Vans

With practically the same technology as in the Apollo spacecraft that put the first people on the Moon, this is the story of the all-American GM Electrovan, the world’s first working hydrogen fuel cell car. So keep reading to find out why General Motors invested millions of dollars into a vehicle that needed no less than three weeks to start-up the first time. A vehicle that simply disappeared soon after its debut, only to be rediscovered in tip-top shape years later, as if nothing had happened.

From the 356 and 911 to the 959 and 918 Spyder, Porsche is responsible for some of the greatest sports cars ever built. The German company has been successful in crossover and hybrid markets too, and it recently joined the EV segment with the cool Taycan as well.

What’s more, Porsche also developed some of the most successful race cars of all times, including the 917, 935, 962, and 919 Hybrid. But I bet you didn’t know that Porsche also built a van! Meet the B32, the 911-powered Volkswagen T3 van that Porsche created in the mid-1980s.

Toyota is a company deeply rooted in habit. It’s been steadily pushing hydrogen as an alternative fuel source, and let’s not even get started on how it has to slap a TRD badge on almost everything it can. This “habit” in mind, however, is exactly why the name Toyota has chosen for its new moon-ready off-roader makes so much sense that we can’t believe we didn’t predict it. It’s called the Lunar Cruiser, and while that makes sense from a general perspective, there’s actually more thought that went into the name than you might think.

After revealing its old-school SUV and pickup truck, the B1 and B2, Bollinger soon moved focus to the Class 3 electric platform called the E-Chassis. This was aimed at commercial applications and would end up being the bread and butter of the company since the B1 and B2 are pricey products and won’t bring the volume.

Now, the company has jumped into another volume-churning segment, the electric delivery vans. Called the Deliver-E, this electric van will be available in front-wheel-drive configuration with five different battery pack options.

Lifted trucks and SUVs are insanely awesome. You can drive them just about anywhere and you can even race them in snow or sand. But you know what’s better than a lifted truck or SUV? A lifted van! If it’s a GMC from the 1980s, like the one recently showcased by Yasid Design, it’s even better.

Mercedes-Benz’s first pop-top camper for the U.S. market just took a bow at the 2020 Chicago Motor Show. Five can sit in it with sleeping room for four and there’s a plethora of camping-specific features to take you through your outdoors-y weekend in full comfort.

Mercedes says its pop-up camper was developed jointly with Driverge Vehicle Innovations and that it appeals a wide range of potential customers, from "adventure seeking millennials to hip retirees." To support that claim, the Metris Weekender comes fitted as standard with an elevating roof with a sleeping area for two, a 2-inch-thick memory foam mattress, three windows, and USB ports for charging and lighting purposes.

In addition to those, the camper also offers the likes of:

a multipurpose rear bench that can be transformed into a bed for two or into a seat swiveling front seats that rotate 180 degrees a second battery to power electronic devices

In addition to those, customers can pick from a handful of optional features. These include integrated solar panels, upgraded audio and navigation systems, and 3M exterior wraps in any of the 200 colors available.

Camping wise, the list of amenities comprises:

an 8-inch awning for rain and sun protection mosquito and bug screens for the rear hatch and sliding doors a tent that can be mounted on the rear liftgate roof racks (useful when hauling snowboards, surfboards, or extra luggage) a pullout kitchen that extends from the rear of the vehicle

There’s no word on what will power the camper, but we know that Mercedes-Benz fits its Sprinter van with a turbocharged gasoline engine good for 188 horsepower at 5,000 rpm and 258 pound-feet of torque available in the 2,500-3,500 rpm band. The unit is twinned to a smooth-shifting 9G-Tronic nine-speed automatic gearbox.

The 2020 Mitsubishi Super Height K-Wagon is a concept car that the Japanese firm unveiled at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show. The show car previews Mitsubishi’s next generation of Kei wagons, most likely a replacement for the eK model sold on the Japanese market. The 2020 Super Height K-Wagon is a typical Kei wagon, featuring a boxy, tall body and bold styling features typical to these Japan-specific vehicles.

Our mates over at Hyundai Australia must have a lot of time on their hands. A year after building a one-off convertible Santa Fe that was pretty much a standard Santa Fe with its roof chopped off, Hyundai Australia outdid itself this time by rolling out a full N-spec iMax passenger van. Known as the Starex in other global markets — it’s not sold in the U.S. — the iMax N isn’t your typical passenger van. It comes with a completely different engine, a limited-slip differential, and a dual-mode active exhaust system that you normally find in models like the i30 N and the U.S.-spec Veloster N. Obviously, Hyundai Australia wouldn’t go through these lengths to create an N-spec iMax passenger van if it didn’t have plans to have fun with it. Well, it did have fun with it. A lot of fun.

