Elon Musk Hints At A Configurable Tesla Van With A Solar Canopy. Could This Be The Robotaxi? |

Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to hint at Tesla making a "highly configurable Robovan for people and cargo."

Musk didn’t share any details, but he did engage in conversation and speculate with respondents.

Maybe Tesla should make a highly configurable Robovan for people & cargo?

DogeDesigner responded to Musk’s tweet with some concept art they designed, stating, “A Tesla Robovan will be lit.”

To which Musk responded, “Not bad! It is high time that the future looked like the future. Same goes for fashion.”

Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Dogecoin, chimed in, “duuude. that would be the coolest thing to take on a camping / glamping trip ~”

Musk added fuel to the speculation by responding with, “Maybe with an optional solar power canopy that extends both sides of the van, tripling roof area.”

Many Tesla customers have been patiently waiting for updates on the highly anticipated Roadster and the Tesla Semi, so Tesla certainly has enough to keep them busy.

Customers are also eager for the Cybertruck which has is set to enter production in 2023.

Musk stated in an interview with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley that it will begin Cybertruck production around the middle of 2023. Musk also added that the design has been finalized.

Tesla has received 1 million+ reservations for the highly anticipated Cybertruck. The ongoing chip shortage that Tesla is faced with is putting immense pressure on the automaker, as well as many other manufacturers.

In addition to the Roadster and Cybertruck, Musk is also adding a humanoid robot to the mix. Tesla certainly has a lot of moving pieces right now, so if Tesla is seriously about a configurable van, it may be a while before we see a prototype version.

Unless of course if Tesla's Robotaxi is the configurable Robovan? It's anyone's guess at this point, but there are certainly some interesting possibilities. Elon hints a configurable van design@cb_doge/Twitter Not bad! It is high time that the future looked like the future. Same goes for fashion.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2022 Follow Follow

Not bad! It is high time that the future looked like the future. Same goes for fashion.

Tesla has reportedly ramped up production at Gigafactory Texas to thousands of units per week, with the addition of the Model Y Long Range on top of the Standard Range version.

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk noted during an interview with Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley that the company’s new factories, including Gigafactory Texas, are “money furnaces”.

Gigafactory Texas is one of Tesla’s most important projects, as it invested billions of dollars in the factory, and it will not break even until the plant reaches volume production.

According to a recent report from Electrek, Giga Texas is now capable of producing at least 2,000 vehicles per week since the Model Y Long Range was offered to customers.

Other sources indicated that Tesla was already making as many as 5,000 cars per week.

In either case, reaching a run-rate of 2,000 to 5,000 vehicles per week is impressive, considering that the facility was just opened last April.

Twitter user @JoeTegtmeyer shared images of the model Y production ramp up as the second quarter came to a close.

Giga Texas 29 June 2022 ... Model Y's on the move & production now 100+ per day! activity all over and not slowing down as we close out June and the 2nd Quarter! See more in my video later today! @JoeTegtmeyer pic.twitter.com/FDVFcUbBnM

He also shared aerial videos of the factory on YouTube, showing hundreds of cars leaving the factory every day. In this flyover by Joe Tegtmeyer, Tesla prepares 300 Model Ys for delivery.

Tesla has unveiled a solar, range extending trailer that it doesn't plan to produce any time soon. With good reason.

Here's my take on this concept.

Solar panels are not enough. It might be cloudy when you want to travel. Instead of solar panels, how about an additional battery? You could store a couple of hundred miles of range in the trailer and have storage to boot (or a bed).

In Tesla’s concept the solar panels need to be extended on the front, back, and sides of the trailer in order to have enough surface area to harvest energy. You can’t do that while you're driving down the road.

If you truly want to use solar energy for travel, you need to plan to stop in a sunny area during peak sunlight in order to extend the panels and soak up solar energy when the sun is high in the sky. This strategy will slow you down if you’re traveling.

A better solution is a trailer with some luggage space and, say, 300 miles of battery capacity. The trailer shouldn't be so boxy with sharp corners. It should be aerodynamic to decrease air resistance and increase range. The solar panels might be worthwhile at a campsite if there's no place to plug in, but the money you'd save on electricity a few days a year wouldn't be enough to justify the cost of the solar panels. Panels give a good return on investment only when they're soaking up rays every time the sun is shining.

Finally, the trailer should be available for rental. People shouldn't have to buy an expensive gizmo that they'll use only a few times a year.

On the other hand, folks who want to buy the trailer should be able to attach the trailer to their home in such a way that the trailer would serve as an emergency generator during power outages, essentially a PowerWall on wheels.

And the trailer should also be able to connect with the Tesla virtual distributed power plant concept so that both Tesla and the owner of the trailer can earn some money during times of peak power demand. That would also help the environment because the power company wouldn't need to use natural gas or worse to generate electricity during the peak demand times.

Unfortunately, Teslas that have been produced already don't have trailer hitches with high power electric connectors to accommodate a range extending trailer. Unless such a trailer hitch can be retrofitted at a reasonable price, there's not going to be much of a market for range extending trailers.

Henry Farkas is a retired country doctor. He bought his Tesla Model 3 in the middle of the pandemic.

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