this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 24 minutes ago

This is cool, except you'll never be able to guarantee it'll make it to market to specification. They should try a small form factor too, with the same 2 seat option, even giving you the option to make a kei truck-esque experience.

Overall, looks solid.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 27 minutes ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 36 minutes ago* (last edited 32 minutes ago) (2 children)

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 to see real utility, look at this design.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 minutes ago (2 children)

The front trunk is a safety feature called a crumple zone and is objectively safer to be in a crash with.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 minutes ago* (last edited 8 minutes ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 minutes ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 minutes ago

You need infrastructure to actually support an alternative, otherwise cars are a necessity for many people to get to work and the grocery store.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 23 minutes ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 minutes ago

Americans won't be able to afford anything anyway pretty soon.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 47 minutes ago

Frugal design. I love it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 hour ago

no touchscreen

Sounds like a dream. Or public transport. It doesn't have touchscreen either.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 minutes ago* (last edited 16 minutes ago)

We’re owning the libs now! Now we can all buy any EV we want! It’s all computer.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

No stereo is the only thing I would change

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago (3 children)

Perfect except for it being a truck. Why is North America allergic to small cars?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 24 minutes ago

My hope is this will be another nail in the coffin for the giant bro dozers. Everybody I know who does actual real truck stuff have been crying for this exact vehicle for years. A small (in American terms) utilitarian vehicle for getting your truck stuff done. Essentially an American kei truck

Plus I think there have been a lot of small smart-car sized EV offerings, but I can’t really think of a small truck besides the Telo truck.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 53 minutes ago

I have an answer for this that's from my personal life if that's helpful.

I've lived either in the great plains or in the rural south my entire life, and I only found out a year ago you can pay $20 to rent a pickup truck. So up until that point, I thought, every group (of friends or family) has to have a person with a truck in it, in case someone needs to move, or in case of an emergency (like a tornado effing up their house and now you have to clear the property).

When I found out that renting a truck is so cheap, I was so mad! All that time wasted paying extra for more car than I needed! I prefer something small and cheap and efficient, personally, but so does everyone else I know so I always wound up with the truck. (And I helped a LOT of people move over the years as a result.)

Obviously this is n=1 but at least it's my story? And my answer is legit, "ignorance and being too poor to own my house, and landlords like to jack rent on someone staying in one place every year so you have to keep moving to avoid that needless creep of fees."

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Trucks are incredibly useful?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 56 minutes ago* (last edited 55 minutes ago)

Sure but not every single person needs a truck? My comment isn’t even intending to hate on trucks, I literally just want a small car that’s electric. I don’t drive often and I want something that’s electric but doesn’t take up much space

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 hour ago

I hate that Bezos backed them

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

No stereo is fine if it has ports for me to just buy my own car stereo kit and add it afterwards. I don't see the point of no paint, like don't you need it to protect the metal from the environment

[–] [email protected] 1 points 58 minutes ago (1 children)

It's no paint because the body is plastic. It's not even black plastic coated grey. Just grey plastic.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 57 minutes ago (1 children)

I see, are there any other all plastic mass market cars out there, I'm just not sure how that material holds up in terms of wear and tear and accidents

[–] [email protected] 1 points 27 minutes ago* (last edited 15 minutes ago)

Look up Saturn plastic body panels. The hood, roof, and top of the trunk we're still metal.

I had one as my first car. I got rear ended once, and the plastic parts were mostly fine (a little paint chipped off), but the metal top got bent. The trunk itself worked and I never fixed the metal.

Edit to add: the car was made in 1999, I think I bought it in 2008 and had it for about ten years. I got rid of it because the electronics were getting gremlins. Neither the paint on the plastic or metal panels had issues except for the mentioned fender bender.

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