7 ms·

Please give me more options like this in North America. I'd love something like this as the urban run-around to do quick errands that can't be done on foot or v

Please give me more options like this in North America. I'd love something like this as the urban run-around to do quick errands that can't be done on foot or via transit. Something under $20K with enough range for a day of driving around. Even better, make it a shared vehicle and I'll just pay a membership to grab one from a lot around the corner for a few hours.

imtringued 4y ago
I would rather have an eRockit with some storage options.
yrgulation 4y ago
Please give us more of these in europe as well. We are choked by vws, bmws and mercedeses. Hopefully small electric cars will become the norm in urban centres.
- gambiting 4y ago
  I got a Volkswagen e-UP recently, and it's incredible for what it is - 160 miles of electric range, small, very nimble, large enough for 4 people and some stuff in the back - it's perfect. I have a much larger much more comfortable SUV too, but the e-UP is my car of choice recently. It costs £1.50 for a full charge too - less than a litre of petrol.
  - yrgulation 4y ago
    Somehow the e-up wasn't on my radar until your comment now. Thanks for sharing your experience. I mostly ask uber drivers about their experience with full evs as they push them to their limits, and most drove nissan leaf or renault zoe. At least those i met, and were _very_ happy with them. I was told that even cars with >200km once the batteries are replaced they drive like new. Pretty impressive. But i think even those are still too large for cities. In my view we need to clean the air _and_ free up space, hence something smaller would be more suitable. Imagine how much less traffic there would be on the m25 or london if they were limited to micro cars.
    - aeyes 4y ago
      Another car in a similar category is the electric Smart, the only problem is the price.
    - imtringued 4y ago
      What about electric motorcycles like the eRockit?
    - schiffern 4y ago
      If you want something smaller, in Amsterdam I'd see these regularly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canta_(vehicle) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canta_(vehicle) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOIrBqt21c4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOIrBqt21c4
- systemvoltage 4y ago
  We should build a dyson sphere and get humanity to a Type II Kardeshev scale. Instead, the future looks like eating crickets, climate alarmicism, living in mobile pods and feeling good about driving 2 seater eco-cars. Sad.
  - yrgulation 4y ago
    So whats the plan? Keep doing what we are doing? I am not the hippie type, but we simply cant continue this way. I strongly disagree with people that say we need less creature comforts in order to improve our ways of managing the environment. I think we should aim for even more mobility, even more living space, even more food, but with much more care about our environment. Whats the worse that can happen? We get to breathe cleaner air for “nothing”? I sometimes pause and think about how we are able to harness the power of our star, or control atoms, to fuel our cars and power our homes instead of burning crap and inhaling smoke. I think we are getting somewhere.
    - systemvoltage 4y ago
      Yea, I think there is a general malaise in certain laptop class / elite class people. First of all, Fossil fuels are the most incredible thing mankind has ever invented. It lead to population increase and saved millions of lives, possibly hundrends of millions of lives. It has enabled everything from agriculture, mining to industrialization and medicine. If there is one thing that has had a profound positive impact on humans, that is Fossil Fuels. But ask anyone that they'll want to murder you for saying what I just said even though I haven't said a peep about carbon emissions. The malaise from people/media is separating Non-renewability of FF + negative aspect of carbon emissions from the benefits of FF. So the first thing is to remove the militant climate alarmicism and focus on solutions. Here is EU backpeddling the climate agenda that didn't have a sound backbone, this is what happens: https://www.ft.com/content/a8b179e2-b565-42b6-bb41-90aea44536e1 https://www.ft.com/content/a8b179e2-b565-42b6-bb41-90aea4453... Second, we need to adopt a radical pro-energy agenda that transforms us from FF-mix to renewable-mix. Here is what the current Democratic party can do (but they won't): https://twitter.com/JonSpearman24/status/1539044975429681152 https://twitter.com/JonSpearman24/status/1539044975429681152 Third, push back on people that want depopulation, regression of life, reduction of standards, "equity" based resource usage, etc under the name of ESG, Climate Change, etc. The entire thing is a philosophical and political headwind. We could solve climate change completely and utterly if we invest in technology and build like a gazillion nuclear power plants. It makes me wonder if the malaise is not rooted in facts, but the elite/laptop class that wants to crush lower class into depopulation for their own benefits (their kids would have a less competition for resources for survival).
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
nus07 4y ago
Wasn’t the Nissan Leaf initially something like that ? I knew a bunch of friends who were buying 2-3 years old used Leafs for about 9k and using it for urban driving or daily commute .
- standardUser 4y ago
  The Nissan Leaf is the most underrated car in the world. It's perfectly suitable for a vast majority of the trips Americans make by car and it's ridiculously economical (especially if purchased used). I don't think there are any rational reasons why it's not the most popular car in America.
  - throwaway0a5e 4y ago