About a decade ago, Nissan struck gold with the Nissan Leaf. The compact five-door hatchback was the automaker’s first-ever electric car, and it also happened to be one of the first mass-produced electric cars in the world. The Nissan Leaf was a pioneer, but now that it’s almost 10 years old, it’s also transitioned into a relic of sorts as newer and more advanced EVs have started hitting the market.

With the aging Leaf nearing its end date, Nissan is revisiting the successful blueprint it created a decade ago by introducing the IMk Concept, a small electric hatchback concept that’s pegged as a full-blown electric city commuter that packs a lot of Nissan’s new technologies. Does the concept point to Nissan’s future plans in the EV sphere? Could Nissan trap lightning in a bottle for a second time with the IMk Concept? We’ll find the answers to these questions at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show when the IMk Concept makes its world debut.

Overlanding might not be a new concept over in the States, but to Europeans, it kind of is. With that in mind, Peugeot has taken a bold step in coming up with a concept car - better said, van - that’s supposed to do one thing and one thing only: offer freedom of movement regardless of how rough your path gets.

Mind you, this is not the sort of delivery truck that delivers your Amazon order or that fancy new pair of shoes you just bought online - the regular Peugeot Boxer is well-equipped for that job, and if you happen to live in Europe, then you also know that Sochaux’s workhorse is quite popular and a frequent favorite of both entrepreneurs and larger companies. That aside, let’s have a look at just what sort of backbone can the humble, hard-working Peugeot Boxer offer to support your overlanding ambitions.

Apple has applied the finishing touches on its acquisition of Drive.ai, a Texas-based mobility startup that focused on self-driving cars. So we must ask: is this another attempt from Apple to get a piece of the autonomous vehicle pie before it’s too late and everybody has fully jumped the bandwagon? It could very well be, especially since the company has been strongly linked with such a move for many years now.

The Apple car saga started to catch contour in 2013, when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had a chat with the New York Times and mentioned that he "would have liked to take on Detroit with an Apple car." From there on, Pandora’s box was open and rumors about an Apple car started spreading on the internet like wildfire. First, an Apple employee anonymously sent an email to Business Insider, saying that the company is working on a product that would "give Tesla a run for its money." So, the Apple car or Apple iCar how many journalists liked to speculatively call it, would be an all-electric vehicle. Then the Project Titan name popped up, together with a deadline: 2019. Subsequently, Apple started a poaching campaign aimed at bringing know-how from the likes of Tesla, GM, Mercedes-Benz, Autoliv, and even Google. Amassed together with Apple’s own roster of employees assigned to the project, the total number of people involved in the project quickly rose to around 1,000.

Because of their mundane looks and low-performance specs, vans are usually overlooked at auto shows. But the Mercedes-Benz V-Class that just debuted in Geneva shouldn’t be one of them. Although it’s not a brand-new vehicle, the third-gen V-Class boasts a few impressive features.

Exactly one year ago, Volkswagen revealed a camper dubbed the California XXL Concept. It was an early look at a production model they actually put into production just now. Scheduled for live unveiling at the Dusseldorf Caravan Salon that will start later this month, the Volkswagen Grand California is a production version of the last year’s concept and it is every bit of awesome as you may imagine. Forget about the Airstream, or anything similar. This is better, but you can’t have it because Volkswagen Commercial vehicles aren’t available in the U.S.

American Pickers hosts Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz scored the haul of a lifetime when they stumbled onto the original tour van of American rock band Aerosmith. The van in question is a 1964 International Harvester Metro Van, and apparently, it’s been sitting and rotting on a piece of property near the town of Chesterfield in western Massachusetts all these years. The van is completely authentic as Aerosmith founding member Ray Tabano confirmed after visiting the property himself during the same episode of the History Channel show.

Kia will head to the Consumer Electronics Show in full force with a new all-electric concept car. The new concept is called the Niro EV, and it’s actually a model that we’ve seen recently in the wild getting some test runs under its belt. The Niro EV is unlikely to hit production anytime soon, but it does feature a slate of new technologies that Kia hopes will be introduced on production models in the coming years.