Farizon SV electric van review: real-world range, fast charging test and driver assistance
I drove the Farizon SV electric van for a full day, in the 49 kWh battery version. Real consumption between 20 and 25 kWh/100 km, 36% to 61% in about 12 minutes on a cold battery, and car-like equipment.
I spent a whole day with an electric van, the Farizon SV, to see how practical it really is in daily life: in town, on main roads, in the rain and at a fast charging station. I started with big question marks, because it is a very large vehicle with a small battery of around 49 kWh. I finished the day pleasantly surprised, especially by how fast it charges and how much passenger-car equipment it has.
What the Farizon SV is, in short
Farizon is the commercial vehicle brand of the Geely group, and the SV (SuperVAN) is its electric van for Europe. According to "Caetano", the brand's importer in Spain, the SV comes in several lengths and heights, from 6.95 m³ up to 13 m³ of cargo volume, with 49, 66, 83 and 106 kWh batteries. The base version with a 49 kWh LFP battery offers up to 215 km of WLTP combined range, while the largest battery reaches 398 km. "Farizon Ireland" quotes 20–80% charging from 36 minutes on the larger battery versions, plus a 5-year or 200,000 km vehicle warranty and an 8-year or 200,000 km battery warranty.
The van I drove displayed a city range of 551 km on its side, and, as far as I understood, it had the 49 kWh battery. The wheelbase of more than 3 metres is obvious the moment you park: officially it starts at 3,100 mm and goes up to 3,850 mm on the longest version.
The cargo area: almost a ready-made camper
By my own measurement, the rear section is about 3 metres long, and the floor is perfectly flat. Honestly, my first thought was that this van would make an excellent camper conversion. Under the bench I found storage compartments, and the sliding side door opens very wide. One detail surprised me: the right-hand passenger's seat belt is attached to the door, not to the body pillar. Officially, the SV has a sliding side door with no B-pillar, which explains this solution.
Inside: passenger-car features in a van
The seats are faux leather and manually adjustable, but they are both heated and ventilated. There is a heated steering wheel, a start-stop button, auto hold, three drive modes (Eco, Normal and Sport) and adjustable regeneration via a button. The instrument cluster is simple: it shows range and battery level as a graphic, but not the exact percentage, which I missed. The window switches work the opposite way to what you are used to: you pull to raise the window and push to lower it.
What I liked most were the cameras. When you indicate, the screen automatically shows the view on that side, and a button lets you switch on the side camera at any time, for example at an angled junction where you can't see well through the window. The cameras are hidden very neatly in the bodywork.
Android Auto works very well, and the steering wheel button launches the phone's voice assistant. I asked it to change the navigation, find a charging station along the route and add a stop, all by voice. For anyone who spends the whole day behind the wheel, that is genuinely useful.
How it drives and how the assistance systems work
From what I saw, the van has a front motor and front-wheel drive. In Eco mode it drives very well, while in Sport the tyres spin when pulling away, especially in the wet. The suspension felt comfortable for a van and quiet, even on concrete roads. What I didn't like: with the cargo area empty, you hear quite a bit of noise from the back, and there are a lot of warning chimes.
The adaptive cruise control with lane keeping worked well, even in fairly heavy rain. In traffic, the van slowed down by itself and stopped behind the queue without me touching the brake. At low speed, on a road without clear markings, the system at one point drifted too close to the edge, so keep your hands on the wheel. The van asks you to do that quite often anyway.
My real-world consumption
On the first evening, in town, over 35 km, I saw 21 kWh/100 km. On a 67.5 km mixed route, with about 40 km in town and the rest on a main road, consumption was 25.5 kWh/100 km, and at the end of the day the display showed 21.6 kWh/100 km. With 60% battery left, the estimate was another 120 km, which I think is decent for city use. It was around 12°C outside, and the van was empty apart from a few boxes in the back.
Fast charging: the surprise of the day
I stopped at a 120 kW fast charger with the battery at 36% and 71 km of range. The van has no battery preconditioning, and the battery was cold, so charging started slowly at 40–50 kW. Then it climbed quickly: peak power was 93 kW and the average was 71 kW. In about 12 minutes I added 13 kWh and went from 36% to 61%. Officially, "Caetano" lists 130 kW peak DC charging power for the 49 kWh battery.
For a vehicle with a small battery that uses a fair amount of energy because of its size, fast charging matters enormously. My own estimate, not a test I carried out, is that you can drive for about three hours and then win back another hour and a half to two hours of driving in a 30–40 minute stop. I want to come back with a long-distance test and a cold-battery charging test first thing in the morning.
What it means for drivers
The Farizon SV shows that an electric van can be comfortable and easy to drive, with features you used to find only in passenger cars: heated and ventilated seats, cameras that cover blind spots, adaptive cruise control and voice commands. The 49 kWh version suits city deliveries and urban trips best, where consumption of around 21 kWh/100 km and fast charging make the difference. If you cover long distances every day, it is worth looking at the larger batteries, which officially reach up to 398 km WLTP. For businesses that want to cut transport costs, a one-day test drive is the best way to see whether it fits their routes.
