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Tesla CEO Elon Musk surprised attendees of the “We, Robot” event by presenting a new, unexpected vehicle: a passenger van.
Of course, it was far from a conventional van. The Tesla Robovan (Musk pronounces it ruh-BO-vehn) looked like something out of an Art Deco fever dream, with a sleek train-engine like shape and no visible wheels. Musk said that the vehicle could carry up to 20 people, or be used to transport goods.
“The Robovan is what’s gonna solve for high density,” he said. “So if you want to take a sports team somewhere, or you’re looking to really get the cost of travel down to, I don’t know, 5-10, cents a mile, then you can use the robovan.”
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The Robovan is intended for the company’s Tesla Network, an autonomous ridehailing service for purpose-built self-driving cars, as well as Tesla customers’ personally owned vehicles.
Tesla has dropped hints about a van before. In its Master Plan Part Deux, the company said it was developing “high passenger-density urban transport” and also suggested that autonomous buses could be deployed. And earlier this year, Musk showed an image of a cloaked van-shaped vehicle as part of the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
Given Musk’s notorious disdain for public transportation, it seemed unlikely that he would commit resources to anything like a van. But in Master Plan Part 3, the company lists “bus” and “commercial/passenger vans” as “TBD.”
The electric van space is heating up, with the recent releases of the Volkswagen ID Buzz and Mercedes eSprinter. In the commercial segment, there’s also the Ram ProMaster EV, Ford E-Transit, and BrightDrop Zevo.
