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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

#201
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup - the back pages of Popular Science was a great place to see them

Oh yeah. Now I have to Google that... Check this out: https://books.google.com/books?id=iwEAAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA4&ots=0... It's even better than I remember. :)

If you really dig around during that era, you'll also find a few books and magazine articles about converting certain small cars (things like the Gremlin and Pinto) to all-electric drive trains - and even custom hybrid drive-trains. The main downsides of the time were lack of battery technology and effective motor controllers (most affordable - for the time - controllers were for brushed motors).

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

#202
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

First, actually adding airbags does not add thousands of dollars to the cost of a car. Hundreds, maybe.

Second, I will gladly pay extra for such a highly effective safety feature.

Third, I'm quite certain the medical costs saved by airbags every year will more than offset the cost of installing them on every new car. And that's just cold calculation, without bringing the moral value into it.

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

#204

"He just happens to be doing it in the middle of goddamned nowhere." I left Southern California for this. My current employer is hiring software engineers in Sandpoint, Idaho. kochava.com/careers

It isn't so much that your employer is hiring (that's great!) - but what happens should the employee be let go or want to change employers? Are there other employers in the area needing software engineers? Are there enough of them to support the needed software engineers as a whole?

That's the issue, as I am sure you are aware. In SV, a software engineer (according to trite legend, I suppose) can walk out the door and be hired again across the street the same day. They can probably repeat that every day for a year, and still not run out of options.

I know that's an oversimplification, and hyperbole to boot - but you know what I mean.

An area needs more than one employer in the space to make it attractive to those employees they need. Especially if they want to stay in the area long term...

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

#205

It's not a truck

Is there some definition of "truck" which this vehicle does not fulfill?

Yeah - ladder frame.

Of course, this is just my opinion, and a ton of older vehicles that are considered cars would fall into this category. Heck, a standard Jeep Wrangler would fall into this category.

Furthermore, there isn't any reason you couldn't make a truck (that is, a pickup) using a unibody approach, but I don't know of any examples (which just may be my ignorance).

Regardless - I always consider anything modern with a ladder frame to be a "truck". It may not be a pickup, but to me it's still a truck.

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

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there some definition of "truck" which this vehicle does not fulfill?

Longer bed, basically. It's the difference between SUV and truck. The B1 is closest to a 2 door Jeep Wrangler and those aren't trucks at all.

> The B1 is closest to a 2 door Jeep Wrangler and those aren't trucks at all.

Remove the backseat and top - ultra-shortbed pickup!

Also this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeep_Comanche

Then there's this:

https://gr8tops.com/shop/jeepmodels/jk-wrangler/jeep-wrangle...

And finally:

http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/future-cars/news/a29009...

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

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there some definition of "truck" which this vehicle does not fulfill?

My definition of truck: if you can't dump a ton of shit in the bed with a backhoe, it's not a truck. It's a minivan. For me, having a permanent bed cover means it's not useful as a truck.

That hilariously restrictive definition would have classified my old beast of an ex-military cargo vehicle as a "minivan", but I doubt you'd convince any onlooker to label a vehicle like this as anything other than a "truck":

http://www.tacticaltruck.com/images_other/m109a3.jpg

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

#208
I wonder why there aren't more EV trailers on the road, a trucking company would be more willing to absorb the higher initial costs of an electric truck in order to save on fuel down the line. Is it because EV can't effectively compete in terms of fuel costs against to long range you get with diesel. Or is it just short sightedness among manufacturers

EDIT: actually looks like I spoke too soon:

https://nikolamotor.com/one

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2017/04/13/if-you-t...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2017/04/19/toyota-r...

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

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My definition of truck: if you can't dump a ton of shit in the bed with a backhoe, it's not a truck. It's a minivan. For me, having a permanent bed cover means it's not useful as a truck.

So many people confuse "truck" with "pickup truck". A pickup is one type of truck. There are more types of trucks than just pickup trucks.

Yeah - technically. But this whole discussion is about the consumer space, not about those purchasing commercial equipment for hauling tonnage or whatnot.

Even so, though - there are plenty of consumer pickup models which are used commercially, and more than a few can handle some pretty big loads (especially towing)...

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

#210
Well - it's nice to finally see another potential player in this arena; we've seen this one I think:

http://workhorse.com/pickup/

But both of these are well outside of my price range. But it has to start somewhere.

The thing I've feared/worried about when it has come to the push for electric, and self-driving vehicles, and the recent rumblings by France and the UK to ban ICE vehicles in the near future - is that those who enjoy off-roading are being left out.

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