THE CURRENT GENERATION of full sized General Motors vans has been in production longer than any other new vehicle currently on sale—first introduced in 1996, with a face lift and switch to newer engines in 2003.
Now GM has announced they’ll cease production of these old school tanks in 2025. They haven’t yet released any details on a replacement except that it will be an EV, part of their master plan for a big shift to electric vehicles.
Other automakers updated their offerings years ago, so it’s a wonder GM held onto their warhorse this long. I guess there were plenty of people who loved it as much as I do. True, there has never been a factory high top, and the AWD version was produced for only a few years, but I’m still a huge fan.
I have no idea what the change will mean for us nomads. Will an electric skateboard chassis be as rugged as the old body-on-frame configuration? Will battery range be enough for us wanderers? Will the used Express/Savana market become glutted as most buyers switch to EVs, or will internal combustion vans become a rare, precious commodity, demanding collector prices? “Tonight on Barrett-Jackson Auctions, this unrestored 2013 Savana Cargo van with only a quarter million miles on the clock. Bidding starts at $200,000.”
Meanwhile, General Motors has announced a new company within GM named BrightDrop. It will specialize in electric vehicles for commercial applications. The first product announced is the EV600 delivery van, similar in a step van in size and configuration. The first ones will be going to FedEx. The sparse specifications claim a 250 mile range. It hasn’t been revealed whether the EV600 is front or rear drive, or both. But it’s academic at this point unless you’re a fleet buyer. At least we have a peek at what might be available on the retired commercial vehicle market sometime in the future.
In general,How would you keep them charged when camping. Would be great if they could be charged with solar power. The ultimate.
Well, I suppose it’s the same way we keep fuel in our rigs now. You fill up/charge up when you’re near a station.
But if you get an EV with the intent of using its climate control and batteries while you camp, then, yeah, it would be inconvenient to run to town every day or so.
My son has camped in his Tesla. He used the “camp” mode to maintain a comfortable temperature inside. But whether or not you use that, you’ll eventually have to visit a charging station.
Tesla has an app that helps plan routes. Nonetheless there is the inevitable wait while the vehicle charges.
House current charges about 1% an hour, so I don’t see solar power as an answer any time soon.
I have no doubt in my mind that these EV vans, trucks, and cars will sink GM. The electric grid will not be built and the charging of these vehicles will crash the existing infrastructure. This will cause rate increases on every person using electricity on the existing grid. I know that many don’t want to hear this. But it’s a basic law of physics that everyone must obey. The only thing that can remotely empower the EV market is personally owned large solar arrays to provide missing resources at the point of the user. Many of us know that some climates are not that good to solar charging. So you can expect high inflation in electric bills in the future.
When a barrel of oil reaches $320 per barrel when Russian cuts off gas supplies to the west 🙁
Wow, you know the future
I bought my first van used, a Dodge A100 Bell phone truck with slant-six engine between the seats in 1976. I hate to see the big guys go.
Still life is change, and we see where we are being pushed and pulled. Only time will tell if it will work out and fortunately I won’t have to see the end of it.
Be good to each other.
It’d be great, I think, if folks would be careful about what they post WRT EVs “crashing existing infrastructure” or other off-the-cuff remarks… For some odd reason, EVs have become a political football. Can’t fathom why.
Sure, at current battery capacities / ranges, EVs are not appropriate for many nomads. Fine – just choose something else if it suits the way you like to travel. But painting this technology with an overly-broad brush serves no one well.
Well said!
It takes five minute to refill fuel on a car. Until battery technology gets a major breakthrough, EV isn’t going to be a solution for everyone. We need far faster input for recharging times. I would never sit in a parking lot at a Tesla charging station for an hour or five hours waiting for my vehicle to charge. Just not going to happen.
If there isn’t a possibility for massive input increases, then there will have to be some standardization on batteries, and the ability to swap your dead battery for a freshly charged battery. Some European (or Japan?) setups have these for ebikes and electric scooters, I think.
On the road I can do 250 miles in 4 hours or less, fill up with gas in 5 minutes, or less (and that includes a pit stop and station snacks), and be on my way for another 250 miles. EV will be okay in town, especially if you have a charging set up at your home or business, if you are still working. I don’t see them as very viable out on the road. As we transition away from fossil fuels a Hybrid makes way more sense. But, because it does make sense, the cost of used hybrids has gone through the roof.
Well, if you look at the science behind all these EVs you will begin to see the illusion behind their saving the environment.
About 90% of the energy used to charge them is coming from coal and gas. These are not being charged by solar panels of any scale yet, it’s coming from fossil fuels.
I listened to an interesting analysis by an EV aficionado recently as he busted the bubble around the EV market.
The more EVs that get sold the more so called fossil fuel will be required. Even the monstrous charging solar arrays outside of Las Vegas which helps power the city can’t handle everything.
