Live data from Hacker News

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

theverge.com

211–220 of 1001 posts

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

#211
Looks like a concept that will never actually reach the market.

And if it does and I'm completely wrong, this concept is probably doomed anyways, as it is swinging far too far to the other side away from fancy tech and right into uselessly bare. I'm sure a few people are excited by this, but realistically it will have a tiny real market. Nearly no one wants manual windows and leaving them out isn't saving huge amount of money.

Make it comparable to a decent conventional vehicle, but electric, and you may do well. This though is more useless and non-functional than my old Jeep, which has a trip computer and bluetooth as the biggest "tech features".

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

#214
post #153

Does this strategy even make sense? You can charge $20k for a car. Why wouldn’t you add options that cost you nearly nothing but some amount of buyers will opt in for a meaningful revenue increase. Charge $1k for paint. Even if 95% of people don’t do that, 5% of orders just increased their revenue by 5%. Paint doesn’t take engineering time.. just spend $500 and let some other company do it. This is why trims exist, h…

> Paint doesn’t take engineering time.. just spend $500 and let some other company do it. Are you sure you read the article? The is explicitly addressed.

DIY wrap kit I guess is a form of options, but again seems like a missed revenue opportunity. Some of your market wants DIY customization, but realistically some anmount of (or almost every) consumer would rather pay +$1000 for a nice colored than $400 for a wrap kit.

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

#215
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience "bumfuck nowhere" has better access to electricity than the city. Every farmer has a welder plugged into a handy accessible high amperage socket.

My experience of rural areas is that few are actual farmers. After all, farming has largely consolidated and become automated. Most country people just don't want a city lifestyle. They might have some of the accoutrements of a farmer and have added lifestyle (enjoyable/fulfilling) overhead and significant attitude (independence & sometimes xenophobia) for themselves, but it's a lifestyle choice. Therefore most don't…

That's rural but not "bumfuck nowhere". Within ~100 miles of a city there are a lot of rural non-farmers, but only farmers will live 200 miles away from the closest city.

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

#216
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, a regular tablet UX would be dangerous while driving A passenger could operate it.

A passenger can do that today with just a tablet in their lap. Why attach it to the dashboard?

Oh, I maybe misread it - thought it meant you could plug your own tablet into the speaker system.

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

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a very different market today than when Tesla started. Tesla's strategy of starting at the high end was necessary to build electric cars from scratch. New competitors can start with existing supply chains and a base of engineering expertise. I do think Tesla has lost sight of their original plan, though. They should have kept going through one more generation of significant cost reduction/increased volume after…

I think Tesla looked at what is selling in the U.S. market and pivoted to the Cybertruck. Small, cheap sedans and wagons just don’t sell that well at retail anymore—in part because people don’t like them, in part because of safety concerns, and in part because there is a huge backlog of cheap used vehicles.

I think the Cybertruck is a prestige project, like the Roadster. It will never compete with the F-150 in the US in its current form, it won't work in the global market either, and probably won't ever be material to Tesla's financial results unless it gets a complete redesign to make it cheaper and less ostentatious.

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

#220
post #153

Does this strategy even make sense? You can charge $20k for a car. Why wouldn’t you add options that cost you nearly nothing but some amount of buyers will opt in for a meaningful revenue increase. Charge $1k for paint. Even if 95% of people don’t do that, 5% of orders just increased their revenue by 5%. Paint doesn’t take engineering time.. just spend $500 and let some other company do it. This is why trims exist, h…

The moment you say "just", you've lost the argument.
Post reply on HN