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.
Reminds of the first VW Beetle under fucking Hitler. One color, black. I wish Toyota would introduce their Hilux Champ to the North American market.
The Hilux is a perfect example of why tariffs won’t work the way Trump wants them to. The Hilux is not offered to the North American market because a retaliatory tariff applied over 60 years ago due to a trade dispute involving chicken (it is now known as “the chicken tax”) the original reasons for which are largely forgotten to modern consumers, yet the tariff has remained in place ever since. Rather than incentivizing the makers of trucks like the Hilux to move production to the US to bypass the tariff, instead the market for such trucks simply vanished, and manufacturers never bothered investing any effort to bring it back, because… why would they? There’s no profit in it for them.
The tariff hangs over the entire product category like a sword of damocles. Nobody will import them here, because they would need to be specially customized to meet domestic regulations and customers won’t pay for the tariff on the imports nevermind the redesign, so all they would be left with is a bunch of unsellable prototypes . And since there’s no way to test the viability of their products in the market, nobody can make a case to invest in building them here either, because the tariff could be gone tomorrow and they would instantly be put out of business by cheaper imports of the rich variety of light cargo vehicles used throughout the world. The tariff creates an insurmountable risk/reward mismatch that no sane company can ignore.
You can argue and nitpick about economics all you want, the proof is in the economy itself. If you think tariffs work, go ahead and buy a Toyota Hilux. I’ll wait. Some people have been waiting 60 years. It still hasn’t happened. And it’s not going to.
What I would love to see for a pickup like this is a rentable battery slab you could drop into the bed and temporarily boost the mileage for longer trips.
Want!
They could have put a screen in it so I can hook up my phone to it!
That’s like the one thing I care about in the car being able to use android auto!
Paywalled.
Anyone got a battery range on this vehicle?
150 miles per charge
Thanks.
I am excited, this is what my husband and I have been waiting for - a regular vehicle with no bells and whistles just to raise the price
Fun fact, this isn’t $20K but that’s what it takes to get people, to share the article. The actual arrival says that it’s $20K after government rebates in the US. So it’s actually expensive without tax dollars.
I’m at least glad it’s not yet another bigger truck. I just want a vehicle to get from A to B that can actually fit things in the bed
I wonder how much petrol/diesel would cost if the government didn’t subsidise it. And if they were actually held liable for oil spills.
And if they were held liable for the damage they’ve done to the environment and climate, and people’s health.
More to the point, you can’t rely on the US government to continue rebates for EVs unless the manufacturer is owned by Musk.
Yup! And hopefully starts a new thing that other makers get behind!
5ft bed and auto high beams, no thanks
Make it 10k-12k and it would be a yes if parts and repair ability were guaranteed for 10 years.
The chances of this ever being sold Zero.
I figure it gets purchased by a larger, established auto firm and slowly killed off.
Explain yourself!
Good luck, independent car manufacturers usually get bankrupted out of business directly or indirectly by a market dominated by traditional car manufacturing lobbies designed to be replete with minefields that usually go up in difficulty just before it’s supposed to reach mass production. There have been plenty of innovative EV designs that have died off because of this, and it’s telling how much power those lobbies have when its the one thing countries will unite against to keep Chinese competition off of their borders.
From caranddriver with no sign-in requirement.
Apart from its digital gauge cluster that also serves as the rearview camera display, power locks, cruise control, and a forward-collision-warning system with automated emergency braking, the Truck offers little in the way of luxuries.
Sounds nice. I do like highway lane following, but not essential.
Completely fabricated for the sake of fundraising.
It’s backed by Bezos. Wouldn’t even consider it for that reason alone.
Is it a networked surveillance nightmare?
