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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

#711
post #572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

There are plenty of use cases in the narrow band that it can operate, but it is a pretty narrow band. Around town commuter in climate that doesn't need AWD/4WD, like great for shopping, commuting, or for small contractors doing jobs. Two people in the vehicle plus luggage, it will be interesting to see what happens to range. Love the concept.

That “narrow” band is the vast majority of American driving. People drastically overestimate their needs in this regard.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/07/07/...

> According to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, 95.1 percent of trips taken in personal vehicles are less than 31 miles; almost 60 percent of all trips are less than 6 miles. In total, the average U.S. driver only covers about 37 miles per day.

> In a study published in 2016, researchers at MIT found that a car with a 73-mile range (like an early version of the Nissan Leaf), charged only at night, could satisfy 87 percent of all driving days in the United States.

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

#714
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's exactly what I think a lot of techies want. Highly technical people tend to come in two varieties when it comes to electronics in their personal life: 1. Absolutely nothing smart that's not under their direct (or highly configurable) control. 2. Sure just take all my data I don't care. I'll pay subscriptions fees too. Modern cars mostly do #2... to the point we potentially faced a subscription being required to…

It's not clear what they mean by "dedicated tablet". If it's an integrated add-on provided by the company that just does Android-Auto/CarPlay, then that seems OK. If it's just a holster for a tablet, not so much. > It's exactly what I think a lot of techies want. > Highly technical people tend to come in two varieties when it comes to electronics in their personal life: I get it, I'm one of them. But using a tablet w…

option 3 might be go to cartoys and put whatever you want.

which would suit me just fine.

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

#715
post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

> 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. You give it back to poor as a income-phased out refundable tax credit. Crucially, base it not on how much they drive or consume, but on their income. Name it something like the "Worker's Energy Credit". In the worst case, it cancels out the car…

This is way too complicated. You just give it to everyone unconditionally and tax it as income. We already have progressive graduated income taxes with a huge exempt class, we don't need to layer anything on top of that.

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

#716
post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> 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. My 2024 EV doesnt have WiFi or Cellular radios.

> My 2024 EV doesnt have WiFi or Cellular radios.

Which car is that?

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

#717
post #665

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 ‘…

They likely saw it coming… and deliberately did it this way.

All local industry distorts their relevant politics. There’s lobbyists in the EU too.

The EU economy has a lot of car manufacturing, so cars are probably a big deal in Brussels.

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

#719

I like it. My wife runs a riding academy and we use a Honda Fit the way some people would use a pickup truck: we can fit 10 bales of wood shavings in the back. [1] We’re dreading when it fails because they don’t make the fit anymore and compact hatchbacks seem to be on the way out. Recent experiences have made me a bit of a Buick enthusiast and I can see driving a 2005-ish sedan except that I won’t get those sawdust…

A Mazda 5 might be a good option in the future. I used to run esports events and could get 20(!) 6’ tables in the back, with some rope to keep the back door down.

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

#720

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Lack of good charge management and battery conditioning. Why should it lack that? That's a tiny piece of software in the charge controller, which on this vehicle ought to be some tiny microcontroller.

In car it requires liquid cooling and from conversations I've had with former Tesla engineers, exquisite control over power quality. Just ask a Nissan Leaf or Chevy Bolt owner.

> exquisite control over power quality

So a... 16 bit microcontroller?

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