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

731–740 of 1001 posts

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

#731

Post by cco »

resters wrote: post #632

This is extremely refreshing. I think that it would be possible to make something like this in the US for under $15K even. Cars and trucks are so over-engineered and come with tons of low value options intended to drive up the price. For a case in point, consider that headlights that turn on and off automatically in response to darkness (or rain) are not a standard feature on many cars, yet they include a manual swit…

I'll do you one better, car headlights should never be off while the motor is running. Just like motorcycles since the 70s (maybe 80s?).

No switch at all, ignition on, headlights on, period.

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

#732

Post by resters »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #646
resters wrote: post #632

This is extremely refreshing. I think that it would be possible to make something like this in the US for under $15K even. Cars and trucks are so over-engineered and come with tons of low value options intended to drive up the price. For a case in point, consider that headlights that turn on and off automatically in response to darkness (or rain) are not a standard feature on many cars, yet they include a manual swit…

BYD could totally avoid the tariffs by making in the USA (well, they were planning a factory in Mexico, and tariffs on car parts will kill that if something doesn’t change). They already set up a bus factory in SoCal. My guess is that Chinese automakers are still hesitant about introducing their brands to Americans given politics (Volvo and Polestar are Chinese owned but I think the design is still mainly done in Swe…

Companies spending money to navigate tariff regimes adds tremendous cost and inefficiency that makes everyone worse off.

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

#734

Post by WalterBright »

MostlyStable wrote: post #338
aidenn0 wrote: post #324

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,…

All carbon tax is inherently regressive but that's also trivially fixable. Make it revenue neutral and give every citizen a flat portion of the total collected revenue. Bam, it is now progressive , since on average richer people will spend more on fuel (and therefore the tax) even though it is likely a much smaller percentage of their spending. Every single one of your ideas has problems that are solved by a carbon t…

Finally, some common sense!

I'll boil it down to:

    If you want less of something, tax it.
It's the most efficient mechanism for internalizing external costs.

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

#735

Post by tonmoy »

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 ‘…

I don’t see the issue in that though. If the target was to keep the average emission down across the entire country and if inefficient brand A decided to merge with efficient brand B to keep the average down that seems like it still adheres to the spirit of the law

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

#737

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

It's embarrassing when people buy a truck and don't use it for work, towing or payload. So you bought a fuel-inefficient non-aerodynamic vehicle whose storage area is open to the air and unusable for passengers, and it's not big enough to carry or tow large items? What a smart choice.

However, with the SUV package and lift kit, this is actually useful. It's basically the same size (and payload and towing capacity) of the 2nd gen Scion xB. A boxy, roomy, small, cheap car. Absolutely useful and great. (Unlike a tiny truck.)

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

#738

Post by nimish »

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...

Repealing these Obama era rules would go a long way to restoring automotive affordability. Can't undo cash for clunkers though
Post reply on HN