IT HAPPENED! Elon Musk FINALLY Reveals New Tesla Van!

Tesla is already dominating the electric vehicle sector for a battery-powered electric
vehicle. And now, according to Elon Musk, Tesla will be getting into the electric van
sector as well.
Let us take a peek at some interesting facts about the upcoming battery-powered
electric Van by Tesla.
Details on Tesla Van as a Delivery Vehicle In the fourth-quarter earning's call with investors back in Jan 2021, Elon Musk
revealed that he had plans for Tesla to make a battery-powered fully electric
vehicle. The topic came up when an institutional investor asked if electric vans were
something Elon Musk had in mind for the future.
This question wasn't totally out of the blue as Elon Musk had previously publicly
talked about his plans for an electric van.
Tesla's CEO responded by saying that he does have plans to produce electric vans
at Tesla in the future. In his reply, he went into details about what was holding up
their plans to move into the Van market. Elon Musk said [1]
I think Tesla is definitely going to make an electric van at some point. So, the thing
to bear in mind is that there is fundamentally a constraint on battery cell output. If
one is not involved in manufacturing, it's really hard to appreciate just how hard
this scale of production is. It's the hardest thing in the world. Prototypes are easy.
Scaling production is very hard.
So even though electric vans were something that Tesla was looking into, currently,
battery supply is holding them back. According to Elon, the same problem was also
the reason Tesla's Semi Truck program was not making any progress. Basically,
Tesla wants to make a lot of vehicles, and there aren't enough batteries.
Back in 2018, Elon had floated the idea of Tesla making an electric van. In a tweet,
Elon showed interest in working with Mercedes on an electric Sprinter Van, [2]
Maybe interesting to work with Daimler/Mercedes on an electric Sprinter. That's a
great van. We will inquire
The Mercedes Benz Sprinter is a light commercial van made by Mercedes, and it is a
pretty popular choice for a delivery van in Europe. Even in the US, you can see a lot
of Sprinter working in the commercial sector.
So this isn't the first time Elon has thought about Tesla getting into the electric Van
business.
Why is everyone interested in electric vans all of a
sudden? Of all the vehicle types, you might be wondering why is everyone in the automotive
sector suddenly interested in battery-powered electric vehicles? Well, there is a
very good commercial reason behind this.
Vans are a very critical part of the last-mile delivery of any logistics service. Think of
all the packages that get to your doorsteps. How do they make it there? Obviously,
large trucks can't enter the urban roads to deliver. For those last-mile deliveries, we
have Vans to thank for. Vans are perfect for last-mile delivery. They are small
enough to fit in with the Urban traffic and at the same time have enough cargo
space to store a lot of packages.
This is the same reason Amazon, the largest e-commerce player in the US, has
teamed up with Rivian to develop fully electric vans for the Amazon Fleet. Amazon
announced that they will be getting about 10,000 of these Vans on the road as early
as 2022. With a total fleet of 100,000 Vans by 2030 [1].
Similarly, other companies like Ford and GM are also working on their electric Vans
as well. As we move more and more towards electric vehicles, our current fleet of
fossil fuel-powered Vans will need to also be replaced by electric vehicles.
And the delivery service industry isn't the market for electric vans. Vans are also
pretty popular with suburban families. Since they offer a great sitting area for
families as well as good cargo space. In fact, Tesla even has plans for an Electric
Van made especially for families. So, there is no doubt that there is a great market
out there for electric Vans.
The battery supply problem But the problem is that even though there is a lot of demand for battery-powered
electric vehicles, Tesla simply doesn't have the capacity to meet those demands.
This is mainly because of the battery shortages Tesla is facing.
Tesla is slowly switching to the 4680 batteries in all their upcoming vehicles. But the
problem is that Tesla has so many different vehicle models lined up but not enough
battery production. This is the same reason Tesla had to delay the launch of the
Cyber Truck. The battery supply just wasn't there to make the cyber truck.
Tesla is prioritizing the Tesla Model Y and the Tesla Model S plaid for now. Once
Tesla ramps up their battery production at the new Fremont factory, then we can
see other Tesla projects like the Cyber Truck, the Tesla Semi Truck, and the Tesla
Van to start picking up traction. Because frankly, as things are right now, even if
Tesla makes all these vehicles, there won't be a battery to power them.