I think it's perfect! I've fantasized about getting an old Nissan Hardbody, stuffing the bed with batteries and putting 2 overvoted forklift motors under the hood.
This is basically a reliable, commercially viable version of that concept.
You are overestimating the price of EVs in the US. I was recently in the market for an EV and my budget wasn't anywhere near 70k and I found several options--way more than I had expected.
In the following when I saw "tax credit" I mean the federal $7500 tax credit. Many EV makers with models that do not qualify for the tax credit are offering an equivalent credit which I will call "tax match". For some that is a straight up $7500 off. For others it is only if you finance through them (but if you prefer to buy outright just finance and then pay it off right away).
It is this tax match that was responsible for there being way more cars in my price range than I thought there would be.
BTW, if you are leasing instead of buying the tax credit is generally available even for EVs that do not qualify when you buy them.
I'm mostly going to be giving prices and discounts as you would find them at a dealer to better reflect what you are actually looking at out of pocket.
• Nissan Leaf S for around $29k. Tax match plus some other Nissan bonuses that every dealer seems to be offering brings it to $20k.
• Nissan Leaf SV Plus for around $39k. $29k after tax match plus other common discounts from Nissan and dealers.
• Nissan Ariya $42k for FWD, $46k for AWD, or $35k and $38k after tax match.
• Chevy Equinox EV for $35k, $27.5 after tax credit. That's the FWD model and has a 319 mile range. $5k for an AWD model (which drops the range to 309). (AWD actually adds $3k, but the base AWD model has $2k of other packages that are optional on the $35k model. If you start with the $35k model and add the packages you want you will almost certain add those packages too, and so then going to AWD will just add $3k).
• Hyundai Kona SE at $33k or $26k after the tax match.
• Hyundai Kona SEL at $37k or $30k after the tax match. This is what I ended up buying.
• Kia Niro Wind for $40k (but really $42k because I think most dealers add the package that replaces resistance heating with a heat pump) or $35k after the tax match.
• Kia Niro Wave for $47k (with the heat pump package) or $39k with the tax match and other discounts I saw at most dealers.
• Toyota bZ4X for $40k FWD or $44 AWD. No tax credit and no official tax match but the dealer I visited really wanted to push it so offered about $5k in discounts and rebates and offered $3k more in trade for my 2006 Honda CR-V than anyone else did and something that I don't remember that brought the AWD down to $35k. Oh and also 0% financing.
• Chevy Blazer EV at around $49k or $42k with the tax credit. I've seen some big discounts on this. My nearest Chevy dealer has a $6500 "Discount for Everyone" on these which would bring it $36k. I currently don't see that anywhere else so it may just be that one dealer.
• Hyundai IONIQ 6 SEL at $52k or $44k after the tax match. IONIQ 5 SE is about the same.
• Subaru Soltera at $40k. No tax credit or match.
• Fiat 500e at $34k MSRP. Dealers seem to give a discount of around $2k.
• Volkswagen ID.4 is a little confusing. My nearest dealer has an 2025 ID.4 Limited for $42.5 MSRP. So do other dealers. But Volkswagen's site does not list a Limited. The lowest trim is the Pro at $45k MSRP. Anyway, no tax credit or match but it looks like there is some sort of $5k bonus going on so about $36k.
I think that might be all the current model EVs in the US that are generally available for under around $40k after widely available incentives.
There are also several between there and the $70k range you mentioned.
The basic protocol from an AC charger to your car is, "hello, I have X amps available, don't take more or you will trip my circuit breaker". The car responds by charging at or below the current advertised.
When you charge in a context where the car unlocks the charger (i.e. Tesla Supercharger), the protocol must divulge the car's certificate, signed by the owner of the charging network (like mTLS). There would be privacy-preserving protocols for this, but they are not used in practice.
I'm very curious how they are managing "no screens".
I thought all vehicles in the U.S. were required to have rear-view cameras for safety. I'm curious how they are getting around that.
Edit: I now see that the article speculates that maybe there's a screen in the rear-view window for this. But I can't find anything concrete.
My understanding is that the regulations require a certain amount of rear visibility, either directly in the mirror or via a rear-view camera. But the former likely wouldn't be possible with the bed in the way.
> Rather than relying on a built-in infotainment system, you'll use your phone plugged into a USB outlet
Absolutely horrible.
3-4 standard DIN slots with simple plastic covers would let users install anything they want: a 2-DIN player, a 1-DIN CB radio and a 1-DIN equalizer or amp or tachograph, or simple storage space.
I don't know, as long as I can do basic controls (pause, play, skip, previous, and maybe go ahead/back 10-20s if you're feeling nasty) this is basically my dream setup. Why futz with pairing and connecting via Bluetooth when you probably want to charge your phone anyway?
