Future EV Sound Vans

[codyman]

EV's are obviously the future and many automakers (traditional and newcomers) are rushing to get electrified vans out into the market.  A company called Canoo has a platform that is supposed to be able to be upfitted into anything you pretty much want it to be.  Future ultimate sound van?  They have yet to deliver a single product to the marketplace yet so TBD but thought it was interesting, especially with the integrated ramp etc.

 

 

[Chris Woodcock]

My drama set up is a trailer and pickup truck, so my long term goal is probably a Rivian truck when they launch in the UK.

[IronFilm]

7 hours ago, codyman said:

They have yet to deliver a single product to the marketplace yet

And that's why I'd rather go with a company with a proven track record in delivering vans, such as Iveco/Hyundai/Volkswagen/Nissan/LDV/Mercedes-Benz/Ford/Toyota/etc

A few of these companies already have electric vans, and there will only be more and more e-Van models joining them each year. 

[codyman]

1 minute ago, IronFilm said:

such as Iveco/Hyundai/Volkswagen/Mercedes-Benz/Ford/Toyota/etc

See, out of all those companies, only Ford and Mercedes sell commercial vans stateside which leaves a lot of doors open for these upstart EV companies to give it a go.

[IronFilm]

Really??? Am shocked!
As all of those are represented here in NZ, you could walk into a dealer today and buy a brand new Iveco Daily / Hyundai iLoad / Volkswagen Transporter / LDV V80 / Nissan NV200 / etc immediately. 
And NZ is a teeny tiny remote country, surprises/saddens me that USA doesn't have more than two brands represented for vans?

Edit: ah, you've got other brands, such as Chevrolet Express. And Nissan for instance is in the USA with vans, such as the Nissan NV Cargo. 

[codyman]

10 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

Edit: ah, you've got other brands, such as Chevrolet Express. And Nissan for instance is in the USA with vans, such as the Nissan NV Cargo. 

Nissan I'm told is dropping out of the cargo market here stateside and yes we do have the Chevy but it's pretty much a dinosaur that literally hasn't had a refresh in almost twenty years.  Also fully laden you might get 10 mpg downhill if you're lucky!

[Paul F]

Yes, New Zealand and the U.S. are different markets. For example,  in 2019 the top 3 selling 'cars' in the U.S. were, in order, the Ford F-150, the Dodge Ram, and the Chevrolet Silverado, all pickup trucks. It's pretty surprising.

 

Iveco tried and gave up in 1991 "after 13 years because of intense competition" according to UPI.

 

 

[IronFilm]

34 minutes ago, Paul F said:

Yes, New Zealand and the U.S. are different markets.

Yeah, I had heard that vans are somewhat less popular in the USA. 
While pick up trucks are massively popular in American. 
Meanwhile, utes are rare in the USA! Which sounds frankly bizarre to this kiwi. But I guess Oz/NZ is the homeland of the ute. 
(and station wagons too are only 1% of the market in the USA??)

[Paul F]

It depends on what you mean by a ute.

The Chevy El Camino and Ford Ranchero were never very popular and they were discontinued long ago (half car, half pickup truck).

The other kind of ute we call a crew cab, which has been more and more popular over the years and are now 85% of pickup truck sales.

 

Station wagons went out of fashion many years ago. Minivans replaced them at least 25 years ago. Minivans went out of fashion, but are still sold in good volumes. Today, the SUV is king (after pickups). It comes in many sizes from the typical huge American monstrosity to smaller units that would be more typical in the rest of the world. It has mostly replace traditional cars as the family vehicle.

[IronFilm]

22 minutes ago, Paul F said:

The other kind of ute we call a crew cab, which has been more and more popular over the years and are now 85% of pickup truck sales.

 

Nah, these are utes:

Like Doug DeMuro said, it should've been sold in the USA:

 

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2020/04/how-to-import-a-real-holden-ute-into-the-united-states-video/

 

[Shastapete]

I'm intrigued by the new 2021 Hybrid Ford F150 with built in 7kwh generator – hopefully that tech will make it into their vans in a couple years, would be very useful to power base camp or even as an extra generator rental to smaller productions. Not to mention van camping or backup power for your house. (The 10 mile EV only range wouldn't be too useful though)
 

For a personal vehicle, I'd love an electric with a decent range, but with a work van you can't expect a charger at location or fit a charge stop into a production schedule. 

Until the car batteries can suck up a decent amount of range (100 miles?) in the 5 minutes it takes to fill a gas tank I don't think it can be relied on in a production workflow – as much as I would love it!

 

I am all about cutting out our reliance on fossil fuels, but the big giant hurdle is energy density. Liquid dinosaur (as of now) wins.  

 

I'm sure we're 5 years away from my concerns not being an issue

[codyman]

10 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Meanwhile, utes are rare in the USA! Which sounds frankly bizarre to this kiwi. But I guess Oz/NZ is the homeland of the ute. 
(and station wagons too are only 1% of the market in the USA??)

 

I wish utes were a thing here, especially the LS powered Holden ones!  Station wagons pretty much only exist here in the "luxury" market these days with Mercedes and BMW.  I think the cheapest one from them goes for at least ~$50k.  I wish wagons would have made a comeback rather than these crossover CUV's that everyone is buying.  No one wants a wagon or minivan yet they need the utility of them so they settle on the half assed CUV market which doesn't hold as much and drive worse than both of the alternatives!  Regardless, you'll pry my 1970 Kaiser era Jeep Wagoneer Buick "Dauntless" 350 V8 from my cold dead hands (mind you it's a weekender not a daily)!

 

 

[Philip Perkins]

I tried for quite awhile to find the sort of utility van I rented in 3rd world countries (like HiAce) in the USA.  Nope, not imported.  The USA is in a very strange personal vehicle moment now: the really popular vehicles are giant pickup trucks that are actually just used as huge cars, since they are never used as real working vehicles.  The electric car thing is mostly pricey Teslas.  Young people (like my daughter) who are buying their first cars on their own seem to like hybrid sedans, but the ones avail in the USA are not practical choices for a working soundie.  Most vans available to us in the USA are really designed to be sold as fleet vehicles, we kind of "Remora" off that channel of manufacture.  The Canoo looks interesting as a concept vehicle, but it will require serious marketing genius and money to interest Amazon, UPS, FedEx, USPS and other fleet users to the degree that enough will actually get made at the price they mention that one-person businesses like sound-people will be able to buy them.