Commercial vans should be one of the best applications of EV power. Predictable range requirements, significant fuel cost savings vs gas, lower floors for RWD configurations lower maintenance, greater reliability. The critical point is getting that EV premium down vs ICEto make the numbers work.

We would love to see a roadtrip with one of these converted vans.

So cool! Love the integrated solar and Tesla performance. Something so cool about being able to just camp out while charging from the sun. 1400w isn't a ton but I bet a week stay is probably enough to charge back up and drive on sunshine alone. I need this!

I would love to see Maxwells RV I am totally stoked!

I love the outlaw idea of this... it is kinda of an ecowarrior... reverse engineered terminator van. Would love to see the ROI paperwork for this ... EV vs ICE for 5-10 years... This is one of your best videos ever!

Great episode! We can't wait to have you back to check out more exciting tech and vans in the works. ⚡

Your best episode yet! Good job and great to see this happening!

Telsa as a design and/or even just a supply company would be a very viable part of the company - they could design and sell complete packs to OEM builders to go straight/bolted into things with designs and assemble signed off by Telsa when would in turn about to use the supercharger network

glad to see they're doing this. thanks for covering it.

There goes the used Tesla model 3 market prices.

My ideal vehicle...conventional car with physical knobs, levers, buttons, etc running on Tesla tech.

Love your videos thanks for staying on top of real world options, I appreciate it

I would imagine the insurance companies are calling this company each time they get a 20,000 or less mile crashedTesla for sale.

Very great to see this kind of innovation. Can't wait to see what they have in the near future.

Thanks for this video. Just what I was looking for. Really good in depth presentation. 😊

Awesome video , these guys super smart and great re use of parts.

I'm not particularly concerned about second-hand batteries; if anything, I'm excited by the prospect of giving them a new life as a cube van. If you start to think of it more as a green initiative that answers the question "What do you do with the batteries once the rest of the car is toast?" Most 1 ton cubes rarely drive more than 100 miles in a day doing local deliveries. I suspect a company like Fritolay would be interested in these for their convenience store market. The transit I used when I worked there would use about $120 of diesel in a typical week (about 500 km). I suspect that'd be something like $20 worth of electricity here But ya, all that to say that I'm very happy to see tech re-used as much as possible. Converting it into something else might increase the overall carbon footprint.

Very cool and interesting video - thanks Kyle.

Love videos like this! Thank you! 👍🏻

Pam here….an entirely viable revenue stream for Tesla is for its components for this kind of market. This is exciting stuff. Tesla don’t have to ‘make’ all the vehicles!

Living the dream Maxwells EV van life

I think the bigger battery would really make this thing awesome for RV builds. That would give closer to a 300 mile range. At RV sites with hookups and a nema 14-50 you can leave each day with a full pack. An average RV site for $40-50 a night is worth it just for the electricity if you arrive near empty. I'd think about adding a small 5-10kw generator to have on hand for emergencies and really far out boondocking. If you are mostly going to stick to highways and RV parks, you'd be fine without one.

Excellent video Kyle. This would obviously work much better if they could buy a kit off Tesla rather than relying on second hand. And if they could offer the conversion for other models of vans.

This is great stuff. Can't wait to get my own RV. Great reporting by the way, thanks

This is a very exciting aspect of electrification, converting traditionally ICE vehicles to EV powertrains...I remember seeing a feature on Nomad Motors, and now there are many others, who specialize in converting classic cars to EV powertrains, I believe they were converting a classic 911 when i saw it...Kyle, potential video series idea for OOS?

I definitely have to check this place out when I have the time.

Wow this was so cool I came back and watched the RV section again. Min 29:00

What's great is that they are extending the useful life of the vehicles. Reducing new manufacturing makes it a greener solution.

This is incredible. They absolutely need to bring this to the next overland Expo!!!!

To quote Kyle: Freakin’ awesome!!!😂

While you're in California, why not check out Zelectric, the company that does EV conversions for old VW's and Porsche?

Mindblowing. Thanks Kyle and Alyssa. I'm pretty sure Tesla will havs trucks like these in the near future. Lotsa love to all ❤❤❤

What a fantastic idea and looks to be great execution. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Hopefully in the future Tesla will start to work with companies like this and provide new parts. I am sure that will help to accelerate the Tesla goals.

This is the future - love this!

Love it! Tough to scale using salvage components. I totally support the concept though. Pick a mass produced ICE chassis & supply glider kits. Promaster, Chevy, Ford, Ram pickups & vans should all have EV glider kits. Those bodies last forever.