I keep an insert in my phone's USB-C port that blocks it. It would be kind of annoying to have to take it out whenever I want to connect the phone to the car and then put it back in when I leave the car.
I'm not actually sure that this is necessary with USB-C, but when I had Lightning phones I noticed that every so often they would stop charging when I plugged them in.
I determined that was from pocket lint getting into the port. Scraping the lint out with a toothpick would fix things. When I got a phone with wireless charging I switched to using that and put a cover on the Lightning port.
I kept the habit of using a port cover when I got a USB-C phone. I've not actually checked to see if pocket lint is a problem with USB-C ports.
I want a hilux champ to do odd jobs around town. It will never make it here because it doesn’t meet safety standards, I really wish the nanny state would let me make my own decisions.
Where I live you are much more likely to die getting hit by a logging truck than being harmed by a small utility truck without collision avoidance sensors.
Hell I almost died in a head on collision with a semi truck if I didn’t swerve out of the way. Commercial trucking is where safety should be emphasized, not people who just want a small utility vehicle to do jobs around town.
Safety standards are not only for you, for the biggest part they are for pedestrians, other vehicles an people that happen to be in the car with you.
When Americans complain about the "nanny state" I mentally replace it with "we collectively". Because that is what a state ought to be — a expression of collective will and common sense policy. If it isn't that way in your country currently, that isn't on the state, that is on the people who are supposed to hold the power. Quite frankly, an antagonistic perspective on "the state" might even help it becoming worse.
Collective rules are not needed if anybody just would act informed and reasonable. But that is not the case and never has been the case. Without a state the next-big entity (a company, some local war lord, a gang, a king) will become the force where the buck stops. Unless you want to be at their whim collective and divided power (Rule of Law) is the way to go.
I hope you do realize that what you're saying here could also be read as: "I really wish we (collectively) would let me (individually) make bad decisions that would hurt us (collectively) if everybody (individually) did it". But the ultra-individualistic insistance to not be part of society seems to be very trendy right now, and is usally made by people who rely on society to provide everything to them in ways they aren't even aware about.
A hilux champ without collision avoidance sensors is far from the most dangerous thing on the road.
I dont like the choice to hamstring millions of businesses and individuals who need legitimate work trucks from having a cheap and reliable option when those trucks would not be even close to the most dangerous thing on the road.
If this is void of telemetry, dial-home and other fascistic crap then I would seriously consider it. It's in a similar price range of street legal UTV's but with more room assuming it stays in that range when it launches.
It is an interesting idea, but there is obviously a lot which can go wrong here.
Can you actually build an EV like that, conforming to all regulations, with significant cost reduction?
Do people actually want less screens or do they just say that? Is customization a road to profitability?(VWs ID.1 concept has a similar idea to lower entry price, by making several upgrades user installable, so they can be bought over time.
This is obviously a US only car and the US is very lacking in EV adoption. Will this sell in significant numbers?
Can you actually make it cheaply? Rivian is notoriously unprofitable and making cheap cars is, far, far harder than making expensive cars.
Yeah, I would honestly love this. Less to go wrong == better. My passenger window has been broken for years now -- at a cost of over $500 to fix the motor, I just live with a non-functioning window. The warranty expense / savings on these types of things can really add up over time and I bet really helps the company stay profitable / viable.
Readit News
This is basically a reliable, commercially viable version of that concept.
In the following when I saw "tax credit" I mean the federal $7500 tax credit. Many EV makers with models that do not qualify for the tax credit are offering an equivalent credit which I will call "tax match". For some that is a straight up $7500 off. For others it is only if you finance through them (but if you prefer to buy outright just finance and then pay it off right away).
It is this tax match that was responsible for there being way more cars in my price range than I thought there would be.
BTW, if you are leasing instead of buying the tax credit is generally available even for EVs that do not qualify when you buy them.
I'm mostly going to be giving prices and discounts as you would find them at a dealer to better reflect what you are actually looking at out of pocket.
• Nissan Leaf S for around $29k. Tax match plus some other Nissan bonuses that every dealer seems to be offering brings it to $20k.
• Nissan Leaf SV Plus for around $39k. $29k after tax match plus other common discounts from Nissan and dealers.
• Nissan Ariya $42k for FWD, $46k for AWD, or $35k and $38k after tax match.
• Chevy Equinox EV for $35k, $27.5 after tax credit. That's the FWD model and has a 319 mile range. $5k for an AWD model (which drops the range to 309). (AWD actually adds $3k, but the base AWD model has $2k of other packages that are optional on the $35k model. If you start with the $35k model and add the packages you want you will almost certain add those packages too, and so then going to AWD will just add $3k).
• Hyundai Kona SE at $33k or $26k after the tax match.
• Hyundai Kona SEL at $37k or $30k after the tax match. This is what I ended up buying.
