The issue with this is they claim the cost savings came from not having a screen and other silly features, but that’s not where money is spent.
The real cost savings came a tiny, 150 mile battery. It could easily be <100 miles loaded up after a few years of use, which means there are very few use cases for this truck, and it certainly doesn’t make sense without the tax credit. Cool idea, but there’s no getting around the price of batteries
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.
I drive 20 miles a day and fill my tank once a month.
Or I could plug in my car every night in my garage. Where I already park and exit my car every day.
There's no competition to be had here. It's a choice between going to the gas station occasionally or not at all.
The 100 mile EV doesn't go beyond 100 miles, but that's not what it's for and not why I need it. I need a puddle jumper to get beat up and rode hard in big city traffic for 20-40 minutes a day and that's it.
I would buy a 160km truck to drive to and from work.
I'm curious what kind of workplace you go to regularly that a truck is a good option for?
You can get a lot of Uber rides for $20k.
2 years worth according to my math using ride.guru and that's in advance. That also means I don't have a truck and I have to coordinate trips twice a day. And that strictly commuting, not accounting for all the other uses I have for a car...
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.
Yes, exactly. And a 150 mile battery is still not that tiny in terms of size and weight, and still probably costs more than 20k alone, (unless you source it from China.)
The plastic frame probably helps by making it super light. And that + the lack of paint definitely helps cut manufacturing costs