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The most amazing thing is the photo of the lumber where a hole underneath the dash is revealed allowing the hauling of lumber the entire length of the vehicle.

The most amazing thing is the photo of the lumber where a hole underneath the dash is revealed allowing the hauling of lumber the entire length of the vehicle. That is an impressive amount of utility right there. Whether quirky features like that would survive the process towards production remain to be seen, but this is certainly an interesting take on a truck that could be very useful in rural America.

tlb 9y ago
A Tesla model S fits 10' lengths of lumber. Just protect the dashboard from scuffing with a blanket.
- jksmith 9y ago
  Well that's certainly good to know.
- jessaustin 9y ago
  Basically any midsize-and-up with hatchback-style fold-down rear seats (even non-hatchbacks with fixed rear dashes) will accommodate such lumber. Some would require the removal of the passenger seat headrest.
- masklinn 9y ago
  According to its spec sheet, the B1 has 12ft between the front and rear liftgates when they're closed, the car is 12.5ft long. The Model S is almost 4ft (and 30%) longer.
- twothamendment 9y ago
  I once saw a Mazda Miata with 16' 2x8s. They were in the passenger seat, seat reclined. One end in the foot well and the other high in the air. They rested on the little roll bar and were strapped down nicely. Utility is what you make of it.
  - semi-extrinsic 9y ago
    Yesterday I was at the local recycling centre and spotted an older gentleman dropping off garden waste (big black bags of branches, hedge trimmings etc.) with his mint condition ~1999 Peugeot 306 convertible. I bet he was the original owner too. (For non-Europeans, link: http://petrolblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Peugeot-306-Cabriolet-Sundance.jpg http://petrolblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Peugeot-306... )
- olyjohn 9y ago
  I have an 8 foot utility trailer that I tow with my Honda Fit. I overloaded it once on accident with 2500lbs of roofing materials. The capacity is 2000lbs. I frequently load it up with long and heavy stuff, and I don't risk ruining my interior. It does 95% of what most people do with a truck, but I can still drive to work on Monday or take it on a long road trip and get 35mpg. Started with a $300 Harbor Freight trailer and added sides and floor to it. I guess my point is that you can pretty much haul whatever you need to with damn near any car on the market.
  - cmrdporcupine 9y ago
    Just don't tell the service people if your car is still under warranty -- most North American non-truck vehicles are not rated for towing _at all_ even when their European counterparts are. This includes most so-called "crossovers" and small SUVs. Something as big as a Chevy Equinox (which is larger than the Isuzu Trooper we had in the 80s, which my family thought was massive for the time) is not rated for towing until you go up to the biggest engine and AWD. Americans seem to love^H^H^H^Hdemand huge vehicles, but those huge vehicles rarely have the clearance and towing capacity to actually be "utility" despite being advertised that way :-(
    - PhantomGremlin 9y ago
      most North American non-truck vehicles are not rated for towing _at all_ Not just that, but his $300 trailer probably doesn't have brakes. It's lunacy to tow 2500 unbraked pounds behind a Honda Fit.
      - teekert 9y ago
        Any idea as to why is this different from the EU? My 2006 Ford Focus C-max van pull up to 1200 kg (= 2650 pound, braked, 665 kg unbraked) legally here.
        PhantomGremlin 9y ago
