The company recently completed a 5 200 km road trip and durability test on the EC35 across South Africa.

Gideon Wolvaardt, the Managing Director of Enviro Automotive, explains that the idea of an open-road trip was developed in conjunction with Winstone Jordaan, the founder and Managing Director of GridCars.

"Although the EC35 was developed for last-mile deliveries, we decided to test it on the open road to tick all the boxes of our local testing programme.”

The purpose of the trip was also to visit the 27 GridCar DC Fast charging stations en route to Durban, the Western and Eastern Cape, as part of the company's annual hardware and software maintenance programme. The company manages more than 300 charging stations across South Africa. The trip started from GridCars' head office in Roodepoort and took nine days to complete.

The EC35 offers a payload of 1 015 kg and a large loading space of 4.8 m³. The cargo area is accessible via sliding doors on both sides of the panel van and the tailgate, making loading and offloading easy.

It features ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) and Electric Power Steering (EPS). It boasts a selection of modern-day driver comforts, including air-conditioning, a reverse camera, rear parking sensors, Bluetooth and a touchscreen infotainment system. It also features a pedestrian warning system that emits a warning sound when the vehicle cruises below 30 km/h.

The EC35 is equipped with a single synchronous electric motor that produces 60 kW and 200 Nm of torque. It features a 38.7 kWh Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery. Charging the battery will cost as little as R56.50 and yield a travel distance of up to 270 km, which equates to an operating cost of 25 cents per kilometre. With a DC Fast charger, the battery can be charged from flat to 80 percent capacity in less than an hour.

The EC35 is backed by DFSK's three-year/60 000 km manufacturer warranty and service plan. The traction battery has a five-year/120 000 km warranty.

Enviro Automotive quotes their customers in US$ since the price of the vehicle is subject to exchange-rate fluctuation. The price ranges between $38 300 and $36 000 plus VAT, depending on the number of vehicles ordered.