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

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1321 points kwindla | 6 comments | 25 Apr 25 15:01 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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guywithahat ◴[25 Apr 25 20:24 UTC] No.43798166[source]▶
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

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ceejayoz ◴[25 Apr 25 20:43 UTC] No.43798328[source]▶
There are plenty of use cases for a ~100 mile truck.
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1. DangitBobby ◴[25 Apr 25 22:07 UTC] No.43798972[source]▶
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.
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2. ceejayoz ◴[25 Apr 25 22:30 UTC] No.43799084[source]▶
I’d want one of these for in-town stuff, which is 90% of my driving.
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3. mystified5016 ◴[25 Apr 25 23:22 UTC] No.43799411[source]▶
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.

4. monkaiju ◴[26 Apr 25 00:08 UTC] No.43799698[source]▶
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.
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5. DangitBobby ◴[26 Apr 25 18:08 UTC] No.43805812[source]▶
Maybe if it was the only EV in town I'd change my tune. I am willing to pay extra for a battery that will take me 200 miles because I make one-way 100m trips often enough. Keep in mind, where I live there is some decent charging availability, but the places I would visit don't have much. I've also had a couple of experiences where I get to the charging place and it doesn't work for some reason. I have some range anxiety for sure.
6. DangitBobby ◴[26 Apr 25 18:09 UTC] No.43805822[source]▶
I'm just saying, many people aren't going to buy an EV until they see it as a strict upgrade over the ICE alternative.