• Kia Niro Wind for $40k (but really $42k because I think most dealers add the package that replaces resistance heating with a heat pump) or $35k after the tax match.
• Kia Niro Wave for $47k (with the heat pump package) or $39k with the tax match and other discounts I saw at most dealers.
• Toyota bZ4X for $40k FWD or $44 AWD. No tax credit and no official tax match but the dealer I visited really wanted to push it so offered about $5k in discounts and rebates and offered $3k more in trade for my 2006 Honda CR-V than anyone else did and something that I don't remember that brought the AWD down to $35k. Oh and also 0% financing.
• Chevy Blazer EV at around $49k or $42k with the tax credit. I've seen some big discounts on this. My nearest Chevy dealer has a $6500 "Discount for Everyone" on these which would bring it $36k. I currently don't see that anywhere else so it may just be that one dealer.
• Hyundai IONIQ 6 SEL at $52k or $44k after the tax match. IONIQ 5 SE is about the same.
• Subaru Soltera at $40k. No tax credit or match.
• Fiat 500e at $34k MSRP. Dealers seem to give a discount of around $2k.
• Volkswagen ID.4 is a little confusing. My nearest dealer has an 2025 ID.4 Limited for $42.5 MSRP. So do other dealers. But Volkswagen's site does not list a Limited. The lowest trim is the Pro at $45k MSRP. Anyway, no tax credit or match but it looks like there is some sort of $5k bonus going on so about $36k.
I think that might be all the current model EVs in the US that are generally available for under around $40k after widely available incentives.
There are also several between there and the $70k range you mentioned.
I've asked before but still not sure how much information is given to a charger when you plug in an EV?
When you charge in a context where the car unlocks the charger (i.e. Tesla Supercharger), the protocol must divulge the car's certificate, signed by the owner of the charging network (like mTLS). There would be privacy-preserving protocols for this, but they are not used in practice.
Edit: I now see that the article speculates that maybe there's a screen in the rear-view window for this. But I can't find anything concrete.
https://www.theverge.com/electric-cars/655527/slate-electric...
Absolutely horrible.
3-4 standard DIN slots with simple plastic covers would let users install anything they want: a 2-DIN player, a 1-DIN CB radio and a 1-DIN equalizer or amp or tachograph, or simple storage space.
I'm not actually sure that this is necessary with USB-C, but when I had Lightning phones I noticed that every so often they would stop charging when I plugged them in.
I determined that was from pocket lint getting into the port. Scraping the lint out with a toothpick would fix things. When I got a phone with wireless charging I switched to using that and put a cover on the Lightning port.
I kept the habit of using a port cover when I got a USB-C phone. I've not actually checked to see if pocket lint is a problem with USB-C ports.
Hell I almost died in a head on collision with a semi truck if I didn’t swerve out of the way. Commercial trucking is where safety should be emphasized, not people who just want a small utility vehicle to do jobs around town.
When Americans complain about the "nanny state" I mentally replace it with "we collectively". Because that is what a state ought to be — a expression of collective will and common sense policy. If it isn't that way in your country currently, that isn't on the state, that is on the people who are supposed to hold the power. Quite frankly, an antagonistic perspective on "the state" might even help it becoming worse.
Collective rules are not needed if anybody just would act informed and reasonable. But that is not the case and never has been the case. Without a state the next-big entity (a company, some local war lord, a gang, a king) will become the force where the buck stops. Unless you want to be at their whim collective and divided power (Rule of Law) is the way to go.
I hope you do realize that what you're saying here could also be read as: "I really wish we (collectively) would let me (individually) make bad decisions that would hurt us (collectively) if everybody (individually) did it". But the ultra-individualistic insistance to not be part of society seems to be very trendy right now, and is usally made by people who rely on society to provide everything to them in ways they aren't even aware about.
I dont like the choice to hamstring millions of businesses and individuals who need legitimate work trucks from having a cheap and reliable option when those trucks would not be even close to the most dangerous thing on the road.
>The myth of the sub-$25,000 electric vehicle has been around for more than 10 years now,
Equinox EV is MSRP 33.6K before 7.5 tax rebate. Looks and sounds like a decent modern compact SUV.
Can you actually build an EV like that, conforming to all regulations, with significant cost reduction?
Do people actually want less screens or do they just say that? Is customization a road to profitability?(VWs ID.1 concept has a similar idea to lower entry price, by making several upgrades user installable, so they can be bought over time.
This is obviously a US only car and the US is very lacking in EV adoption. Will this sell in significant numbers?
Can you actually make it cheaply? Rivian is notoriously unprofitable and making cheap cars is, far, far harder than making expensive cars.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/touchscreens
https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/features/automakers-reth...
In either case stated preference and revealed preference are different things.
I am not sure it's safe to associate wanting tactile controls equates to not wanting a clear screen for useful information. Like a backup camera.