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Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range

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Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range

#221

Earlier 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.

Well, when back over accidents became more common because the safety arms race gave vehicles rear visibility only slightly better than a Panzer the government mandated backup cameras.

Self driving cars will probably take over before "front blind spot detection" becomes a thing.

Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most amazing thing is the photo of the lumber where a hole underneath the dash is revealed allowing the hauling of lumber the entire length of the vehicle. That is an impressive amount of utility right there. Whether quirky features like that would survive the process towards production remain to be seen, but this is certainly an interesting take on a truck that could be very useful in rural America.

It's cool but it's kind of a gimmick. You can easily haul lumber on almost any vehicle with a roof rack. Many cars with fold down rear seats can fit 8' lumber too.

> You can easily haul lumber on almost any vehicle with a roof rack.

-You can easily haul very limited quantities of lumber on almost any vehicle with a roof rack.

I've tried once to put the maximum legal (well, in Norway, at any rate) weight of 200kg/450lbs on my Land Cruiser's roof rack, just to see how it affected handling.

I've only felt more nervous in a car once, and that was in a Congolese taxi seemingly bent on having a go on the sound barrier. In the dark. With no lights.

The body roll was extreme, and any bump in the road led to damped oscillations like you wouldn't believe. After a bit of trial and error, I found that slightly less than half the max allowable weight was about as much as the vehicle could take and still be somewhat drivable.

Come to think of it, an estate wagon of some sort would probably be better for hauling stuff on the roof - sits much, much lower.

Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range

#223
post #200

It's encouraging to see this. It's about time for electric pickup trucks. The price point ($60K) is going to be a problem for work trucks. They talk about high speed, not low-speed high-torque. They don't say much about how the drivetrain behaves at low speed. Do they have locking differentials, or something that prevents wheel spin? It's a two-motor system. Does the motor control system know how to keep the front an…

Regarding your comments on charging - I hope that they add a charging port for solar. If you ever got stuck, and you had a panel with you (for camping or whatnot), you'd at least have some method to get topped up.

A 100 watt solar panel, a typical size for camping, would take 600 hours of bright sunlight to charge a 60KWh battery. About 10 weeks. In 10 hours you could get 1KWh, and might be able to move a bit.

Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range

#224
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most amazing thing is the photo of the lumber where a hole underneath the dash is revealed allowing the hauling of lumber the entire length of the vehicle. That is an impressive amount of utility right there. Whether quirky features like that would survive the process towards production remain to be seen, but this is certainly an interesting take on a truck that could be very useful in rural America.

A Tesla model S fits 10' lengths of lumber. Just protect the dashboard from scuffing with a blanket.

I have an 8 foot utility trailer that I tow with my Honda Fit. I overloaded it once on accident with 2500lbs of roofing materials. The capacity is 2000lbs. I frequently load it up with long and heavy stuff, and I don't risk ruining my interior. It does 95% of what most people do with a truck, but I can still drive to work on Monday or take it on a long road trip and get 35mpg. Started with a $300 Harbor Freight trailer and added sides and floor to it. I guess my point is that you can pretty much haul whatever you need to with damn near any car on the market.

Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I always wrap absurdly-long submarine sandwiches in a tarp. Even in the dry season in Cali.

Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range

#226

Earlier 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]

My family had a car that was once very lightly rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light. No major marks or scuffing on the back bumper so my mom just drove away. Three months later, while driving on the highway, she drove into a pot hole that triggered the airbags. The airbags exploded (yes they explode) completely unexpectedly while driving at 70 mph. Thankfully she was not hurt but the experience definitely shoo…

I just have to ask, how do you know that the two incidents are related? The airbags may have deployed when she hit that pothole regardless of the rear-ender. Especially considering that a rear-ender would not trigger an airbag deployment, because that force is in the opposite direction of what an airbag is designed to protect you from.

Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range

#227

Wonder if they need a torque converter still to give it a little more oomph off road. Also: "It also bucks the high-tech trend of new cars in general. There will be a radio with an AM/FM receiver, Bluetooth connectivity, and an AUX input, but there’s no touchscreen." I hope this becomes a trend. Touchscreens in cars are horrible ux.

"Touchscreens in cars are horrible ux." Indeed they are. When I'm driving, I need to be able to feel what I'm manipulating; I shouldn't have to take my eyes off the road (or if I do, it should be at an absolute minimum). A screen on the dashboard controlled by physical buttons/knobs makes a lot more sense if a screen is really necessary. That way, even if I have to look at the screen, at least I can still peripherall…

The new Audi A8 has a haptic feedback touchscreen.

Anyway I'm with you on this. There's a touchscreen in my car and only with some clever finger placing can I tell which part I'm touching. Fortunately I still have physical steering wheel buttons.

Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range

#228

Earlier 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]

Really? Seat belts without airbags are dangerous. At best you risk smashing your face on something hard, at worst, you're looking at orthopedic decapitation in relatively minor accidents.

>Really? Seat belts without airbags are dangerous. At best you risk smashing your face on something hard, at worst, you're looking at orthopedic decapitation in relatively minor accidents.

have no idea why are you saying that. Probably you just _think_ so, and you've probably never been in a "relatively minor" accident, let alone in the accident where the car flies off the road and violently turns in every possible direction while flying and skidding upon landing. I was. Thanks God and Federal regulation authority for the seat belts mandate. Fixed by the seat belts it was like the scariest, very high-G, twists and turns, amusement park ride. Without the seat belts even the survival in that situation would hardly be possible, let alone avoiding heavy traumas and disability. The airbags didn't deploy for whatever reason.

Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range

#229
His frustration with his trucks I bet it because they were powered by gas. Trucks should only be diesel you don't need horsepower (fast time to cover a distance) you need leverage aka torque.

A documentary on Sherman tanks amazed me because they were gas powered and when hit gasoline exploded. German tanks were powered by diesel. The US has hated diesel from day one it's amazing.

But electric has tons of torque by design it should be suitable. But I wonder if the horsepower can be dialed down for more range?

Re: Bollinger B1: An electric truck with 360HP and up to 200 mile range

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, any crash above 70mph and the airbag might as well not exist.

This is simply not true. What causes damage and hurts or kills is rapid deceleration, not speed. Sure, speed is a necessary component in order to achieve the most violent deceleration but speed alone does guarantee damage at all. The racing world proves this conclusively. Watch Formula 1 or NASCAR and you'll see 200 mph crashes where everyone walks away. Watch motorcycle racing and see guys fall of their bikes at all…

Watch Formula 1 or NASCAR and you'll see 200 mph crashes where everyone walks away.

...and more interestingly, none of the cars have airbags. What they do have, however, are very tight restraints.

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