        665 kg unbraked That works out to 1466 pounds. The guy was towing 2500 pounds with a Honda Fit that (unless it's a hybrid) weighs less than 2400 lbs for the car itself. Do you think the Fit's brakes are designed to safely stop 2x the design weight? Plus the stability just wouldn't be there. Plus any appreciable "tongue weight" behind the back wheels will make the front end light. Bad for control. Wikipedia touches on the issues: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towing#Towing_safety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towing#Towing_safety Here's another counterexample. The Porsche Cayenne can tow 7716 pounds (3500 kilos) braked, but only 1653 pounds (750 kilos) unbraked. And it's a vehicle that weighs twice as much as the subcompact Fit: http://www.porsche.com/usa/models/cayenne/cayenne-models/cayenne/featuresandspecs/ http://www.porsche.com/usa/models/cayenne/cayenne-models/cay...
driverdan 9y ago
It's cool but it's kind of a gimmick. You can easily haul lumber on almost any vehicle with a roof rack. Many cars with fold down rear seats can fit 8' lumber too.
- webkike 9y ago
  Yeah, but now with a roof rack and this thing you can haul twice as much! or perhaps just slightly more than you could otherwise
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - yellowapple 9y ago
    Not to mention that if you're in a rain/snow/sleet/hail/etc. storm and you need to keep your lumber (or some other very long moisture-sensitive thing, like one of those absurdly-long sub sandwiches) dry or otherwise protected while hauling it, you can now do so.
    - bluedino 9y ago
      wrap it in a tarp?
      - greglindahl 9y ago
        I always wrap absurdly-long submarine sandwiches in a tarp. Even in the dry season in Cali.
- masklinn 9y ago
  > You can easily haul lumber on almost any vehicle with a roof rack. Many cars with fold down rear seats can fit 8' lumber too. The B1 can fit 12' with the liftgates closed.
- cr0sh 9y ago
  You could haul lumber in a jeep as well - fold down the front window (why people forget about this, I don't know), prop the lumber between the seats resting on the dash, tailgate, etc - tie it down.
dsfyu404ed 9y ago
Being able to utilize existing liquid fuel infrastructure is much more useful in rural America.
- macintux 9y ago
  Not necessarily for a vehicle that just tools around the farm, although admittedly I doubt you'd buy one of these at 60k to not leave your property.
- jsmthrowaway 9y ago
  In a farm/preserve/etc scenario with a big diesel tank for the implements, a large diesel genset to recharge the EVs might be workable and leverage that infrastructure. Fleets of these could probably be charged off a fixed genset (not datacenter scale, but up there), which might be useful in remote scenarios or where it is tough to deliver a lot of mains electricity. I don’t know how emissions would work out (is a genset better than multiple portable engines?) and it’d be obviously less efficient than just doing the combustion in the vehicles, but it is something that came to mind when you mentioned that which might be useful for this type of vehicle. Even if it’s a little worse in terms of the math, electric utility vehicles are strongly appealing due to their torque characteristics and fewer parts which always seem to be the ones you forgot spares of and such. With passenger sedans you’re playing the efficiency game, but with off-road, utility, industrial, and so on, there is more to think about when considering EV. Might not be that weird. (I’m a Wrangler owner who reads about electric conversions constantly — look at South Korean work on Jeeps — and I completely get where Bollinger is coming from.)

