Hacker News Reader

Comment by xbmcuser | Hacker News Reader

Looks like the design requirement for a heavy duty vehicle were not properly followed. Though that's how tesla builds something like software build find faults then itteriate. For light duty if you can get chinese $2000 truck with a hydraulic lift I think china is going to takeover the world's vehicle manufacturing markets.

https://electrek.co/2023/11/14/two-years-after-buying-a-2000...

View on HN

That's something that's basically equivalent to a golf cart with a bed on it. Hardly an example of anything useful except transporting some stuff around your own property.

FTA: "It’s fine if people want to call it a “glorified golf cart”, though I’m not sure I’ve seen a golf cart that can tow a boat, haul furniture, dump mulch, and that comes with creature comforts like air-conditioning, infotainment screen, power windows and locks, and a frunk."

Yea, i've read it but the point still stands. And there's all sorts of tricked out golf carts available with most of those features. Being able to bounce around your own property is cool, and there's many types of small vehicles for that, but they're not something you compare to a road worthy vehicle.

> that can tow a boat

LOL, most golf carts could tow that tiny little boat.

It’s basically a quad with a cabin. That’s pretty clever and would be useful in limited cases like working a farm. Obviously an F-150 or whatnot can also leave the farm.

I don't think it's any smaller than a smart car, and people drive those around all the time. I'm not sure why this would be limited to a farm while an F-150 is not. I'm not sure the Datsun and Nissan trucks of the 80's were much bigger, and those saw plenty of use.

It’s going to be difficult getting far at a max speed of 25mph.

> I'm not sure the Datsun and Nissan trucks of the 80's were much bigger

For comparison, the smallest Datsun 720 was at least 1 to 2 feet larger in both length and width.

for $2 fucking thousand not $70-100k.

Oh yea, it totally looks like a replacement for a $100k F-250. The same class of vehicle really.

Have you never seen old Datsun and Nissan trucks? Very small, probably not much bigger than this, and those saw plenty of use.

That seems reductive. Ideally it’d be a little bit bigger and I’m not sure what the range is but I could totally see myself using one of those.

Even just being able to pickup appliances and furniture + run stuff to the dump would be enough to justify it at that price. Of course… they’d have to get it licensed in the US which would probably raise the cost a bunch

I think that vehicle is neat. I love the size and capabilities. Honestly, this would be a great vehicle for me with a few modifications. But I found the article to be at least a _little_ disingenuous.

> It was listed at $2,000, and I just knew I had to have it ... The price ballooned as I added a bigger battery and accessories from the factory, not to mention the exorbitant sea shipping freight ... Though to be fair, that A/C cost me extra for the factory installation.

I wish they listed the final cost, at least the final cost with the bigger battery and accessories they added. Seems much more than $2,000 based on their wording.

> like an alternative to a UTV ... It topped out at 25 mph ... it’s not technically street-legal (it doesn’t meet the safety requirements for LSVs)

A UTV is a great comparison, especially for their uses. It will almost certainly beat UTVs that are common in the US on price (again, they didn't tell us the final price, spec'ed out), but it's hard to find a good comparison given the minimal details.

> I’m not sure I’ve seen a golf cart that can tow a boat

At marina I used to frequent, the owner would move 20+ foot boats around the property using a ~30 year old ride-on lawnmower without any trouble at all. He even launched and recovered a few large boats with it, though that was always dicey.

Overall this looks a nice vehicle to have on a hobby farm, but it seems to have a long (and expensive) way to go before it's something to buy for driving on roads.

That’s about the worst possible way to build a physical product, especially a heavy duty industrial product like a semi truck.

If that’s honestly their design philosophy I have serious doubts about their ability to contend with any serious competition beyond what they’ve gained so far from being a first mover in the less rigorous world of end consumer cars.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com