, but more for the good of the Earth! To give you an idea, this is the same guy who’s currently on day 15 of a 21 (at least) water fast, that means he’s had nothing for the past 15 days but water! He’s also eaten 70 bananas in one day before and can do a very respectable amount of chin-ups, only using the middle finger of each hand. He can also easily win in a 3 on 1 basketball game with a banana in one hand while dribbling the ball in the other, amongst other things from this Lithuanian farmers son!

The buyer kindly recorded the unloading upon delivery and we got footage of the loading process too. It was a bit low on battery so needed a bit of a push to get up the ramps 🙂

A funny looking car and turns a few heads when driving around, makes people smile and in terms of economy and depending on your usage of course, could be a wise choice of transport for some. Here’s some info pulled from the original advert if any of you are interested in getting your hands on one!

Tax cost 31Eur/year

No need NCT ;

Reva G-WIZ 2006 Automatic Electric Vehicle ( AEV )
it’s quadricycle ( L7E ) category vehicle ;

Right-hand drive;
Automatic;
Regenerative brakes;
CO2 emission 7.2g/km (if Airtricity is provider) ;
Power Locks;
Immobiliser;
Distance central lock w keypad ;
You can Turn on heating from distance with same keypad ;
4seats (2adults + 2kids till 12years);
Black-Grey Leather seats (95% it’s not a real leather, so suits for Vegans);
Weight 665kg (395kg car and 270kg batteries )
Load capacity including passangers is 270kg also ;
Length: 2640mm (Smart For Two is 2500mm), Width 1320mm

In UK, they are very popular, in London some places exempt from parking, exempt from taxes and can be charged for free;

This is best selling electric car in the world so far;

REVA has a safety record second to none, with over 80 million miles driven by customers globally and over 4,000 years of ownership with one reported serious injury (As on January 2011) ;

Cost 1.85Eur of electricity/100 km to drive
(or cheaper at home… Depending on your electricity rate it can be as cheap as 1p a mile to run. At todays petrol prices thats the equivalent of nearly 600mpg, yes you did read that right! ) ;

If you driving an average 1000 miles/month with ~6.5L/100km, it can save you 130Eur/month ; So it pays out very quickly.
Also imagine 110Litre (22pcs of 5L canisters) in your room, that’s amount of petrol will be burnt EVERY MONTH.
Crazy on what we voting our money!

Plus another 20-40Eur/month saving for cheaper Taxes, No NCT needed and cheaper insurance
( All REVA’s are Group 1, the lowest price insurance group. Ask me for advice, where to insure, i called 15 companies in May’2011 ) ;

So easy 150Eur/month saving.

Need 8 hours charging to full ;

Since the REVA does not have an engine, clutch or gears, or a carburator, radiator, exhaust etc, the maintenance cost is low. Estimates show that the maintenance costs of REVA are 40 % lower than that of a small car over a 3-year ownership period.

Speed is up to 67km/h (did myself…manufacturer says up to 70) ;

This can be charged from any normal 13Amp mains socket, charge lead included (standard industrial socket plug in to the car).

It never needs petrol, just a little distilled water to top the batteries up now and again, it is great just driving straight past petrol stations ;

This is as close to free motoring as you can get, its cheaper than the bus or train and definitely cheaper than any car or motorbike ;

For more information: http://www.goingreen.co.uk/

Also Ireland planning to install 3500 charging stations by December 2011

Revenue to clamp down on VRT workaround.

From the Irish Times it appears that Revenue are clamping down to cut out the trick of getting a vehicle into Ireland with the minimum VRT price by converting to a commercial and then back to a passenger vehicle.

DAVID LABANYI

Changes to Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) rules for commercial vehicle to be introduced next year are set to end the common practice here of converting passenger cars and SUVs in order to benefit from lower tax.

The planned changes will effectively remove the discretion from car buyers or local garages to convert individual vehicles.

The Revenue Commissioners and Department of Finance are planning to introduce a “type approval” system.

This will mean that only vehicles with prior approval for commercial use can be registered as such.

A Revenue spokesman said the change was designed to bring the State into line with a number of European Directives on vehicle classification and would come into force on January 1st.

Provision for the change was included in the Finance Act 2010.

It is hoped the move will largely eliminate the practice of converting high-value passenger SUVs to commercial vehicles before purchase or importation, with some people then converting them back again to passenger vehicles, having benefitted from the VRT savings.

A major reason for the popularity of conversions is the significant differences in the VRT rates between passenger and commercial vehicles.

VRT on a passenger car can range from 14 per cent up to 36 per cent depending on the vehicle’s emissions.

However for large commercial vehicles VRT is charged at a flat rate of just €50 and for other commercial vehicles the rate is 13.3 per cent.

It is vehicles in this latter category, particularly some bigger-engined SUVs, that would qualify for substantial savings when granted the commercial rate, which are often converted from passenger formats after arrival here.

To date this year there were 6,624 vans and lorries registered, generating €331,200 in VRT while 523 other commercial vehicles registered generated €1.6 million.

Over a two-week period in April this year Revenue officials seized more than 323 vehicles as part of an investigation into VRT evasion.

The officials also challenged more than 3,279 vehicles – a process whereby they contest the whether it is a commercial vehicle – resulting in 384 warnings.

This led to 185 vehicles subsequently being registered.

Last year Revenue examined over 22,000 unregistered vehicles of which, just under 5,000 were found to be non-compliant.

Of these, 1,952 were seized leading to 50 prosecutions.

Alan Nolan, chief executive of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (Simi), said the industry broadly approved of the changes but was in talks with Revenue and the department about some minor changes to the new criteria.

The Finance Bill proposes three VRT categories; M1 or passenger car, an N1 type or commercial vehicle with a 13.3 per cent VRT rate and an N2 type with VRT rate of €50.

“What we are concerned about is that certain types of commercial vehicles, such as small panel vans, which are essential to the small and medium enterprise sector may fall into the N1 category. These vehicles have always being in the €50 group.”

“We will have to wait for the Budget for confirmation but I think progress has been made on this and that some modifications may be introduced.”

He said while there were a number of bona fide vehicle conversion firms, the issue was with operators “on the fringes of the industry”.

“There have also been cases where the definition of a commercial vehicle has been challenged.

“For example, the definition of a car with no back seats and two doors is also a sports car. The changes will simplify this.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Finance confirmed the changes are planned to be introduced on January 1st.

As long as the €50 VRT for large commercial vans stays the same then I’m ok 😀