TESLA’S NEXT RELEASE: THE TESLA VAN Today, we will be looking at Tesla’s new release: the electric Tesla van.
There are no timelines, and it most likely will take a few more years for it to hit the road, but we want to discuss the prospects of its impact on the industry.
It is a known fact that when Tesla sneezes, the electric car industry catches a cold. The company is the most-watched and most profitable in the market of electric cars. Tesla is the most valuable automaker globally and the front runner in the electric car manufacturing industry,
yet the company keeps a minimal line of cars. The company distributes four models: the Model Y and Model 3, along with Model X and Model S.
There is no company as successful as Tesla that hasn’t increased its products, so it begs the question: why hasn’t Tesla launched
more models yet? The company is set to make additions to the line-up. The company is introducing a semi-truck, pickup truck, supercar, and high-performance sedan.
These have all been forecasted to arrive by 2022. There is an average of half a million pre-orders on these cars alone. In addition, the tesla company is planning a van to transport people in the future tunnel networks of Elon Musk.
Musk has mentioned on several podcasts that his only reason for holding back on the tesla van at many points is the lack of cell supply.
He said that prototypes are easy to make but scaling production is very hard. Tesla is working with several battery partners, including Panasonic and LG, and its battery production facility to increase available cells.
The company is trying to overcome the shortages in the market by making its batteries. The Tesla van will be used to shuttle passengers along networks of subterranean railways built by the Boring Company, a tunneling firm that Musk also runs. In June of last year, an official of the San Bernardino county transportation, Curt Hagman, mentioned that Tesla is working on a 12-person luggage tesla van for a Boring future tunnel. The vans are going to enlarge the capacity to 1,200 people per day and a million per year.
The project is part of a plan to build an Ontario airport loop, a 2.8 – mile long tunnel located 35 feet underground, connecting to the airport. The project started in 2019, and it is expected to take four years. President Biden has decided to make the whole US government vehicle fleet electric. The announcement was made with the move to source the vehicles from an American manufacturer.
The likes of GM, Rivian and Ford have all come up with electric solutions. In November 2018, the conversation around starting the tesla van came with a tweet from Elon Musk saying that the company will inquire with Daimler/Mercedes about an electric Sprinter van, which he called “a great van”.
The Daimler group owned 10% shares in Tesla, which they bought for $50 million. The two companies were working together in battery development and design as part of the collaboration. The partnership ended in 2018. Mercedes plans to sell a fully electric version of its sprinter van in the US by 2023. At the same time, Ford unveiled its E-transit electric cargo van in November. General Motors announced plans to roll out electric vans in January. The idea of a vehicle for high passenger-density urban transport has been talked about for a few years now.
The recent introductions of the Ford E-transit and GM’s BrightDrop EV600 may have put more pressure on Elon Musk and Tesla to work towards developing their tesla van sooner than they were willing to. Tesla’s CEO gave some details about the prospective electric tesla van that the company could develop soon. On Joe Rogan’s podcast, Musk indicated that a van’s design would be favorable to be equipped with solar panels for stationary charging.
Tesla’s currently offered vehicles would cost so much more if they had solar panels for charging. That, plus the fact that the cars are not driven in the correct climate to makes the installation of solar panels a beneficial solution to charging. The relatively flat roof and large surface area of a tesla van will be ideal for solar panels nonetheless. The roof and surface area are the two issues that make the design of sleek SUVs and sedans unaccommodating for solar panels. A tesla van, however, is like a box, and panels will do great when outfitted onto it. There have been reports that even employers are pushing for the tesla van to match up with competitors. Tesla has both public and investor interest to come up with an electric tesla van. We know that once Tesla takes its time to produce a vehicle, it is efficient.
The online commerce opening up and tripling in expansion makes manufacturing delivery vans a priority for everyone. Amazon alone ordered 10,000 new delivery vans last year.
That is how much the eCommerce world is opening up and experiencing improvements. Amazon plans to have the fleet from Rivian on the road for delivery by 2022. The vans have begun road testing in southern California. The Amazon vans will have 150 miles range, the same as Ford’s delivery van. That is the average needed by a business. Tesla has always said that below 250-mile capacity is beneath the company’s standard. This rule means that we may be looking at their usual starting point of a 300 mile capacity for the van.
The talks about acquiring 300-mile range vans mainly state that it will be pretty expensive for delivery businesses to buy them in large quantities. The talk is to see how this will go in terms of pricing. Tesla is a known trailblazer. The company usually starts things when very few people have shown interest and continue to upgrade. This line is the first time the company is a latecomer to a world where its competitors have already set release dates.
This fact means pricing and strategy-wise, the company goes against their leading contenders, and they have to make decisions with them in mind. This line will be their first time benchmarking other electric car manufacturers way ahead of them. Several people keep calling the new Tesla van a sprinter van, which is a Mercedes name. This mishap tells you that the company has been late to the party. Still, we know how Tesla’s creativity can quickly switch them to being at the top of things. Only time will tell on this one.
Many fans of Tesla want a van that they can stay in. the tesla van will be for commercial uses, but the van life participants want to see it happen too. Tesla’s potential electric van could very well be the perfect van for a living. Tesla’s batteries could be taped for electricity, and the Tesla heat pump could be tapped for efficient heating and cooling.
The fans expect Tesla to be innovative and collaborate with an internet provider and have unlimited internet connection in the tesla van. This inclusion could mean the van would travel anywhere and still be connected. Several conversations on social media show that people have been increasingly looking for houses on wheels that are fully electric.
At this point, Tesla’s van is not a new concept or idea. The van is confirmed as something that Tesla will produce at some point. That is the only confirmed news going around about the tesla van—that and the fact that Tesla has set its intentions in giving it a higher mileage than its current competitors. The design has also been rumored to look like futurist and advanced versions of old Volkswagen living vans. We may know of the tunnels and the deal, but the actual production is nowhere near starting.
Elon Musk will tweet about it, if anything, so keep your eyes out for news. We are excited about a Tesla van because we know it is coming, but at this point, we’ll just have to wait and see what specs and details will Tesla unveil for their E-van soon. Please tell us what you think about Tesla’s E-van project and how it will shape the industry. Are you getting one for your lifestyle or your business? Let us know in the comment section.
