There is an additional benefit to buying EVs that you may not know.
If you have certain types of chargers (they are all about the same cost) then Octopus Energy have an EV tariff, other companies do too but not as low a price. This is the standard 30p/kwh (what ever it is these days due to the cap) rate for most of the time but from 11:30pm to 5:30am everyday all your household electricity is only 7.5p/kwh. So we have our dishwasher and washing machines timed to come on in the cheap periods. OK so it's not a huge saving but it adds up over the year and if you are a ltd company having an ev charger installed is 20% cheaper due to some sort of Gov grant, even though it's at home!

I read peoples arguments about batteries might be on last legs etc but so might any engine - how many Ford eco tecs have gone bang, how many transits have snapped their wet belts way before any scheduled service, how many VW have had injectors fail and damage the engine?
If the battery is duff - you can get odb readers (£5) to check battery state of health and services should state the battery health, then you would replace it with a used one from a crash damaged vehicle same as you would if a diesel engine failed - you wouldn't go to the manufacturer and buy a brand new engine as it would be silly money.

As for range, yes they are significantly lower than diesels but how many need to do hundreds of miles in a day - very few but some do. If you need to do that many miles then most evs will charge from 20 to 80% in less than 1 hr. I agree not as convenient as a diesel but you never need to stop or divert to a  'petrol station' to fill up you just get home and plug in when required.

Currently EVs are not for everyone. As you may guess I bought an ev car in Feb and it's great, the instant torque is very addictive and the range is actually what the manufacturer quotes (not in winter), in fact it does more miles per kw round town than spec says - quite a bit more. By my calcs just in fuel it's costing less than 2p per mile - diesel currently at £1.52.7 a litre at 40mpg works out at 17p a mile so almost 9 times more expensive per mile in a diesel!

One thing to note, the zero tax does end in April 2025 although if you retax in May 2025 you get another 12 months at £0 so up to May 2026 you can get zero road tax.

There are plenty of diagnostics available to check the battery state. Hyundai have recently said that data gathered from their sold EVs suggests their batteries will last a mere 300,000 miles before dropping to 85% capacity.  (You're also ignoring the fact that the engine could be shot on a diesel van.)

I, too, will be able to forget about range because when I wake up I'll have 80-odd miles of range and  a maximum of 36 miles to do.  I'm honestly struggling to see why I'd need a 500 mile range given that my fuel station will be on my driveway.

Vin

I do long trips in my van, I use it for all sorts, so it’s great having the range of a diesel.

If you’re only do a few miles a day, then I understand your reasoning.

Be interesting to see how you get on.

Vin - slightly off topic - do you get cheaper insurance for doing such low miles?

Not sure. They always ask, so I assume it's taken into account.

First thing that springs to my mind is, at only 36 miles a day, is there any real saving to made at all? When you consider the elevated purchase price and uncertain future value and performance, personally, at such a low cost starting point using diesel I wouldn't bother with electric. I'm still not convinced that EV is the future.
There are now new petrol vans on the market, although I have no idea how they weigh up.

I'm planning to buy secondhand so the big chunk of depreciation is on someone else's shoulders. Probably Soupy's.

Current van is now 18 years old. Electric vans I'm looking at are four years old so I'd be content to get another ten years or so out of one. My son will hopefully have taken over the business by then. I do 3,000 miles a year or so, so I don't think that would be unreasonable.

Vin