Live data from Hacker News

I bought a cheap electric pickup truck from Alibaba (2021)

electrek.co

61–70 of 190 posts

Re: I bought a cheap electric pickup truck from Alibaba (2021)

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a fine point. You can buy one separately for ~1-5k. I kinda wish there could be a solar panel mount so nobody would accidentally run over it with a truck.

Also, what UTV even comes with a dump bed?

Can-Am defender, AC Prowler, Honda Pioneer, any number of John Deere UTVs, etc. Pretty much every line of farm-focused UTV has a dump bed option...

I'm guessing when you hear UTV you're thinking of the 60MPH off-road blitzing side by sides that are so popular at the dunes these days, but that's only part of the market for these.

Re: I bought a cheap electric pickup truck from Alibaba (2021)

#62

Pretty hilarious how negative the original article comments are, and it turned out after a year of use the author has nothing but positive things to say: https://electrek.co/2022/07/25/electric-mini-truck-how-its-h... I think there's a large education gap surround EVs that needs to be filled. Hopefully more articles and experiments like this continue to appear. If you have an EV, consider spreading the word - good an…

> large education gap surround EVs

These comments are coming from the extrapolation of experience of imported personal electronics, as well as historical crash test results of CDM vehicles.

(1) https://www.carscoops.com/2009/03/brilliance-bs4-not-so-bril...

Re: I bought a cheap electric pickup truck from Alibaba (2021)

#64

I'm confused by street legal thing. How do people register cars they make themselves if there are all these requirements?

Varies by state. Some states allow you to have a kit car inspected and certified to drive on the street. Others require that the car be built from the frame of an already street legal vehicle. Some places put strict limits on the amount of miles it can be driven a year, and you'll likely need to shop around for specialty insurance to cover driving it.

Re: I bought a cheap electric pickup truck from Alibaba (2021)

#65

Impressive. At this price point they had to cut some features. I wonder if one of those features is "Safety" and another one is "The front won't fall off".

Safety doesn’t seem to be a major factor for a farm truck. “The front won’t fall off” seems to be a non-issue based on his 1 year update. They must’ve cut corners, but if you’re not taking this on public roads they’re not corners you care much about anyway. At $2000 you’re not going to do much better.

"Front fell off" is probably a reference to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM

Re: I bought a cheap electric pickup truck from Alibaba (2021)

#66
post #62

Pretty hilarious how negative the original article comments are, and it turned out after a year of use the author has nothing but positive things to say: https://electrek.co/2022/07/25/electric-mini-truck-how-its-h... I think there's a large education gap surround EVs that needs to be filled. Hopefully more articles and experiments like this continue to appear. If you have an EV, consider spreading the word - good an…

> large education gap surround EVs These comments are coming from the extrapolation of experience of imported personal electronics, as well as historical crash test results of CDM vehicles. (1) https://www.carscoops.com/2009/03/brilliance-bs4-not-so-bril...

>2009

Re: I bought a cheap electric pickup truck from Alibaba (2021)

#67
I have always thought that we need to make a better distinction between neighborhood vs city vs highway vehicles. A cheap compact <30 mph car that I can use for grocery runs and other quick errands around town would be fantastic, but there's zero market for something like it (Smart sadly fizzled out), mainly because of the onerous manufacturing and certification requirements mentioned in the article.

Re: I bought a cheap electric pickup truck from Alibaba (2021)

#68

Impressive. At this price point they had to cut some features. I wonder if one of those features is "Safety" and another one is "The front won't fall off".

Safety at a blistering speed of checks article 25 mph? Who in their right mind would design for safety if the thing can't even outpace a professional cyclist?

25mph is where lethality starts to go up, but that doesn’t mean things going 24mph harmlessly bounce off of pedestrians (good news, you’re not dead. Bad news, you can’t work for long enough to go bankrupt). This still weighs a lot more than a cyclist does and it’s reasonable to say that there should be a safety bar to reduce serious injuries even if that’s a lot lower than a vehicle which can go 100mph.

Re: I bought a cheap electric pickup truck from Alibaba (2021)

#69
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> large education gap surround EVs These comments are coming from the extrapolation of experience of imported personal electronics, as well as historical crash test results of CDM vehicles. (1) https://www.carscoops.com/2009/03/brilliance-bs4-not-so-bril...

>2009

> historical

Re: I bought a cheap electric pickup truck from Alibaba (2021)

#70
So this is $3500 EV vehicle that has 40 miles range and 25 mph max speed. Few tweaks here and there and these will be perfect to sell in US or anywhere else. Tesla needs to up their game on getting $5k/$10k EVs delivered or their dream of fossil fuel vehicles would be fulfilled by someone else.
Post reply on HN