It will be 3-5 years, but this is what I would enjoy: carries a 4x8 ft sheet of plywood 2-5 seats ~250-325 mi range Mini Cooper wheel base NACS charging port Built-in 2" receiver My Model 3 will reach End Of Life then as any future replacement battery would be "unobtainum." Open Source AutoPilot has reached a usable state. Right size for an old guy. The only problem, the front tires will throw up a lot of road dirt in the rain. I suspect the production ones will have a proper cover for the front wheels. Now if they could just put a proper MicroBus body on it. Bob Wilson
+1 on microbus. Am fascinated with the VW ID Buzz .... now if they would only reduce the price by $30,000!
It's a start-up, with a $50K target price. I don't know; a 4x8 piece of plywood in the same length of a mini - the rear seats would need to come down and hopefully you don't get rear ended carrying that load. That 10 inch ground clearance on those mini tires are interesting and don't know how they're going to compensate for the high center of gravity around tight turns. Part of the reason the mini chassis is so low to the ground with that short wheel base. Just spit-balling here... TELO Trucks | The All-Electric Mini Truck
Yes with some pretty heavy hitters on the board of directors. I have no doubt they learned valuable lessons dealing with Mad Musk. Bob Wilson
How often do you use a pickup bed and couldn't have used a trunk? And for those few times, a used ICE truck might just do an adequate job and be far more cost effective. Just up the street is a 30 year old pickup still in use maybe once every other week. Value zero. But the price per use is the cost of taxes on it which gotta be low. I shudder to think how old those tires are. Me, I rent a truck for the few times I have needed one. Just like I rent a van. One time each in the last 15 years. An SUV fills my day to day needs. If I need a 4 by 8 sheet of plywood, I'd have it delivered. In reality, I'd give away my wood working tools.
So - is the point that everybody has different needs at different frequencies? If so, AGREED We just got back from a 3 or 4 day stay at Middle lake Thompson in our fifth wheel. Certainly difficult to do that and a sedan, or even in a ½ton pickup. Thus the ¾ton clean diesel. Hope that didn’t make anyone dirty their shorts True! Then again - last spring - our pickup did a long haul from Montana to Fort Smith Arkansas Area to Nashville area & back. One of many trips that need a HD pickup. Hate to think what a 3/4 ton pickup would rent for using it around 4,000 miles & 3 weeks. Proving once again everybody's needs are different.
We are talking about a product that might be available the end of 2026. A lot can happen between now and then. Just none of the existing too big, too heavy, EV pickups appeals to me: Mini Cooper wheel base Weight 4,400 lbs (projected) Built-in 2" receiver 6,000 lb rating (2,000 is all I need) Dual 2-5 seat configuration (widower with three dogs) NACS charging port It is right-sized for +90% of my driving around town. Yet has enough EV range to handle long distance vacations. It is at a sweet price point too, ~$40-50,000. But we're looking at pre-production prototypes and need to wait for the actual product. Bob Wilson
The Gen 2 Prius was/is our pick up, if it's bigger than that, then we hang a trailer on the back. It is quite amazing what that little 1500 ICE and transaxle can pull, I towed my dead Prius the 5 kms to our workshop, including a steady rise from river level to the top of the ridge carved out eons ago when the river was a glacier, dragged up onto a dolly trailer, so the front wheels were off the ground. A vehicle that can tow more than it's own weight is a good all purpose vehicle .... and with the seats folded down, I can fit a blow up mattress for sleeping on a longer trip. Hard to beat and hard to kill, need the uplift springs in the rear to tow the trailer though ..... It was also a great tow behind vehicle on the same Gypsy Trailer behind the motorhome .... not real sure if the added weight of the MG4 and trailer can be justified ..... well, except for when I need to reverse simply not possible with the Prius on the Gypsy trailer .... easier to unload the prius and use the winch to drag the trailer around to couple it onto the back of the Prius .... at least until all the tight tracks and parking lots are behind us .... reversing a 31ft motorhome with a 20 ft trailer behind it is still no fun at all ...... T1 Terry
Similarly overloaded our Gen II. Even creaper than springs bottomed out, was the risk of long, steep downhill runaway. Those disks & drums were simply just never meant to stop / maintain a ¾ ton load. Reaching the bottom of the grade is quite the pucker relief. .
For immediate use, a vehicle with.fairly flat surface long enough I can stretch my 6 ft out on a comfy pad in a sleeping bag. A rain tent cover helps too. Bob Wilson
I'm not going to lie and say I use mine every day, but it would not be a lie to say that I use my truck bed as a truck bed more than weekly. It's not just the 4x8 sheet of plywood - it's also stuff and things that you would not want in the interior. Wet dogs.... Gardening supplies... Garbage.... Anything over 7' in length.... Large boxes.... I know I've come to regret EVERY TIME I've used the word 'never' but I've had to live my life without a pickup once before in my 20's. I learned the same lesson that @bwilson4web did in the Marines.... "DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!!" $50,000 for a napkin drawing? Not for me, thank you. Limited parts support. Questionable build quality. Unquestionably.....um.....'unique' styling. I 'did the math' for my $34k GMC Sierra Pro against a $42k Tesla and a garden trailer and showed my work elsewhere in the forum. I live on free soil. Gas is currently $2.579...... I will watch the development with keen interest since I'm a fan of BEVs - but they're not useful for ME personally at an affordable price point. Well....maybe except for the golf cart.
All of my EVs have a 2" receiver and a rear bumper platform handles my oversized loads. I used to have a folding trailer and might get another one some day. Cheaper to just rent-a-truck for a day. Bob Wilson
