Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 1001 posts

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

#301

Post by potato3732842 »

fishpen0 wrote: post #69
taylodl wrote: post #43

I LOVE it! THIS is the kind of truck I'd be looking at to replace my 1998 Ford Ranger. Here is what could be potential deal-breakers: - Lack of a mobile app. Minimalist design is great, but I still want an app to manage charging and be alerted to any vehicle issues. - Lack of good charge management and battery conditioning. Either that, or a cheap and easy to replace battery pack. I'd really like both! - Comparable h…

Bench seats are almost certainly not coming back in modern low cost vehicles due to side impact safety regulations. They aren't _illegal_ but its extremely difficult to meet those standards with a bench configuration and ironically probably why a budget pickup is less likely to have them. Cutting those corners by not having a bench at all is an easy way to save money in the design. The hauling and towing is another o…

> Same thing, budget vehicle means budget suspension, so its weight lowers the capacity instead of increasing the cost of the suspension.

Leaf sprung solid axle is great for doing things on a budget.

But it's probably impossible to put one in a new vehicle because the hiring pool of the automotive industry is too indoctrinated against that sort of stuff at this point.

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

#302

Post by Beijinger »

taylodl wrote: post #113
ryandrake wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Lack of a mobile app. Minimalist design is great, but I still want an app to manage charging and be alerted to any vehicle issues. Noooooooooo! No apps, please ! Finally a car not tethered to and dependent on your phone, and we already have our first request to app-ify it! EDIT: Ughhh, according to the video that another user posted, it looks like there's an app, and yes, "updates" go through it :( > - Lack of go…

I'd want the mobile app to be an auxiliary, not a requirement for operating the truck. Keep the dashboard simple.

You need an app. You could make steering to the left only available in a 50 USD per month subscription but steering right is free or something like it.

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

#303

Post by scblock »

Suppafly wrote: post #154
hedora wrote: post #67

The $20K is after incentives, so it's actually $27,500. That still compares favorably to Ford's closest offering, the F-150 PRO, which is $54,999 (pre incentives): https://www.fordpro.com/en-us/fleet-vehicles/f150-lightning/ The Ford comes standard with the same range as the upgraded Slate, though. The slate can tow 1000lbs, and hold 1,433 lbs, vs the Ford's standard 5000 / 2235, respectively (you can upgrade the ran…

It's meaningless to compare a small city truck to something like a full-sized truck, they are totally different classes of vehicle. I get that ford doesn't make a small electric vehicle, but that doesn't make the lightning the "closest offering".

A more reasonable comparison is probably the hybrid Maverick, which appears to be popular (at least around here), has 4 doors and actual features, and starts at around $25k.

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

#304

Post by ethbr1 »

PaulHoule wrote: post #156
rozap wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also love this design and I'm happy that someone is doing it. I think it's unlike anything else on the market. But, they won't necessarily be competing against other new things on the market. My wife also rides horses and we got a $5000 20 year old F250 which is very basic but has been bulletproof, and it can tow. I imagine old, basic trucks, either cheap domestic ones or kei trucks will be what this thing competes…

To be fair, a lot of farms need a big-ass pickup truck because they are always towing horses to go to shows or trailheads. We have 70 beautiful acres and a network of trails my wife built that were inspired by Het Vondelpark in Amsterdam. [1] If everything goes right we trailer in a horse once and never have to trailer it out although some horses don't fit in or have to go to the vet. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wik…

Something I also only really appreciated after spending more time out plains-west in the US, it's dangerous to drive small vehicles because of the average distances and abundance of larger wildlife.

When you're regularly driving 2+ hours one way to a town and a random pronghorn appears in the middle of the road, at night, when you're doing 85 mph... you want to be in something that can take the impact.

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

#305

Post by baby_souffle »

dogline wrote: post #176
stefan_ wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? They show speakers mounted in the front as a "soundbar". Will people figure out there is a reason cars with good sound systems have them mounted all around the vehicle?

I just want some power ports and good mounting points, then I can put whatever I want there, and upgrade it. I'd imagine that people will come up with a mountable radio kit, like the DIN format radios of old, but with less restrictions.

> I'd imagine that people will come up with a mountable radio kit, like the DIN format radios of old, but with less restrictions.

I am hoping like hell this ends up being the case. Give me power, a place to put my own stuff and some details on the CAN bus and leave me to it.

I do not want to pay a premium for your slow, locked down, buggy / seldom-updated touch screen.

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

#306

Post by jandrese »

0xffff2 wrote: post #294
goodness wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That appears to be the bed width between the wheel wells. I assume it would fit width wise on top of the wheels, which is still in the bed. As to the length, not even most full size trucks are long enough to fit the whole sheet. I guess the main point is that you wouldn't have any trouble getting the sheet of plywood home.

8 foot beds do exist. They're very rare nowadays with nearly every truck being a super-extra-mega cab 4 door.

You generally have to find someone willing to sell you a fleet vehicle if you want a full 8 foot bed. Modern trucks are more like minivans with a vestigial bed sticking out of the back.

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

#307

Post by WorldMaker »

euroderf wrote: post #245
hugs wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

on long car trips, it seems like everyone in the car (except, me, the driver) has headphones on. no one will miss the lack of rear speakers.

Sounds very twenty-first century. No shared music recognition, no sing-alongs. If passengers want to DJ, you can get one of those little FM transmitter thingies that plugs into a phone/table headphone port.

The interesting modern tools for passengers wanting to DJ are shared Spotify playlists and Apple SharePlay.

A lot of Bluetooth speakers today can fill a car with a sound wall better rear speakers used to. Apple says you just need two of their Bluetooth speakers to fill a room in a house with great stereo and reasonably good surround sound. The square footage of a car is generally smaller than the supported room size.

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

#308

Post by MostlyStable »

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...

Example #5621 that a simple carbon tax would be miles better than the complex morass of regulations we currently have.

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

#309

Post by Suppafly »

kcb wrote: post #236
alephnerd wrote: post #7

It has a base range of 150 miles [0], which won't resolve range anxiety worries as the average American travels 42 miles a day [1] and only has 2 seats. I think it will do well for hobbyists and EV enthusiasts, but it would be hard to compete with a slightly pricier Tacoma. When people buy a pickup truck, they often use it as a daily commuter as well. > Got a road trip planned? These trips are all doable on a single…

New Tacoma's are like $40k for a pretty basic model these days.

>New Tacoma's are like $40k for a pretty basic model these days.

I thought so too, but apparently they make an extended cab one that is like 31k for the base model.

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

#310

Post by jandrese »

tchock23 wrote: post #28
whycome wrote: post #17

What’s the price without incentives though?

It is mentioned in the article - $27,500. [Edit: Got that number not from the original article, but from the Ars article another person posted in this thread.]

Of course this assumes the Trump administration doesn't shitcan the $7,500 tax credit, which is not something I'd bet a new company on.
Post reply on HN