I was SO EXCITED when I saw this...Up until 13:18 in when I heard, "almost 200 miles range - more like 150..." The Tesla components sound super sick, the possibility they might build one for you with a Tesla charge port...The Swiss Army Knife EV van/RV I've been praying for all these long years...but still could not justify when you add the weight of n Interior buildout, crosswinds, headwinds and think of trying to van life it or family vacation with only 100 miles real range! Would HVAC run off a secondary battery system? Could I cover over 400 miles in a day or dry camp with any security that I'd not run out of juice? Would a decent high roof conversion cost $200,000+ when the sawdust settles? My dream van does not include expensive, dirty deisel. Will an EV van-camper be viable before the age of true scalable soIid state li ion batteries? The proposition of buying used Tesla components doesn't bother me one bit as long as I can find someone to service it. The no right-to-repair laws just may kill my EV van dreams even if everything else lines up eventually. Keeping my eye on this one. The regional sales and service centers are a must. Thanks Kyle for covering this space. Its really important to private citizens as well as commercial entities. As you know, vans are one of the most useful vehicles for all sorts of needs. They rock! They need affordable, sustainable fuel, longer range and zero emissions.

Wow, this is awesome!

Awesome. Thank you. I'm for the local, multiple shop business model. They could also do maintenance & repairs for Tesla to expand in the future. I want the Tesla charger network tough.

As an RV owner, I need this in my life. I wish I could do a E350 V8 to Model X plaid motor swap on mine.

Love my funky promaster high roof 2500 but, I can see myself sleeping at the chargers overnight at the travel centers as I roll out to the southwest every year. Us full-time vanlifers have the house side of electric all figured out. Now it's just setting up chasis X 4 batteries to get 600 miles range per travel day. Haha, 😮 Rock on 😎

Yes! I have been looking for a replacement for my cargo van and this may do the trick.

I am liking the solar recharge capacity being installed on these vans. It’s looking like they are actually getting a useful amount of recharge capacity. If the can get up to a kilowatt hour of charging, that could result in somewhere around 7 to 12 kWh added per day. So park for a day or three and you regain a significant level of charge. Quite impressive.

I am on a waiting list for an RV van (Wingamm) but this is tempting. The plan is to use the van as a support vehicle for long distance thru hikes starting with the Appalachian Trail in spring 2024. This requires a vehicle not larger than a van like this so it can park at trailheads. Had thought about using my RIvian R1S, but a real van would work much better.

Amazing work integrating. Just need to scale up by focussing on a couple models with preconfigured chassis from OEMs. Obviously capital needed to make such a jump is the limitation.

Tesla Model S batteries have made it to many RV House battery systems that people have update on their RV's, so another re-use case for crashed Tesla components and great recycling Maxwell!

Outstanding!!

Most people drive less than 100 miles per day, so these make so much sense. I’d love to know how long it takes to fully charge just using solar. Great vehicle and review!

Would be funny to see people's expressions at the light as your ultimate sleeper delivery van pulls away in ludicrous mode 😅

Are you in Downey? The streets look familiar. I work nearby. Did you charge at Stonewood Mall? This is cool. Been wanting to replace our minivan with something electric. Right now we have a Model X which is fine but we miss our minivan.

Do you find this and the semi vehicles able to move faster than the ol 18 gear bangin ‘‘em out till they get up to speed a lot faster or did they throttle that down? What do you think of the weight on some of that with load limits on the highway system?

The RV Van conversion is interesting. Maybe there's a feature that limits the amount of energy taken to van life, thereby leavibg sufficient to actually drive! Maybe a solar panel system that is flexible and not a drag and easily btoken system...

I bet this conversion is better than FCA’s electric ⚡️ conversion! Whether it’s the cutaway box van 🚐 or standard panel van. Fiat based Stellantis vans have not been the most reliable with ICE powertrains. But the front wheel drive base design makes total sense. They’re also the widest, and now have the highest interior option! The proven Tesla EV powertrains will make the FCA Stellantis vans even that much more better!

exciting yay! imagine RV'ing with all electrical systems (w/solar integration) running off the main (only) battery...yes

man, these vans are the best! Powering everything from the main HV battery is just a no brainer!

Excellent episode!! So where's a link? How do I get one for my business?

I literally jumped out of my seat for a second

Very interesting. I think @Tesla should get a few of these to service their Supercharger network!

This is great, nonTesla vehicles taking advantage of the clear industry leader in battery and powertrain integration and tech, best of both worlds.

this is a ram promaster front cab. 100% pretty nice though, great idea

awesome!

This is Epic!

really suprising they haven't put any aerodynamic improvements on the flat front of the box there, at highway speeds that makes a massive difference

Great idea

vanlife van = campervan. This is the future for sure. I guess LFP battery will be the norm when these will start to come to market. It's wise move to ditch the house battery and just use the main battery and charge the solar energy straight there. The other option will be caravans with integrated extra battery to support BEV battery.

Awesome tech, would love a followup

This looks fantastic. Looks like they convert 159" wheelbase. I am hoping it's not technically impossible to convert 136" wheelbase vans. I currently have a 136" Promaster that I'd love to be able to convert.

lol, You were right next to the Golf 'n stuff from Karate Kid and Cobra Kai.

980 motor means you could Ghost this thing! I'd imagine any Tesla owner would love one of these conversions as they know new or used matters very little in a Tesla drivetrain. Non Tesla owners would be the ones a bit more skeptical.

