Deciding on work vehicle

[veloman]

I started an all electric lawn mowing business this year and I'm looking at getting a dedicated vehicle for it. So far I've been using either: my ebike with a cargo trailer, my converted electric motorcycle (yeah, don't ask how), or a Ford Focus.

I need to get more "professional" looking, mostly just so I can get some advertising out of my time driving from job to job. The business is just me, and I use about a total of 200lbs in equipment for a full days work (push mower, trimmer, blower, batteries, and hand tools).
The mission statement of my business is:
"Efficient Venture’s goal is to provide home owners and property managers with a lawn maintenance service that drastically reduces air, water and noise pollution, while offering competitive rates and excellent customer service."

That's what I believe in. I'm also, personally, very MrMoneyMustache-like - I'm very careful about expenses. My service area has me doing about 30 miles on a "big" day (6 hours). Up to 40 miles max. I need to be able to travel at 55mph minimum, ideally 65mph (assume no trailer).

With that said, I am having a hard time deciding on what vehicle to buy. I thought I was set on a 2nd gen Prius, with an attached rear cargo carrier, or possibly a small trailer for large cleanup/leaf jobs. I would remove the rear seats and any unnecessary material behind the front seats to maximize cargo area and reduce weight.

Consider: I don't use any gasoline equipment so carrying it inside the car is not an issue. I don't use a 300-500lb commercial mower. I'm building my own 40" cut at under 100lbs.

Now you may be saying - electric truck! Well, I actually looked at one recently. With lead batteries it was 4300lbs and had an unknown issue. Reliability of a converted truck is questionable it seems, even the ones manufactured by Ford/GM back in the 90s.

In a perfect world there would be a 10 yr old used Prius truck or minivan. I'm okay with getting 60mpg in a SULEV (super ultra low emission vehicle), it doesn't need to be 100% electric.

But I am hesistant to just buy a 22mpg small gas pickup. Maybe I could eek 30mpg out of a manual with strict hypermiling around town.

I have this mental budget of $4000 tops, hopefully closer to 3.

[RedDevil]

Would a Nissan Leaf work if you take out the rear bench?
A run down Leaf seems to be your only option moneywise, if you also want high MPG/electric.
In Europe the choice would be a small diesel minivan like a Renault Kangoo. Even the gas version gets decent economy, but nowhere near hypermiler territory.

[veloman]

I'm not sure a Leaf will have enough cargo room, and it seems the cheapest ones out there are ~6500. Would have to buy a salvaged one at an auction. It's still a thought. When I test drove a new one in 2012, it was a pretty sweet ride.

[AntiochOG]

With something like this to load the mower on, would something like a Civic hatch back or sedan work?
You could even remove all of the seats to have more room. You could get good mileage and have a low purchase price.

BTW, I think running a green lawn care business is a cool idea. Depending on where you live I could see a lot of people wanting to support that.

[redpoint5]

I'd try to stick with an EV to be consistent with your electric theme, which probably means installing a hitch on a Leaf, and maybe waiting a little longer for prices to come down, or to find one with a reconstructed title.

The Prius is a great car, and I have a hitch on mine along with a 4 x 8 trailer. I wouldn't remove the seats though. The rear bench is litterally 2 pounds. The seatbacks fold forward nicely to provide a flat surface to put equipment. You'll want a rubber mat to keep grass clippings from being ground into the carpeting.

I'd still rather see you in a Leaf because the amount of fuel used in lawn mowing is a tiny fraction of what would be used to drive a Prius to the site. It defeats the point of electric mowing.

[oil pan 4]

In the lawn car business I think you are going to need at least a small pickup and maybe a trailer to be competitive or even taken seriously.
An electric truck would be pretty cool even if you can't get an electric truck now.

So what powers your lawn care implements?
Hi voltage AC utility power supplied by the customer or do you use low voltage battery powered tools?

If you use battery powered stuff I'm thinking truck with solar panels.
Solar panels would not be cost effective at all for suppling drive power for tools but it would be a major attention getter.

[ksa8907]

I think you need to do a cost analysis of the fuel cost and maintenance cost of each vehicle. Your fuel costs are going to be incredibly low.

Electric would be nice, but i think the prius is the best bet if the cargo space is big enough.

[jamesqf]

Buy an old Prius, and convert it to a pickup?

[ksa8907]

Originally Posted by ksa8907

I think you need to do a cost analysis of the fuel cost and maintenance cost of each vehicle. Your fuel costs are going to be incredibly low.

Electric would be nice, but i think the prius is the best bet if the cargo space is big enough.

Thinking on this a bit more, you'll likely want a truck if you plan to grow the business at all. Maybe someone wants you to mulch their flower beds? Or run an aerator on their yard? Till their garden? Haul away sticks?

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Buy an old Prius, and convert it to a pickup?

I was thinking that the whole way through the thread. There are several examples on Google.

I would go with a Prius with truck conversion and/or trailer until Leafs drop in price a little more. Your typical work day will have you using around a half gallon of gas a day while producing a fraction of the emissions most gas lawn equipment would produce. You could even charge your equipment's batteries fairly efficiently if necessary.