The history of the electric cargo van is one that can claim to have roots in the late 19^th century. Many aspects of the electric car industry also go back this far, but electric cargo vans have one of the strongest claims to going back this far. This is because electric cargo vans have been around in one form another almost since the original creation of the automobile.

In the 1880s, when the first round of electrification was attempted in the case of automobiles, what people found was that electricity was too cumbersome after the combustion engine was developed.  This was especially true for automobiles that had been developed with long storage areas for the transportation of cargo.  These early cargo vans did not respond well to electrification and for the most part it was not attempted with them any further.

However, this does not mean that electrification was not tried again until the present day.  In fact, about 40 years ago there were several universities working on a way to electrify cargo vans in order to help the West cut down on their dependence on oil from the Middle East.

As so often happens, the history of electric vehicles is such that advances have really only been made after the initial phase as a result of political crises.  The current energy crisis is certainly an example of one of those and that is why electric cargo vans have made a comeback in the last few years.  Only time will tell whether it is permanent this time or just another flash in the pan.

One reason is that people have realized that they were thinking completely wrong about electric cargo vans in general. Many people believed that since these vans needed to carry lots of cargo, it was a waste of time to give them heavy batteries and sell them to people.  However, the realization now is that cargo vans are great for electrification specifically because they are already built to carry a heavy weight load.

This is why you will see many different electric cargo vans on sale today, even with the poor and heavy batteries that are currently the norm in electric vehicles.  A good example of a great electric van is the Tiger Star Van.  This handy vehicle, created by the Tiger Truck Corporation, is a fully-equipped cargo van that runs on electricity 100% and is officially classified as being a low-speed vehicle.

Indeed, Tiger Truck is not the only company interested in electric cargo vans.  The DYMAC group based in the United States is another one.  Even Ford is getting ready to launch a fully electric cargo van within the next 2-3 years.  Overall, current trends in the electric cargo van industry still look good in spite of the weaknesses of the overall design.