We tried making them reach 100km/h in 2 seconds...
We tried making them use complex mobile apps to do things like open their doors and recharge...
We gave them Advanced Telemetry that collects GIGABYTES of their usage data every month so that we can teach Auto Pilot to drive badly on their behalf and also Optimize their Marketing Experience...
We tried adding quirky features such as light shows when they turn on, replacing the entire dashboard of controls with a giant touchscreen tablet, ice boxes in the frunk, 240V power plugs so they can use their welders on the go and even a Virtual Whoopie Cushion...
...and we even tried to make a giant steel pyramid on wheels...what a statement!
We gave them all of that value for a mere $99,999! How could anyone refuse!?
@sohan give me tiny electric truck plz. via car share! I just want to haul some dirt or wood and not burn 50 gallons of gas and risk running over a child because I don’t see them
Agreed. And lower the price tag. Much. Say $25,000. Small cab, good sized bed. About 4x8 so you could lay plywood flat, (or 4x6, but you could put the tailgate down). Powerful enough engine to tow a trailer, but not too much. Range could be < 150 miles. Maybe extra battery modules you could put in the bed.
@christa@sohan What is the American thing about trucks? Most people aren't in landscaping or something where they constantly need it. We have a small trailer that we use when we need to haul stuff and don't have to constantly drive it around empty.
@Giliell@christa@sohan I see this all the time here in West Virginia and I asked people about it. They want as much steel between them and other people as possible. They'd drive a main battle tank if they could.
@shuttersparks@christa@sohan They're turning the road into an arms race and don't even understand they're the problem. No wonder the US have the highest number of road deaths in the developed world.
People know that accident statistics clearly show that the heavier vehicle usually wins in an accident. And makers of SUVs emphasize this, pointing out the thickness of the doors and how many layers of steel there are, etc. My friend's Hyundai Palisade SUV is like that. She has a 1 year old insulated in a crash-proof child seat in the middle of the vehicle and the doors are like a foot thick. It's a huge SUV yet passenger space is cramped because of all the armor around you. This is going to be difficult to undo because people want to protect themselves and their children, and they're driven by fear. Economical operation isn't even part of the equation.
@sohan My work truck is a Tacoma long bed (smallest I could buy in 2016). At the hardware store yesterday I lusted after the little tiny imported old Suzuki wrong size drive that parked next to me. No amenities. A bigger more useful bed than my truck. 4WD.. perfect for runs to hardware stores and projects. I'd sell my Tacoma for a new electric one that size an a 100 mile range. Considered building one. Pic is similar, not same truck.
@sohan I dream with a vehicle like this: https://aptera.us/ super efficient, or that's what they promise. I live pretty far from shops and I need to use a vehicle to get down to the town to get food, a vehicle like that would fit perfectly my needs.
@sohan Don't worry. The Chinese will fill that need before long and US automakers will miss the boat again. The Arizona desert will be filled with unsold 6 ton SUVs.
Yes but also can we maybe put pressure on Democrats to repeal the Obama Administration's mpg rules that rewarded American carmakers for only selling larger and larger vehicles, mostly "trucks" (the definition was greatly loosened) for the last decade and a half?
They are the direct and possibly inevitable result of the CAFE mpg rules put in place the Obama administration.
The rules are set up so that larger vehicles have a better chance of meeting their smaller mpg requirements/improvements - or at least of not missing them by too much and thus incurring much smaller "fines".
We have few if any small cars anymore because they are penalized proportionally more, and with higher target miles per gallon.
@sohan Not entirely accurate. Chevy spent a lot of time, money, and research on electric vehicles, starting in rhe early 00s. The Chevy Volt was the result. An amazing piece of engineering and a step forward in electric drive trains. After the Volt, the Chevy Bolt ticked all the boxes of a small, affordable, long-range electric car. After massive investments, both cars had flat sales. The next logical step was a pivot to electric trucks and suvs. Chevy literally bet the co. on electrics.
@mike@sohan and they managed to cancel both just as government subsidies were going to make them affordable. GM has always had amazing engineers and terrible management decisions.
@mike@sohan dealers were charging over sticker price for Bolts because supply didn’t keep up with demand. Sales could have been higher if they made more.
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