tlb 9y ago

A Tesla model S fits 10' lengths of lumber. Just protect the dashboard from scuffing with a blanket.

jksmith 9y ago
Well that's certainly good to know.
jessaustin 9y ago
Basically any midsize-and-up with hatchback-style fold-down rear seats (even non-hatchbacks with fixed rear dashes) will accommodate such lumber. Some would require the removal of the passenger seat headrest.
masklinn 9y ago
According to its spec sheet, the B1 has 12ft between the front and rear liftgates when they're closed, the car is 12.5ft long. The Model S is almost 4ft (and 30%) longer.
twothamendment 9y ago
I once saw a Mazda Miata with 16' 2x8s. They were in the passenger seat, seat reclined. One end in the foot well and the other high in the air. They rested on the little roll bar and were strapped down nicely. Utility is what you make of it.
- semi-extrinsic 9y ago
  Yesterday I was at the local recycling centre and spotted an older gentleman dropping off garden waste (big black bags of branches, hedge trimmings etc.) with his mint condition ~1999 Peugeot 306 convertible. I bet he was the original owner too. (For non-Europeans, link: http://petrolblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Peugeot-306-Cabriolet-Sundance.jpg http://petrolblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Peugeot-306... )
olyjohn 9y ago
I have an 8 foot utility trailer that I tow with my Honda Fit. I overloaded it once on accident with 2500lbs of roofing materials. The capacity is 2000lbs. I frequently load it up with long and heavy stuff, and I don't risk ruining my interior. It does 95% of what most people do with a truck, but I can still drive to work on Monday or take it on a long road trip and get 35mpg. Started with a $300 Harbor Freight trailer and added sides and floor to it. I guess my point is that you can pretty much haul whatever you need to with damn near any car on the market.
- cmrdporcupine 9y ago
  Just don't tell the service people if your car is still under warranty -- most North American non-truck vehicles are not rated for towing _at all_ even when their European counterparts are. This includes most so-called "crossovers" and small SUVs. Something as big as a Chevy Equinox (which is larger than the Isuzu Trooper we had in the 80s, which my family thought was massive for the time) is not rated for towing until you go up to the biggest engine and AWD. Americans seem to love^H^H^H^Hdemand huge vehicles, but those huge vehicles rarely have the clearance and towing capacity to actually be "utility" despite being advertised that way :-(
  - PhantomGremlin 9y ago
    most North American non-truck vehicles are not rated for towing _at all_ Not just that, but his $300 trailer probably doesn't have brakes. It's lunacy to tow 2500 unbraked pounds behind a Honda Fit.
    - teekert 9y ago
      Any idea as to why is this different from the EU? My 2006 Ford Focus C-max van pull up to 1200 kg (= 2650 pound, braked, 665 kg unbraked) legally here.
      - PhantomGremlin 9y ago
        665 kg unbraked That works out to 1466 pounds. The guy was towing 2500 pounds with a Honda Fit that (unless it's a hybrid) weighs less than 2400 lbs for the car itself. Do you think the Fit's brakes are designed to safely stop 2x the design weight? Plus the stability just wouldn't be there. Plus any appreciable "tongue weight" behind the back wheels will make the front end light. Bad for control. Wikipedia touches on the issues: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towing#Towing_safety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towing#Towing_safety Here's another counterexample. The Porsche Cayenne can tow 7716 pounds (3500 kilos) braked, but only 1653 pounds (750 kilos) unbraked. And it's a vehicle that weighs twice as much as the subcompact Fit: http://www.porsche.com/usa/models/cayenne/cayenne-models/cayenne/featuresandspecs/ http://www.porsche.com/usa/models/cayenne/cayenne-models/cay...

driverdan 9y ago

It's cool but it's kind of a gimmick. You can easily haul lumber on almost any vehicle with a roof rack. Many cars with fold down rear seats can fit 8' lumber too.

webkike 9y ago
Yeah, but now with a roof rack and this thing you can haul twice as much! or perhaps just slightly more than you could otherwise
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- yellowapple 9y ago
  Not to mention that if you're in a rain/snow/sleet/hail/etc. storm and you need to keep your lumber (or some other very long moisture-sensitive thing, like one of those absurdly-long sub sandwiches) dry or otherwise protected while hauling it, you can now do so.
  - bluedino 9y ago
    wrap it in a tarp?
    - greglindahl 9y ago
      I always wrap absurdly-long submarine sandwiches in a tarp. Even in the dry season in Cali.
masklinn 9y ago
> You can easily haul lumber on almost any vehicle with a roof rack. Many cars with fold down rear seats can fit 8' lumber too. The B1 can fit 12' with the liftgates closed.
cr0sh 9y ago
You could haul lumber in a jeep as well - fold down the front window (why people forget about this, I don't know), prop the lumber between the seats resting on the dash, tailgate, etc - tie it down.

dsfyu404ed 9y ago

Being able to utilize existing liquid fuel infrastructure is much more useful in rural America.

macintux 9y ago
Not necessarily for a vehicle that just tools around the farm, although admittedly I doubt you'd buy one of these at 60k to not leave your property.
jsmthrowaway 9y ago
In a farm/preserve/etc scenario with a big diesel tank for the implements, a large diesel genset to recharge the EVs might be workable and leverage that infrastructure. Fleets of these could probably be charged off a fixed genset (not datacenter scale, but up there), which might be useful in remote scenarios or where it is tough to deliver a lot of mains electricity. I don’t know how emissions would work out (is a genset better than multiple portable engines?) and it’d be obviously less efficient than just doing the combustion in the vehicles, but it is something that came to mind when you mentioned that which might be useful for this type of vehicle. Even if it’s a little worse in terms of the math, electric utility vehicles are strongly appealing due to their torque characteristics and fewer parts which always seem to be the ones you forgot spares of and such. With passenger sedans you’re playing the efficiency game, but with off-road, utility, industrial, and so on, there is more to think about when considering EV. Might not be that weird. (I’m a Wrangler owner who reads about electric conversions constantly — look at South Korean work on Jeeps — and I completely get where Bollinger is coming from.)