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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

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

most North American non-truck vehicles are not rated for towing _at all_ Not just that, but his $300 trailer probably doesn't have brakes. It's lunacy to tow 2500 unbraked pounds behind a Honda Fit.

Any idea as to why is this different from the EU? My 2006 Ford Focus C-max van pull up to 1200 kg (= 2650 pound, braked, 665 kg unbraked) legally here.

665 kg unbraked

That works out to 1466 pounds. The guy was towing 2500 pounds with a Honda Fit that (unless it's a hybrid) weighs less than 2400 lbs for the car itself.

Do you think the Fit's brakes are designed to safely stop 2x the design weight? Plus the stability just wouldn't be there. Plus any appreciable "tongue weight" behind the back wheels will make the front end light. Bad for control. Wikipedia touches on the issues: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towing#Towing_safety

Here's another counterexample. The Porsche Cayenne can tow 7716 pounds (3500 kilos) braked, but only 1653 pounds (750 kilos) unbraked. And it's a vehicle that weighs twice as much as the subcompact Fit: http://www.porsche.com/usa/models/cayenne/cayenne-models/cay...

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

#262
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sad for something called a "Land Rover." Re: what you said about wagons, I think the Subaru Outback is actually the most practical ICE vehicle out there. Pretty high clearance, very powerful engine, great towing capacity, good roof rack options, ample trunk space, and low centre of gravity. I just wish they made one with an electric motor and a plug.

I think that you're confusing "Land Rover" and "Land Cruiser". Land Rover vehicles are made by Jaguar Land Rover. The term "Land Rover" usually refers to either the Land Rover Defender (a bulky, tractor-looking SUV that isn't legal in the USA* due to a lack of safety features and emissions controls) or a variety of luxury SUVs that are remarkably good off-road but suffer from questionable reliability. Land Cruisers a…

I was in a J95 - in some markets called the Prado. (Basically less rugged than the 70 series, but still at the fairly utilitarian end of the range - a close relative of the J80 - beam axle at the rear, independent up front, lockers rear&center.)

It is more a matter of physics than utilitarian/luxury, I suspect - 4x4s ride tall (my roof rack is 6'8" above ground), so to behave properly with a significant load on the roof, you'd need lots of mass to keep the centre of gravity low while also requiring suspension stiff enough to be unusable to keep the roll in check.

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

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They weren't outrageously dangerous. Russian Roulette is outrageously dangerous. Old cars are just ever-so-slightly more dangerous than new cars.

Deaths per passenger-mile in the 1960s were about 5x greater than they are today. Traffic fatalities made up about 2.5% of all deaths at the time, even though people drove far less than they do now. I'm quite happy to call that "outrageous."

Are deaths per passenger-mile in 60-year-old cars still 5x greater than deaths per passenger-mile in modern cars?

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

#264
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that you're confusing "Land Rover" and "Land Cruiser". Land Rover vehicles are made by Jaguar Land Rover. The term "Land Rover" usually refers to either the Land Rover Defender (a bulky, tractor-looking SUV that isn't legal in the USA* due to a lack of safety features and emissions controls) or a variety of luxury SUVs that are remarkably good off-road but suffer from questionable reliability. Land Cruisers a…

Defenders aren't legal in the USA? I have been a scofflaw for the last ten years? Sorry, you're totally wrong about that. Rest-of-world (ROW) Defenders are absolutely legal in the US, as are any vehicle > 25 years old with original spec motor. Also legal are North American Spec (NAS) Defenders, which were imported for three years in the 90s. Source: I am the co-founder of NAS-ROW, the Defender forum. https://nas-row.…

That's why I said "with a few exceptions". There are legal Defenders in the USA, but they are uncommon enough that I didn't want people thinking of Discoveries or LR2/3/4's when I described a "tractor-like" vehicle. Next time I'll be more specific.

P.S. That's a neat site! I'm glad that there's an American Defender community. Defenders are beautiful vehicles, and on the rare occasions that I see one I always try to get a picture with it :-)

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

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and head restraints. What do you think an airbag's purpose is?

to cushion hit you hard if your unrestrained head happens to get close to the steering wheel but not as hard as the steering wheel itself would hit you. Google "HANS device". That's a restraint.

> to cushion hit you hard if your unrestrained head happens to get close to the steering wheel but not as hard as the steering wheel itself would hit you.

The belt does that unless you literally have a rubber neck.

The point of the airbag is to restrain your head so that it does not snap forward too fast and break your neck (heads are heavy, and necks were not built for sudden forward deceleration), that's why it needs to inflate so fast: it has to be fully inflated before you faceplant in it, so that it can slow down your head's forward movement, that's why it has vents and starts deflating as soon as it's fully inflated, and by the time you've stopped it is fully deflated.

If it were a cushion it would have no reason to deflate on its own and the deflation would not, in fact, make any sense at all.

> Google "HANS device". That's a restraint.

The HANS device is a better restraint, it is also a much more cumbersome one and requires wearing a helmet, nobody is going to wear a HANS in their while driving to the corner store.

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

#267
I feel there's a huge lack of electric/hybrid vehicles in the truck/pickup space, although for understandable reason. However I've heard of a company that's working on a fleet version of an eletric pickup truck and I think they're now looking for client interest.[0]

The caveat is that it's not fully electric. 80 mile all-electric and then the generator kicks in, giving it 310 miles per tank. However pretty good gas mileage and safety was definitely a concern.

[0]: http://workhorse.com/

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

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deaths per passenger-mile in the 1960s were about 5x greater than they are today. Traffic fatalities made up about 2.5% of all deaths at the time, even though people drove far less than they do now. I'm quite happy to call that "outrageous."

Are deaths per passenger-mile in 60-year-old cars still 5x greater than deaths per passenger-mile in modern cars?

I assume you're trying to call attention to confounding factors like improved medical care. That's really tough to answer, because 60-year-old cars today aren't driven the way they were when they were new, and they're benefitting from modern tires and brake materials.

I'm sure there are analyses out there of the probability of serious injury or death in various crash scenarios in various types of cars.

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

#269
post #5

I know it's a prototype, but I wonder how much thought was put into safety. The simplistic look makes you think there's probably no crumple zones. And there's clearly no driver's airbag, dashboard padding, etc. Edit: The style seems heavily inspired by the original Ford Bronco. They even support the removable rear top. http://classicfordbroncos.com/builds/

Love that they stripped all the controls out. Part the nice aesthetics from the old Broncos is the really clean interior. It's so much less junky than numerous obscure controls on most modern cars.

Tesla solves the same problem, in a completely different way, by pushing everything to an iPad like display in the middle. Both end up with nice clean interiors. The mass market cars look like flea markets in comparison.

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

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 airbag significantly reduced the distance between your face and anything else. In all but the most serious crashes your face will not hit anything if the seat-belt fits well. I'd rather have a sore neck from driving into a wall at 35mph than have a concussion from bouncing my face off of a bag full of high pressure gas. Side curtain airbags are a much more useful technology than frontal ones. Edit: Fire needs thr…

I have been in an accident with no air bag deployed and wearing my seat belt. I was rear-ended by a vehicle doing 45 mph faster than mine. I had torn ligaments in my neck that took years to fully recover from.

An air bag might have reduced my injury to a sore neck.

P.S. I was in a 1964 Chevrolet C10 Pickup that I had installed seat belts in.

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