Earlier quoted context omitted.
But doesn't the vehicle become the property of the insurance company after the payout?
No, you generally can buy it back for the scrap value.
But that means the answer to the question as posed is "yes".
Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range
181–190 of 283 posts
Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range
#182Jalopnik just posted a good analysis of the design: http://jalopnik.com/the-bollinger-electric-truck-uses-an-ide...
Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, but now with a roof rack and this thing you can haul twice as much! or perhaps just slightly more than you could otherwise
Not to mention that if you're in a rain/snow/sleet/hail/etc. storm and you need to keep your lumber (or some other very long moisture-sensitive thing, like one of those absurdly-long sub sandwiches) dry or otherwise protected while hauling it, you can now do so.
wrap it in a tarp?
Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range
#184If you are also confused by the units:
360HP: 268kW, 200 mile: 321.869km
Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Minority view: I dislike airbags. If it were legal - which it is not where I live - I would have them out of my car today. The rest of you are welcome to the damned things and the undoubtedly enhanced security they provide. Me, I shall never be thoroughly comfortable with a giant armed boxing glove pointed at my head. [Edit: typo]
Do you realize that it's your face that crashes into the airbag? It doesn't launch into you. Also your car's engine is a series of constant explosions connected to a giant tank of gas.
The main problem with American air bags are that they have to (by law passed in 1984) be designed to work with people not wearing seat belts (unlike Europe)[1]. This means they more dangerous than European ones because they are bigger and must deploy much more explosively. This law is unlikely to be changed for many reasons with the most important one likely being that some car companies like expensive, unique requirements that segment markets and produce barriers to competition.
Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Airbags certainly do run the cost and complexity of cars way up That's not the case (emphasis on the "way up" part). The average new car price is over $33,000 in the US. Airbags, including side curtains, are a trivial portion of that cost. Even if you averaged it all out by including all airbag deployments and the cost to replace them, you're talking about a net 1%-2% of the cost of a new vehicle's purchase price (…
I wonder how many more wrecks happen due to the reduction of visibility caused by extra wide columns needed to fit the side curtains.
The need for the side columns to have a degree of strength is a bigger problem for visibility that the bulk added by side curtains.
Driving '60 and 70's cars was great for visibility due to the amount of glass and narrow pillars. The risk of dying in a relatively low speed accident was less ideal.
Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
"In all but the most serious crashes your face will not hit anything if the seat-belt fits well." That's not really a good thing. Having something to catch your head helps prevent neck injuries. In a high-speed crash, the forces involved could actually be debilitating and/or life-threatening.
Unless it's a Takata airbag and the thing that catches your face is a piece of metal shrapnel. You do understand that airbags are bombs. The inflation mechanism literally uses explosives. They can and have killed people especially children and the elderly. Early generation airbags are more violent and dangerous because the standard was to protect an unbelted driver.
I believe this is still the standard in North America.
Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two deployed airbags in a moderate (but not life threatening) crash likely cost $1000 each to replace, in addition to whatever other damage has been done to the vehicle.
Which is considerably cheaper than the medical costs incurred by bouncing your face off the dashboard.
And vastly greater than the cost of adding airbags to the car at production time.
Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're right but your supporting evidence is applied wrong. People survive crashes in racing regardless of speed not because the crashes typically take place over a long period of time but because they have a seat that fits them well, straps keeping them in it and heat restraints. Also, going off track is not crashing.
You missed my point: Speed does not kill. Going off track at 120 MPH was not fun. Dirt, rocks, slashed two tires. Beyond that it was uneventful. The speed just makes it last longer and probably contributed to the huge holes on the tires. You can have a crash on the highway at 100 MPH and have it be just an uneventful other than a crunched-up car. It's a function of the delta in speed AND the delta in acceleration, an…
Its hard to argue against the logic that people travelling slower would reduce injury and harm. It's sure annoying to crawl along slowly, but it's also pretty hard to hurt yourself doing it.
Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not the OP, but one justification is that they aren't consuming gasoline and taxes on gasoline are primarily how roads are paid for. I wouldn't go as far as the OP, but instead I would hope the government finds some way to tax electric vehicles equitably or change how road funding works.
In a few European countries (e.g. Germany, Austria, Switzerland) you pay a yearly tax for each car that you own that is meant to fund road maintenance/development. This is about 350 USD in Germany. At some other countries (e.g. Portugal, Italy, France), they have tolls for the highways so only the cars crossing that road pay for the cost. And a new option is automatic tolls, where you don't even stop. They just take…
>At some other countries (e.g. Portugal, Italy, France), they have tolls for the highways so only the cars crossing that road pay for the cost.
JFYI in Italy you pay BOTH a "fixed tax" (which is function of the horsepower of the car engine) AND most highways have tolls.
You pay with the fixed tax the "general maintenance and development" of ALL roads (excluded toll highways) and you pay the toll on a per use basis, as highways are largely "private" (technically they are public but object of concession/grant to privates).