I wouldn’t be in a rush to buy expensive EVs until this all gets fleshed out in 10 years or more.
I think the internal combustion engine will be needed for quite some time to come. All one needs to do is remember the cosmic fail of Austin’s green push in Texas and how a polar vortex turned their solar and wind power systems to ice cubes, and many suffered because of that huge fail to prove EV is better than fossil fuel alternatives.
What we need is something beyond solar, like technology withheld from us which is capable of extracting energy directly from empty space.
That’s been available for over 60 years but the powers that be in control can’t imagine anything being free!
But God can!
I’m not holding my breath for EV con games that enrich only the manufacturers.
All of those who’ve shelled out over $50,000 for Teslas feel self righteous but will spend a lot of time waiting to recharge them when crossing the country.
Make no mistake about where they need to stop to recharge them…oh yeah, at gas stations!
Unless they’re spending the night staying in expensive hotels.
Lol, yup. EV’s are not for everyone.
Charge at home over night works better with a static address. Curious what you know about daily ‘peak electricity’.
LFP batteries sacrifice a small amount of range for 5 times the number of charging cycles of “regular” lithium-ion batteries and are essentially fire proof. Unlike that ‘dangerous’ gasoline. You can own them until the wheels fall off.
BTW, when we travel for 600 miles, we use a rental car and leave our well running 2006 kia at home. Extra piece of mind and 1 less thing to worry about on vacation.
Looking forward to finally pulling the trigger on our next car. Probably in about 3 to 5 years.
Finally someone who knows about Nikola Teslas disclosure of Free Energy “machine” and that free energy has been used for thousands of years! Kept from ‘we the people’ but used by those whom are the “controlers”.
Thank goodness I bought my used 2004 Roadtrek class B van in 2015… It’s the small model 170 Popular on the Express 2500 chassis. The only problem I may have is if it becomes a popular theft target BECAUSE it is a 2500 Express chassis…
Finally, GM decided to innovate on vans. Very irresponsible of them to not offer more climate friendly choices up until now. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to buy new and being locked into choosing from dinosaurs so large corporations can milk a cash cow instead of being responsible to the environment.
Sure there will be challenges with the electrical grid but I think those challenges will be opportunities.
GM should have offered some thing Innov8tive 20 years ago.
Volkswagon will start selling their 100% electric ID Buzz Minibus in the USA market in 2023. Elon Musk has stated that Tesla will can not compete with Volkswagon in the EV market in the long run. The old 1960s Volkswagon Minibus are still operating after 50 years. That speaks to the difference in quality between American Brand names cargo vans versus Volkswagon minibus. The American manufacturers can see the writing on the wall. Why can’t the American Brand manufacturers choose to improve the quality of their products? I don’t have the answer to that question. However, for Van Dwellers, Volkswagon re-entry into the USA market bodes well for the baby boomers who want an alternative to spending their golden years working fulltime for the banks, landlords, and doctors 🙂
The VW microbuses that are still running have had piles of money put into repairs, even though they’re stone-simple machines without many parts and systems to go bad. VW isn’t “reentering” the minivan/minibus market. They’ve been here all along with totally forgettable offerings like the Routan. VW fans have been complaining quality has been slipping the past couple of decades. And let’s not forget “dieselgate.”
Mert molina, SOOOO very true about the Wolkwagen bus, they last forever & seem indestructible, amazing German quality, amazing German engeniering !!!
They last forever because nostalgic people keep pouring money into them. Woo-hoo! Hippies and Woodstock and Deadheads and young beautiful people and wandering free! There have been many vehicles that were mechanically superior and more durable, but they were boring and ordinary, so they ended up in the scrap yard.
Al, yes, perhaps in the States nostalgic people ( hippies etc ) pour money into them but…if you go to many South American countries you often see them driven by regular people, they do it out of need for reliable transportation, due to the fact they are economical & they run tirelessly & forever. If U have been in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay etc you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Odd to me that Neculear Energy (our largest single source in the mid-Atlantic) somehow is now considered “clean”
I bought a 2017 Express 3500, 15 passenger van in 2019. It was standard white, had a six liter V-8, 6 speed trans., front and rear AC, standard radio, and absolutely no other upgrades. I paid $23,000 at the time. over the next 2.5 years I added 32,000 miles to the original 38,000, while towing a 20 ft. travel trailer. It pulled effortlessly, through the mountains, and on the freeways, getting a solid 9.5 mpg regardless of the terrain. I sold it a mont ago to CarGurus for $23,986, $986 more than I paid for it originally.
Mel, why in heaven have U sold it ?? ??
Crazy time for used vehicles for sure.. Was looking to replace my 2003 7.3L diesel pickup with 2020 ford gasser 6.2L… Was getting stuff from local dealer with 20-40K mile for 10K over 2020 MSRP.. was not able to wrap my mind around that so i kept the 7.3L