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

electrek.co

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

#91

Post by splistud »

ldoughty wrote: post #53
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #2

Honestly, I think $7,000 delivered for this is a pretty good price. It would make a nice farm vehicle, especially with that dump bed. It's in the same price range as a lower end UTV and looks like it would be far more comfortable doing, e.g., snow clearing duty. Swap in a set of BFG Mud Terrain tires and you're all set. Some feedback on reliability, the rust issues, etc. would be nice but I'd seriously think about ge…

I really want to agree -- I really want a truck like this in the USA, but unfortunately I need to disagree simply because it is not street legal. I have an old 2001 beater truck I use for the purpose now, but I can't replace it with this EV because it's not street legal. I live in a rural area, but luckily I can drive 2 miles to a dump (transfer station) and 5 miles to a place with bulk mulch, soil, gravel, etc... Bu…

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

#92

Post by JohnBooty »

This seems pretty cool for all the reasons the author said, but what about long-term?

Getting replacement parts seems like a nightmare, if not impossible. What happens when the shocks wear out? When you bend a wheel rim on a rock? etc.

Maybe I'm just not informed, and it's easy to get parts. Or maybe these things are so mechanically simple that it's no big deal.

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

#93

Post by jfim »

fshbbdssbbgdd wrote: post #54
jfim wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha wow, that's such an adorable car. It's unfortunate that that kind of vehicle won't ever make it to the US though.

The closest thing was probably the electric Smart car that Mercedes makes: https://carbuzz.com/cars/smart/fortwo-electric-drive-cabrio They don’t sell them in the US anymore.

Oh wow, I didn't even know they made an electric smart, much less a convertible one. Not sure how good the EV part of that was (the article hints that it was terrible) but the form factor is really nice.

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

#94

Post by bitexploder »

enragedcacti wrote: post #43
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #2

Honestly, I think $7,000 delivered for this is a pretty good price. It would make a nice farm vehicle, especially with that dump bed. It's in the same price range as a lower end UTV and looks like it would be far more comfortable doing, e.g., snow clearing duty. Swap in a set of BFG Mud Terrain tires and you're all set. Some feedback on reliability, the rust issues, etc. would be nice but I'd seriously think about ge…

It really isn't too bad if you have the right use case. You could get a Kei truck which makes a lot more power and you can register, but you'll be paying a good bit more ($9k for a 1990 with a dump bed near me) and you'll have the fun of maintaining a 30 year old JDM vehicle.

You can get them at 20 years old. Some states will not let you register them, like my home state, Colorado. Sad times, they are pretty practical.

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

#95

Post by davidbanham »

hotpotamus wrote: post #89
7speter wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “destructive crash tests” are required so that you have a fighting chance in surviving a crash with a SUV

I understand that, but how would I do in crash with an SUV if I were on a motorcycle and are those street legal?

A motorcycle has obvious dangers. An unsafe car has non-obvious dangers.

A lot of government regulation is about preventing non-obvious dangers or trying to make them obvious.

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

#96

Post by ClumsyPilot »

hotpotamus wrote: post #89
7speter wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “destructive crash tests” are required so that you have a fighting chance in surviving a crash with a SUV

I understand that, but how would I do in crash with an SUV if I were on a motorcycle and are those street legal?

Also Cycles and Horses and Donkeys are all legal on the road.

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

#97

Post by Root_Denied »

dengsauve wrote: post #51

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…

In this case I think the positive reactions a year later are more a result of having a good use case for the NEV/LSV rather than the truck being a good buy for the general public.

There's also arguably limited use cases like the article brings up (off road, not street legal, lots of land) - or at least "limited" in comparison with the average / mean vehicle that gets purchased by consumers.

Great that it has a use case and it's working for him, but I hesitate to universalize his experience as a result.

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

#98

Post by synicalx »

TheRealPomax wrote: post #56
OrangeMonkey wrote: post #7

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?

If it rolls at that speed, and the poorly QA'ed roof crumples in you could definitely end up with serious injuries or even die.

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

#99

Post by ghaff »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #2

Honestly, I think $7,000 delivered for this is a pretty good price. It would make a nice farm vehicle, especially with that dump bed. It's in the same price range as a lower end UTV and looks like it would be far more comfortable doing, e.g., snow clearing duty. Swap in a set of BFG Mud Terrain tires and you're all set. Some feedback on reliability, the rust issues, etc. would be nice but I'd seriously think about ge…

My neighbor with about 35 acres has a golf cart she drives around. Probably wouldn't need this as she also has a tractor and a pickup but can easily imagine something like this for a large property.

Another neighbor has an ATV he uses for snow plowing his long driveway. You need to keep on top of things relative to plowing with a pickup but he seems to manage.

But yeah. If you're going to have farm vehicles are probably better and more standard options.

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

#100

Post by ghaff »

paxys wrote: post #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.

>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.

Well, and most people don't want a specialized vehicle they can only use on certain roads for certain purposes but which take a spot on their property, need to be maintained at some level, etc. Maybe have some costs for registration, licensing, etc.

If you have an actual farm you may have a tractor, etc. but most people don't want a vehicle they can only use for limited purposes. And, as soon as you're on public roads, things like insurance come into play as well.

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