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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

#321

Post by baby_souffle »

connicpu wrote: post #51
swagasaurus-rex wrote: post #10

Very exciting! Electric vehicles have the ability to be very simple, much simpler than an ICE. Although electric can't be 100% analog, I miss the old days when a car has no software updates, no telemetry, no privacy issues, no mandatory subscription for features.

I don't mind too much if there's still microcontrollers in the car, but I'd really rather they didn't have internet connectivity. The only antenna should be for AM/FM radio.

> The only antenna should be for AM/FM radio.

And TPMS. And key-fob remote lock/unlock. And BTLE for BYO music / calls.

> but I'd really rather they didn't have internet connectivity.

This is the one big thing that has me leaning towards "used, 2015 or older" for my next car. With an EV, you really do want a way to specify how much power / when should be used for charging though; some "discounted" electric utility plans require being able to shed / schedule big loads on demand, too.

If this vehicle doesn't have any screen, you need to use a phone or similar to configure all this. Yes, schedule data can be done over BTLE, but something big like an OTA update can not be (at least, practically).

There's also a lot of value (for some people) in being able to change/monitor charge capacity from distances further away than what BTLE would support.

If the modem could be toggled and there was a USB port for software updates, I'd be _thrilled_.

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

#322

Post by Suppafly »

hedora wrote: post #205
Suppafly wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>this eliminates too many use cases Such as? Seems like it meets a lot of use cases.

You could get a used non-truck EV, add a tow hitch and you'd be able to move more weight in the trunk and in the trailer than this thing can. Of course, it's a truck, so it can move light + bulky stuff, like appliances and furniture. Personally, I'd want to pay another $5-10K and get one that can also handle heavy loads. This, but for $30K ($37.5K pre incentives) with no truck-related caveats would be amazing. I'm gu…

I'm not sure I understand your point, obviously it's not a replacement for a larger ICE vehicle with 4-5x towing capacity, but it's not designed or meant to be.

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

#323

Post by gaws »

dogline wrote: post #11

It's a $20k, street-legal, EV modding platform. Sounds like you can mount your own infotainment system. Just an electric motor, battery, and chassis, and the rest is up to you. Isn't this what we've been asking for?

> It's a $20k, street-legal, EV modding platform.

And it'll always be sold out.

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

#324

Post by aidenn0 »

MostlyStable wrote: post #308
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.

That's overly reductive.

1. Poorer people tend to drive older vehicles, so if you solely encourage higher fuel economies by taxing carbon emissions, then the tax is (at least short-term) regressive.

2. You can work around #1 by applying incentives for manufacturers to make more efficient cars should lead any carbon tax

3. If you just reward companies based on fleet-average fuel economy without regard to vehicle size, then it would be rather bad for US car companies (who employ unionized workers) that historically make larger cars than Asian and European companies.

4. So the first thing done was to have a separate standard for passenger vehicles and light-trucks, but this resulted in minivans and SUVs being made in such a way as to get the light-truck rating

5. We then ended up with the size-based calculation we have today, but the formula is (IMO) overly punitive on small vehicles. Given that the formula was forward looking, it was almost certain to be wrong in one direction or the other, but it hasn't been updated.

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

#325

Post by hansvm »

rockostrich wrote: post #243
hansvm wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Honda Fit is great. You can probably squeeze an extra decade out if you're willing to swap out the motor or transmission (used, 100k miles or so, if you shop around $2k-$3k should be doable), and if you're using it heavily then you have the advantage that most cara on the market take less abuse, so you can maybe grab a decade beyond that by picking up somebody else's used Fit when you're done repairing yours.

> used, 100k miles or so, if you shop around $2k-$3k should be doable Where are you finding a 100k mile Honda Fit for $3k? Before I bought my current daily driver, Honda Fits were on my list to look out for and in the central NJ area I never saw one in decent condition around that mileage for less than $5k. Even looking now I see people trying to part out theirs for $2k or looking for $4k for a 200k mile one. I messa…

Sorry I wasn't clear. You can get a motor with 100k miles from a totaled car for $3k, including the labor to replace it.

To your actual question, I bought mine (2008, manual) in 2018 for $5k with 100k miles in The Bay, and it took about a month of waiting for a good deal to crop up. I've put another 100k on it without issue and plan to drive it a long time. Inflation and the chip shortage have roughly kept up with depreciation, so I'm currently seeing some good options in the $6k range and similarly expect that $5k is around the bottom of what you can pay for a nice vehicle with 100k miles on it.

Also, deviations can absolutely be that big. It's more prevalent at the top of the market, but there are big differences in Subarus and Civics, for example, in different parts of the country, even in the sub-$5k range. It's often worth a flight and driving back to purchase a car (if you value your time at $0 or have other things to do while you're there).

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

#326

Post by potato3732842 »

cityofdelusion wrote: post #107
InitialBP wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that you're looking at extremes exclusively when it comes to your assessment. I live in a "city" in WV and need my truck all the time to get to rural areas, but that doesn't mean that I don't have reasonable access to electricity. Furthermore delivery around my city really isn't affordable or available in a lot of cases. That being said, I really wish we had a small ICE truck in the USA, or an equivalent to t…

I bought a Maverick and it wasn't noticeably larger than my extended bed ranger, I actually feel like it is smaller, especially considering modern A pillars and such are very thick and rigid compared to the death trap of the old ranger. I have had no issues moving construction materials with the Maverick. I've moved around 12ft boards and stacks of drywall. The only real difference I noticed is I can't lazily hang th…

A Maverick is within spitting distance of a single cab short bed Ranger. You get a little less bed but an extra row to make up for it.

There's plenty of pictures of them parked side by side.

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

#327

Post by baby_souffle »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #265

Looks like the biggest thing isn’t even mentioned: no telematics control unit to track your behavior. https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/personal-informa...

> Looks like the biggest thing isn’t even mentioned: no telematics control unit to track your behavior.

Is that confirmed? I would buy one *today* if this was known to be true... but I am 80% sure that they don't have any in production; all I see are renders.

There will almost certainly be a WiFi radio (for at home OTA updates) but there will likely be a modem, too, for people that like to remotely manage charge. The modem may be an optional extra and the WiFi traffic is something I can block/inspect as needed.

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

#328

Post by _fat_santa »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #319

"but is this extreme simplification too much for American consumers?" No, it's not. This American consumer says bring on the simplicity. Also like that this is not some monster sized thing.

I think many consumers want a simpler "dumb" car, just look at sales of the 5th generation 4Runner. That car came out originally in 2010 and they sold it through 2023 with barely any upgrades and their best sales years were all in the 2020's.

Lots of people say it's because offroading got popular but I think it's also because that car was "dumb" compared to more recent offerings. And personally as an owner of a 4th generation 4Runner, one of the things I like most about is that it's "dumb".

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

#329

Post by bflesch »

aidenn0 wrote: post #324
MostlyStable wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's overly reductive. 1. Poorer people tend to drive older vehicles, so if you solely encourage higher fuel economies by taxing carbon emissions, then the tax is (at least short-term) regressive. 2. You can work around #1 by applying incentives for manufacturers to make more efficient cars should lead any carbon tax 3. If you just reward companies based on fleet-average fuel economy without regard to vehicle size,…

Meanwhile jet fuel for private jets is (and remains) not taxed at all, even in the EU.

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

#330

Post by 542354234235 »

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…

If the grocery store parking lot is any indication, farming is the number one profession in America. All farmers can have their big trucks and still regulate out the other 99% of the 22-foot monsters used to commute to offices.
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