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

691–700 of 1001 posts

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

#691

Post by mulmen »

tw04 wrote: post #660
decimalenough wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only real way to break into the US market is to have factories in the US. Trucks in particular are protected by the notorious 25% "chicken tax", which has been in place since the 1960s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax

>Trucks in particular are protected by the notorious 25% "chicken tax", which has been in place since the 1960s. And yet, that applies to everyone, including US automakers, which is why Ford had to do unnatural things to import the transit from Europe. They aren't protecting US automakers, they're trying to retain some semblance of manufacturing in the US, which I'm fully in support of. Both because those are well-pa…

> They aren't protecting US automakers, they're trying to retain some semblance of manufacturing in the US, which I'm fully in support of.

"The US can't make anything" is an absurd delusion. We are the second most productive economy in the world.

> Both because those are well-paying jobs and because it's a matter of national security.

We are fully capable of meeting our defense needs already. If you really care about reinforcing our military-industrial capability the best way to do it is to arm Ukraine.

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

#692

Post by sneak »

the_gipsy wrote: post #678
mceachen wrote: post #669

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Driving with your lights off at dusk or dark gets you (rightfully) pulled over by law enforcement in CA. It's well-correllated with driving under the influence. I'm a huge fan of many car safety regulations, but this isn't one. (Sign me up for car-hiding-in-blind-spot notification lights on side mirrors, though, those are great)

That doesn't make any sense. Eliminatung DUI is not a matter of detection, and automatic light sensors save lives.

This is simply because police don’t do their jobs. It would be trivial to simply wait outside bars at 2AM and give out tons of DUIs but a significant percentage of the population are alcoholics and this would result in massive blowback against the police.

Go to any small town watering hole at 2AM to see this in effect. The police have no legal obligation to prevent crime or enforce laws. None.

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

#693

Post by mjrpes »

zx10rse wrote: post #622
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...

Automotive industry is one of the biggest scams on planet earth. One of my favorite cases recently is how Suzuki Jimny is banned in Europe and US because of emission standards allegedly, so the little Jimny is emitting 146g/km but somehow there is no problem to buy a G-Class that is emitting 358g/km oh and surprise surprise Mercedes are going to release a smaller more affordable G-Class [1]. [1] - https://www.motortr…

I wonder if that's why Ford, Ram, and Nissan all at the same time decide to discontinue their mini cargo vans a year ago.

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

#694

Post by warkdarrior »

tw04 wrote: post #660
decimalenough wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only real way to break into the US market is to have factories in the US. Trucks in particular are protected by the notorious 25% "chicken tax", which has been in place since the 1960s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax

>Trucks in particular are protected by the notorious 25% "chicken tax", which has been in place since the 1960s. And yet, that applies to everyone, including US automakers, which is why Ford had to do unnatural things to import the transit from Europe. They aren't protecting US automakers, they're trying to retain some semblance of manufacturing in the US, which I'm fully in support of. Both because those are well-pa…

> they're trying to retain some semblance of manufacturing in the US, which I'm fully in support of. > > Both because those are well-paying jobs and because it's a matter of national security.

Why should manufacturing jobs be well-paying? Human productivity has not kept up with business improvements at all. A contemporary robot can assemble car modules much faster than a robot from, say, the 60s. A human now works at the same speed as a human from the 60s.

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

#696

Post by Triphibian »

Rover222 wrote: post #169

150 miles of range is pretty terrible, especially when it's winter and you have a load in the back. Suddenly that's 70 miles of range. I get that it's a bargain price, so that's the tradeoff. But a pretty bad one.

There are tons of golf carts on the road where I live so there appears to be a spectrum of use cases and ranges that people will tolerate.

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

#697

Post by myself248 »

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…

Lack of a mobile app is the single BIGGEST reason I just reserved one. This is precisely the truck I've been wanting.

(Well, a PHEV would be even better, but I can deal with pure BEV.)

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

#698

Post by monkaiju »

DangitBobby wrote: post #628
ceejayoz wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of use cases for a ~100 mile truck.

Right, but it needs to be competitive with ICE cars that travel several hundred miles per tank and fill up in minutes. Literally 0 of my friends have been willing to transition to electric due primarily to range anxiety, and that's for vehicles that achieve over 200 miles per charge. I drive an EV and even I would simply never, ever consider this vehicle based on the range.

As the owner of a 2014 Nissan leaf with ~70 miles of range left, this statement makes no sense... ~100 miles (after years of use and loaded down) sounds amazing. I use my leaf CONSTANTLY and only resort to my 2000 Chevy S10 for things like dump runs, home projects, helping friends move, etc.

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

#699

Post by jimbob45 »

mft_ wrote: post #665
zx10rse wrote: post #622

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Automotive industry is one of the biggest scams on planet earth. One of my favorite cases recently is how Suzuki Jimny is banned in Europe and US because of emission standards allegedly, so the little Jimny is emitting 146g/km but somehow there is no problem to buy a G-Class that is emitting 358g/km oh and surprise surprise Mercedes are going to release a smaller more affordable G-Class [1]. [1] - https://www.motortr…

Manufacturers must hit a level of CO2 emissions on average across their whole fleet. As such, Suzuki is choosing to discontinue the Jimny because of the tougher fleet average targets starting in 2025. Overall you’re right that it’s a bit of a fix; Mercedes ‘pools’ its emissions with other manufacturers/brands. It currently pools with Smart, but may also pool with Volvo/Polestar? [0] It’s such an obvious approach to ‘…

Is that weighted for individual car popularity? Because couldn’t you put three push cars in your lineup that you don’t realistically expect to sell and be fine?

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

#700

Post by whoknowsidont »

skort wrote: post #609
maerF0x0 wrote: post #587

Earlier quoted context omitted.

feature, not a bug, they want you to buy their $4000 BOSE upgrade which is actually $500 of equipment.

Do you have any proof or even a hint of a reason that this will be the case? Or is this just nonsense? Their FAQs even state: > Built-in infotainment systems raise a car’s price, and they become outdated quickly and have high failure rates. It seems unlikely that a company saying this will throw in a $4,000 infotainment system in a $20,000 vehicle.

The parent comment was about the general trend for car manufacturers to do this, not the manufacturer in question.
Post reply on HN