Downey CA Looks like they could add another battery pack in the back half. Why did they switch it to a ccs connector?

What did they do to upgrade the cooling as the sustained output of the motor is much lower than peak and the cooling system was designed for a vehicle in the Y's weight class?

Cool Stuff

Maxwell Yessssssss so farr away from South Africa

nice if they will be able to make the van life config ahead of others. while most people comment of poor range on vans, it is not as bad in reality. wait, I think that's the niche the focus on as volumes aren't that big and there's no competition unlike the existing Rivian Amazon vans and Ford E-transit

How long would it take to recharge using the 1200 watts of solar on a bright sunny day? Does it charge while driving as well?

Very cool. Can’t wait for vans with 300+ mile range and 250kw+ charging. That with 1.5kw roof solar would be game changer for camping. Really disappointing Winnebago has to add house batteries and doesn’t hook up to the van. Even in gas vans they shut off the generator if there’s less than 1/4 tank of gas. They can do the same with the house section…

Thank You for All that you are doing for our Planet Earth.... Peace.. Shalom.. Salam.. Namaste 🙏🏻 😊 🌈 ✌ ☮ ❤

You know what they SHOULD do, and hopefully Tesla does this in their Semis, is have the drive mode be "adaptive chill". IIRC, many units have load cells to measure the weight of the payload. Using that, you could have it drive like "chill", but have it boost the power and regen depending on the load size to help compensate for the extra mass. So the driving experience doesn't change as much between an empty bed and a full load. So you can tune your driving better. Especially useful in the case of regen, because if your regen remains somewhat consistent, you can get used to the longer stopping distances and get better at one-pedal driving.

if i bring them a brand new Van do i get to keep the engine and parts that are taken out ? or bring them a used or new model 3 ? thoughs? discounts?

One of the reason RV's have separate House Batteries is when camping you do not drain the chassis batteries to the point you cannot leave. They would need to be able to set a discharge limit in the case you do not have on site charging.

I still feel they should not be underestimating the battery location and armor around it, ok they had 1 or few crashes and got lucky, but once battery pack start spewing it's flames it's too late to say oh szit, they need to do better then under frame so low, that's why fuel tanks are placed in between frames

Love it. I wish them all the best. I wonder how this company is related to Maxwell the battery provider Tesla purchased.

The truck would be more attractive and symmetrical if the bottom sides of the box were aligned with the bottom of the cab and the chrome used on the box was used on the cab. The side areas behind the deeper box panels could become storage compartments that would be accessible from the outside. Plumbers, electricians and mobile mechanics would have a use for the feature. In my view, the current design of the box makes the truck appear unfinished.

This is really cool, and it serves as evidence that there is very little stopping us from retrofitting the vehicles that our economy actually depends on. I take this truck as evidence that the conversion to an all EV fleet is not as difficult as it seems. Edit: I hadn't even seen the camper van conversions when I made that comment. That's very cool. Elon did say that electric vans were where vehicle roof solar made a lot of sense. Edit2: LOL, "people are crashing these cars left and right." I dunno what to make of that, Kyle.

What is the average wh/mile consumption for these things? For City? For highway? Thank you

I know Tesla probally would not want to, but opening up their tech and selling new conversion kits could bring in more profit for them. Just think of what creations could be done out there, like a AWD tacoma powered by plaid motors

How do they integrate the Tesla software? Presumably they havd more than the Tesla Diagnostics Software?

Can they make a postal vehicle like this? Tesla powertrain with a utilitarian chassis. Just the basic RWD motor and a LFP battery pack would be ideal.

Suggestion: buy new model Y and part out unused parts to body shops. I’m sure that would turn a profit.

You are in Downey, about 7 miles to the north and west of Disneyland!

Would love to convert my Transit van RV to dual pack electric! Do they do this with Transits??

u need to look at a company called janus trucks in Australia is doing this sort of thing

Truckla is a Tesla Model 3. This is a cargo van with the power train borrowed from a Model Y. Model Y's about a lot more than the drive unit and battery lol.

damn electric camper van. you know you need to have one. :D

Very impressive vechile

The Ram Promaster is the ideal chassis for this conversion due to its packaging. Plus Ram has significantly upgraded the Promaster beginning around 2021. The interiors and safety tech has been considerably improved. I like the new front end on the 2023 Promasters. They finally put the much better looking European 2014 hood, lights and grill on the van. Keep in mind, you not looking for hot rod performance with these vans, but efficient power delivery, durability, drivability and dependability with them. If you want 3 second 0 to 60 times, your probably not really shopping for a van in the first place. Ram does not build all that many chassis cab or chassis cutaway Promasters. When I do searches for new or used Ram Promasters, out of 500 Promasters, you will only find a couple of the chassis cab models available.

Great video! I'm not sure if you mentioned it already but does it charge on the Tesla superchargers?

Is it possible to have the same Tesla FSD on it? Best regards from Egypt.

The Ram Promaster is really easy to drive.

Looks like they even have model 3 seats in the RV spec van

Arrival ARVL is looking a more tempting stock everyday