Why isn't Tesla designing a van for Europe? Seems to be a no brainer.

[Kenz]

Batteries, batteries, batteries.... Tesla needs more batteries before it can add to its portfolio of vehicles.
They can not ramp up the Giga battery factory fast enough to supply Tesla cars and energy division.
They will need to put 2170 cells in the Model S and X too.

 

[Rowan256]

Even a F-150 Pickup is like 20cm more wide and almost a meter longer as a Mercedes Vito, which on itself is already too big. Most plumbers and electricians (or well at least in the Netherlands) drive in a lot smaller van.

Oh that's correct, I think these cars are awesome for post and package delivery, I once worked at a place that sold it's items all over Europe, every day we filled a few pallets of items and it always got picked up at the end of the day by a van like that. So I knew that this was a post delivery van, that barely every drove above 80km/h, never drove long distances, but did drive short trips all day, delivering and picking up packages.

Somehow when I think about environmental things, the way Elon does, I'm looking for the type of cars that consume the most petrol/diesel of all vehicles. Now I know that taxi compagnies already love Tesla, which I like as well, because it basically saves the environment a lot.
Now who else is driving loads of miles every day and often inside cities?
My answer would be: Post delivery guys and electricians/plumbers/... you know, the kind of people that come to your house with their cars.
Somehow I know that plumbers and electricians often can't afford a massive car, so they do, or at least try their jobs with a cheap and small car. On top of that, small cars struggle less to find a parking spot, which is often handy for a plumber to park close near a customer. I thought this way before I expected big trucks were possible the way Tesla shows and claims.
But still, when I look at the road, van drivers, both small and big, seem to drive the most miles a year and so burn the most petrol a year, so would be the most environment saving type of car.
TBH I would be surprised if many American pick ups drive a lot of miles a year, so in other words, it seems to me like basically a waste of batteries when you really think about the environment.
Another advantage would be that electric cars can also have a socket inside their cars, so in other words, charge their electric tools while driving. Such a van would also be perfect for municipality employees, people that clean the leaves from the road, cut the trees, or even people that just want to camp with an electric barbeque on a random location. If the car can get there, then your electricity can get there. roadworkers, or builders, same story, no generator required any more.

That aged well...

Either way, I like the idea of a Tesla model X type like van, but I also have to admit:
A current Van in Europe costs like 15-20k euro and over a lifetime of only 5 years it consumes about 20.000 liters of diesel, which makes a total price of 50K. Let's add 20k euro purely for maintenance and then you got a vehicle that drove about 200k kilometers that costed about 70k over a lifespan of 5 years.
A Tesla model X alone costs way more then 70k euro, so for the time beïng the diesel van is cheaper.
I hope this will change in the future, but expect taxi's to be worth way more the coming few years.

 

[Bodyhauler]

Now Tesla has:

a big car
a small car
a sports car
a big suv
a small suv
a pickup truck
an atv
a semi truck

The only thing left is a van!
I hope that's next on the list. I use vans for my work and would love a good Tesla van.

 

[MarkNW]

Musk is an engineer. The exoskeleton for the pickup excited him and gave the Cybertruck an additional point of differentiation beyond just being an EV (with Tesla software and FSD). That probably moved it to a higher priority on the list of new types of vehicles to produce.

 

[Watts_Up]

Now Tesla has:

a big car
a small car
a sports car
a big suv
a small suv
a pickup truck
an atv
a semi truck

The only thing left is a van!
I hope that's next on the list. I use vans for my work and would love a good Tesla van.

Still missing...

a compact car

 

[cwerdna]

This is quite goofy. My response to post 47 in this thread (which is what resurrected it) got moved into Street Scooter.

Now Tesla has:

a big car
a small car
a sports car
a big suv
a small suv
a pickup truck
an atv
a semi truck

The only thing left is a van!
I hope that's next on the list. I use vans for my work and would love a good Tesla van.

Sports car (next gen Roadster), small SUV, pickup truck, ATV and semi truck aren't shipping yet. Only one of them seems to be shipping soon.