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

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1457 points kwindla | 5 comments | 25 Apr 25 15:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.327s | source
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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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eightys3v3n ◴[25 Apr 25 21:13 UTC] No.43798579[source]▶
I would buy a 160km truck to drive to and from work.
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1. Jach ◴[25 Apr 25 22:59 UTC] No.43799282[source]▶
You can get a lot of Uber rides for $20k.
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2. monkaiju ◴[26 Apr 25 00:13 UTC] No.43799731[source]▶
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...
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3. ceejayoz ◴[26 Apr 25 00:41 UTC] No.43799873[source]▶
$50-100 a day goes quicker than you’d think.
4. Marsymars ◴[27 Apr 25 15:30 UTC] No.43812604[source]▶
That jives pretty well with the total cost of ownership of a vehicle. There are plenty of reasons why one would want to buy, but unless one of those reasons is specifically “to be a frugal driver with a Civic/Prius/Corolla”, Uber at least seems cost-competitive for in-city use.

I’m a two-car household with my partner, but I’ve assumed that if one car is out of commission, we’d be fine with Uber+one car for at least several months while we take the time to thoroughly research/negotiate/etc. options.

5. Jach ◴[27 Apr 25 21:54 UTC] No.43815449[source]▶
Of course, my remark was more on if the sole purpose was to drive to and from work. It seems absurd to be ok with spending $20k if that is the primary feature. I'd expect a few more use cases, especially to buy new vs. used. But I've gone years with a used $800 car and my current vehicle was acquired in 2011, was only 5 years old at the time, for around $8k and has been going fine since.