Yes, more of this please!
No idea why it has no stereo though. That feels like a pretty basic feature. Doesnt even need to be built in. Just iso standard head unit bay would do.
They could have put a screen in it so I can hook up my phone to it!
That’s like the one thing I care about in the car being able to use android auto!
Already tired of seeing this cool car and now I’m already seeing more “fuck car” articles and post; as well as countries wanting to limit cars on the road. Something is at foot
I swear, there’s a massive opportunity in the market for robust and inexpensive products.
Stop making shit as ‘thin’ as possible. Stop adding a bunch of nonsense just to drive up the price.
Keep it simple. Keep it basic. Do one thing and do it well.
Do one thing and do it well.
The philosophy behind UNIX! I love it. Thank you for sharing that, and I fully agree with you.
The approach outlined by your suggestion is likely to be much more environmentally friendly too.
Make it 10k-12k and it would be a yes if parts and repair ability were guaranteed for 10 years.
Good luck, independent car manufacturers usually get bankrupted out of business directly or indirectly by a market dominated by traditional car manufacturing lobbies designed to be replete with minefields that usually go up in difficulty just before it’s supposed to reach mass production. There have been plenty of innovative EV designs that have died off because of this, and it’s telling how much power those lobbies have when its the one thing countries will unite against to keep Chinese competition off of their borders.
Crazy how so many people have been begging for bare ones, affordable electric vehicles.
Then when one comes on the scene they do nothing but complain. Can’t please anybody these days it seems.
It’s a great concept, but it has blinding LED headlights and automatic high beams
instant fuck off
Odds are they’re not the same people, but I see your sentiment.
The moron refusing to buy it just because it’s backed by Bezos clearly has no idea about the world he’s living in.
They claim 20k, which is nice, but noone will believe it will stay that way. Given the [gestures broadly to everything] they likely will need to find an non-lithium based alternative battery before the reserves run dry, the price sky-rockets and then would-be buyers deal with scalper prices (not like thats much different than going to a dealership anyway).
This would have been a smash hit in 2022, but now its too little, too late.
20k after 7500 tax incentive. So 27,500 approximately. Cheapest EVs are I think 29k right now. So this is well within the realm of possibility imo. It will probably go up a bit by the time it makes it out the door. And probably no one will get the barebones model and spend 2-3k at least on accessories.
The 20k is after government incentives, definitely not permanent pricing. Lithium isn’t scarce in the US, at least. The McDermitt Caldera reserves are quite substantial.
Its range is also only 180 miles. The smaller battery definitely helps keep the cost down.
This car might not be for me but I definitely see its value and hope they’re successful.
Is it a networked surveillance nightmare?
It doesn’t seem to come with any gadgets. No touch screen, not even a radio. It’s possible that it still broadcasts location data and it’s possible they could hide a mic to record audio as well. But it isn’t connecting to your phone with Bluetooth, it can’t exploit the Bluetooth connection to scrub your messages and socials. So it’s a LOT better than most new cars.
Less reason to believe that it is than most cars that literally market themselves as connected
Lost me at “American”.
This is like the electric version of the bare-bones Toyota ICE pickup
It’s backed by Bezos. Wouldn’t even consider it for that reason alone.
What else are you going to do? I hate Bezoz as much as anybody, but if I could actually get one of these for 25k? I’d buy three of them just to keep around for emergencies.
Just not buy one?
I second that. How about we tax Bezos and Musk et al. into “just” millionaire status and then fucking have parties without these Bezo-trucks.
I’m sure, somehow, mostly everything is at least slightly backed by bezos
Glad someone has the balls to produce a truck people actually want. Give me power windows, locks, radio, cruise and a cheap radio and I am fine. I guess I throw in 4x4 because I live in Colorado.
I would love to also see an ice or a hybrid version of this truck too. This is exactly want so many people are wanting right now. Very excited to see this EV when it hits the road
They can’t legally make an ice version of this truck because of how emissions laws work in the US.
But does it break when water ?
The msrp of this truck is $28000. For having nothing in it that is absurd. Not to mention the rebates put it at 20k but you still have to pay upfront which deters most people from getting. Overall shit truck, shit design, shit price.
The design is bad. The front trunk is a bad use of space, and the Japanese figured this out decades ago with the Kei truck. If you want see real utility, look at this design.
Front trunks save lives in collisions though. I’d 100% rather be in a vehicle with a hood between me and another car, and I say this as an avid kei-truck fan.
I have owned a Nissan vanette, And let me tell you, it’s a van-full of nope! Steering is super weird, as the wheels are under you, the feeling that your knees are going to be what crumples in a crash is unnerving, having the engine right next to you (it’s between the front seats) is smelly, warms up one of you thighs, but just one, even in the summer, and a slew of other shit. Standard layout for me, at least Eurovan layout.
Counterpoint: One of the first things people buy for a truck is a container for the bed for things they don’t want to be in the weather but also not in the cab.
A front-trunk eliminates this need which also frees up bed space.
Exactly, you can usually tell someone actually needs a truck if it’s got a stainless box behind the cab. Obviously there’s still people who cosplay as truck drivers that will have them too, but there are other signs you can use to tell them apart.
The front trunk is a safety feature called a crumple zone and is objectively safer to be in a crash with.
European vans are probably the safest of utility cars, they don’t have a front trunk.
I did an image search for “European utility van” and everything I saw had a front engine compartment as a crumple zone. So I’m not sure what point you’re taking to make here.
That is true, except I’m talking about utility primarily. Garbage trucks already fulfill the design I’m mentioning and are used daily in most cities already.
Except that driver and passengers are above most crash situations. That is a cab over truck. The Japanese mini truck you referenced is a forward control. Different things , actually.
That’d be fine too. What’s your point?
Are you saying that because a heavy duty, highly specialized, utility vehicle, doesn’t have a crumple zone that the Slate truck is a bad design?
In my view the Slate truck is designed as a work vehicle. It’s for people who need to both hual things, and have a place to store tools. It’s trunk is perfect for that.
The Kei, and box trucks that we have in the US (which would have been a way better example for you to use.), are great for delivery vehicles. Jobs where you load things up and come back with an empty truck.
There’s a place for both form factors. The Slate is not a bad design, it just doesn’t fit what you think the use case for a small truck is.
Hm. Interesting point.
Maybe as we move our economy away from cars, and people dont all have to be drivers, we could also move away from cars that are poorly designed specifically around bad drivers.
Kei was recently found to botch all of their safety test scores for many years. As another commenter said, any crash in that design is guaranteed life threatening without some type of buffer.
Yeah, it would be nice to not need cars. I feel like this is a step towards function and away from vanity. Which is a good thing, even if it’s not the end goal.
You need infrastructure to actually support an alternative, otherwise cars are a necessity for many people to get to work and the grocery store.
Americans won’t buy a Kei truck though. Granted, the frunk is a marketing concession, but it’s a fine one, if it can help push the market away from huge and expensive SUVs.
Or, more succinctly, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
Forward control trucks, like that Kei truck are shit in so many respects, it would take a while to list. Source: I’ve owned one of it’s larger siblings and learned to hate them (being 187 cm tall didn’t help)
Americans can’t buy them new because of the so-called Chicken Tax. We can only import them if they’re speed-governed, or at least 25 years old.
Even with those restrictions, lots of Americans want them, including me. There are quite a few importers bringing them over, including one that just started up in my area. They’re desirable enough that major media outlets are running articles about how people who need to get real work done covet kei trucks.
Yes, Americans would buy them. Americans are buying them.
Yep, the Chevrolet Bolt is the closest I could get to a Kei van.
Americans won’t be able to afford anything anyway pretty soon.
