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A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

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Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#651

Post by smcleod »

resters wrote: post #632

This is extremely refreshing. I think that it would be possible to make something like this in the US for under $15K even. Cars and trucks are so over-engineered and come with tons of low value options intended to drive up the price. For a case in point, consider that headlights that turn on and off automatically in response to darkness (or rain) are not a standard feature on many cars, yet they include a manual swit…

To be honest most of those accessories are actually incredibly cheap at manufacturing time and several have a direct impact on safety (e.g. ensuring people don't drive around with lights off). The cost usually comes as companies use them for pricing tiers where they market them as suggested extras to ratchet up profits.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#652

Post by chubs »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #341

150 mile range makes it close to useless. As soon as you take it on a highway, the range will likely drop by half. Which means you can only do a round trip of 37 miles before you have to charge. Even a very aerodynamic Model 3 loses half of range at highway speeds. https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/vkz0SOnR45Gved9B-q9n...

The article does talk of it being a relatively simple proposition to embiggen the range with an bigger battery kit if that helps. But yeah, it's not a ton of range.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#655

Post by worik »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #646
resters wrote: post #632

This is extremely refreshing. I think that it would be possible to make something like this in the US for under $15K even. Cars and trucks are so over-engineered and come with tons of low value options intended to drive up the price. For a case in point, consider that headlights that turn on and off automatically in response to darkness (or rain) are not a standard feature on many cars, yet they include a manual swit…

BYD could totally avoid the tariffs by making in the USA (well, they were planning a factory in Mexico, and tariffs on car parts will kill that if something doesn’t change). They already set up a bus factory in SoCal. My guess is that Chinese automakers are still hesitant about introducing their brands to Americans given politics (Volvo and Polestar are Chinese owned but I think the design is still mainly done in Swe…

> BYD could totally avoid the tariffs by making in the USA

Or concentrate on the 80% of the worldmarket that is not the USA

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#657

Post by actionfromafar »

octorian wrote: post #604
Aurornis wrote: post #597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why it's so hard for companies to introduce stripped-down or small models of anything: People will tell you how much they want it, but as soon as they see it they realize they actually miss something from the models that are already out there. It happens with small phones (iPhone mini) to laptops and cars. There are comments throughout this thread claiming that everyone would be buying small sedans if not for…

I'm grateful they don't make truly stripped down models of cars anymore, because those were always what would end up in the rental car inventory. Every time I'd rent a car, it felt like I was taking a step back in time. Now all rental cars actually have some reasonable set of features, without you having to pay for any up-sells.

So the rest of the economy should suffer to subsidize your rental.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#658

Post by darth_avocado »

aidenn0 wrote: post #253

For anyone curious, if you made a similarly sized gas-powered pickup with an i4 engine, it would be penalized more than a full-sized pickup for being too fuel inefficient, despite likely getting much better mileage than an F-150 because, since 2011, bigger cars are held to a lesser standard by CAFE[1]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_average_fuel_economy...

And what you’re describing is exactly the reason Kei trucks aren’t a thing despite most farmers actually liking them for their utility.

You can’t import them unless they are old because we want to protect the automotive industry. But we can’t build them new either because they don’t meet the safety standards (FMVSS) and are penalized more for being fuel efficient because the standards are stricter for smaller vehicles.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#659

Post by Jach »

What a gross looking vehicle, and at that price? I just want the old ranger design. I've been using a 2006 ranger for quite a while and it's served me well, I'd like to upgrade it to a ranger XL for that little extra cab room for crap, along with 4WD and power windows and AC, but people rightfully guard them and when they do show up at dealerships they're typically pretty expensive too.

I've thought about importing a Kei, but I don't think it's for me. When I think "American kei truck" I at least think something in the ballpark range cost of a Kei, which is quite a bit less, at least half as expensive for the best options like 4WD, even less if you can compromise. It also has charm unlike this. The range is just ridiculous, too. My little ranger isn't exactly great, I don't push it much more than 300 miles on a tank, but having half that (new! let alone after a few years) is such a deal breaker. Last time I took my truck camping it was around 60 miles each way, and that was a nearby spot.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#660

Post by tw04 »

decimalenough wrote: post #647
tw04 wrote: post #641

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>heavily protected and faces virtually no competition Huh? Out of the top 25 vehicles sold in the US in 2024, 16 of them are non-US automakers. Just because the US is actively blocking China from dumping heavily subsidized vehicles into the north american market, doesn't mean they "face no competition". Kia and Hyundai alone show that it's VERY possible to break into the US market if you have even a little bit of int…

The only real way to break into the US market is to have factories in the US. Trucks in particular are protected by the notorious 25% "chicken tax", which has been in place since the 1960s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax

>Trucks in particular are protected by the notorious 25% "chicken tax", which has been in place since the 1960s.

And yet, that applies to everyone, including US automakers, which is why Ford had to do unnatural things to import the transit from Europe.

They aren't protecting US automakers, they're trying to retain some semblance of manufacturing in the US, which I'm fully in support of.

Both because those are well-paying jobs and because it's a matter of national security.

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