    >The Nissan Leaf is the most underrated car in the world. It's perfectly suitable for a vast majority of the trips Americans make by car and it's ridiculously economical (especially if purchased used). >I don't think there are any rational reasons why it's not the most popular car in America. It's still a subcompact. For the hordes and hordes of people who need a tad more utility out of a vehicle it just doesn't work without a level of compromise that is solidly into "yeah, F that" territory when you're paying new car money. Furthermore, it's only economical to buy used because it's not super popular even on the used market. If it was they wouldn't be so cheap. And I say this as someone who would own one yesterday if it could out "utility vehicle" a 1990s Taurus wagon. The execution is great but the concept that was executed is ill suited to what most people want in a car. All subcompact hatches in the US market suffer from this.
    - standardUser 4y ago
      A lot of families have two cars and it becomes pretty difficult to explain why one isn't electric when the Leaf is an option and the second car will certainly be bigger. "If it was they wouldn't be so cheap." If demand surged, Nissan would make more (barring any specific supply chain constraints). Mass producing cars at competitive prices is Nissan's core competency. "ill suited to what most people want in a car." This is the actual problem in my eyes. Americans especially have a lot of frivolous ideas about what a car is supposed to be.
NullPrefix 4y ago
>lithium battery with an eight kWh capacity. It can drive up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) with one single charge, and it takes between six to eight hours to fully charge It depends on how far is your urban run-around. 62 miles seems reasonable, but not at $16,500 to $18,250 price point.
chiefalchemist 4y ago
You're not alone. I thought we'd be there by now. But at this point in the USA the tipping point seems to be having short distance autonomous mode such that you can order a car and it will deliver itself to your door. That said, it's also telling the fed gov has made little to no effort to promote such an idea. Thanks Big Oil?
- sjcoles 4y ago
  That just sounds like public transport with more steps.
  - chihuahua 4y ago
    I think it would be more accurate to say that it's public transport with fewer steps. Because you skip the walk to the bus stop, the many stops that the bus makes on the way to your destination, potential transfers to other buses, and the walk from the bus stop where you exit the bus to your destination.
  - chiefalchemist 4y ago
    Nah. It sounds like personal transportation without the overhead of ownership, maintenance, time wasted waiting for the bus, etc. If there's an underutilized resource in the First World, it's automobiles. They probably spend on average 22 or 23 hours of 24 hours doing nothing. Just sitting there. Uber-izing your own driving could change that, without exploiting under-paid drivers.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
  Most people don't have a secure place to plug in.
chroma 4y ago
US laws prevent this car from being sold to the masses. The vehicle lacks airbags, anti-lock brakes, and electronic stability control. I also doubt it would pass crash tests. You might be able sell it as a motorcycle, but then passengers would be required to wear helmets and the driver would need a motorcycle endorsement on their license. Another option would be to sell it as an ATV, but states tend to restrict ATV usage on public roads.
- catawbasam 4y ago
  It would meet a need in the US if restricted to low-speed roads, eg for older drivers. Maybe young drivers and low-income people too. At low speed you just don't need a lot of the fancy stuff.
  - dymk 4y ago
    What are these low speed roads you're talking about? I'm not aware of any laws that allow a car to not have airbags on public roads based on speed. The closest thing I can think of is e.g. communities that have dedicated paved roads (which don't allow normal cars) for golf carts to putt around.
    - crooked-v 4y ago
      You seem to be unaware that low-speed vehicles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-speed_vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-speed_vehicle) exist as a legal category.
  - crooked-v 4y ago
    Vehicles for that already exist in the US, like the Polaris GEM line: https://gem.polaris.com/en-us/street-legal-carts/ https://gem.polaris.com/en-us/street-legal-carts/ You just don't see them because nobody in the US is willing to restrict the usage of normal cars, even where it's obviously needed.
- jasonpeacock 4y ago
  The Arcimoto is technically a motorcycle (most states classify anything <4 wheels as a motorcycle) but there are exceptions in the majority of states that do not require a motorcycle endorsement nor a helmet for these types of vehicles. https://www.arcimoto.com/ https://www.arcimoto.com/
sjcoles 4y ago
The Aptera is trying to be something like this.
- crooked-v 4y ago
  The Aptera is substantially more upmarket in both price range and functionality.
crooked-v 4y ago
You can already get equivalent vehicles for around the same price: they're street legal golf carts. For example, this company sells a bunch of models: https://bintellielectricvehicles.com/category/street-legal-golf-carts/ https://bintellielectricvehicles.com/category/street-legal-g...
- adrianN 4y ago
  Golf carts go 25mph with a range of thirty miles. The car in the article goes 65km/h with a range of 100km. That enables completely different uses.
jasonpeacock 4y ago
Here you go: https://www.arcimoto.com/ https://www.arcimoto.com/
aeharding 4y ago
An Urban Arrow? https://na.urbanarrow.com/family-bikes/ https://na.urbanarrow.com/family-bikes/
- kazinator 4y ago
  That looks to me like another piece of cruft to get rid of, along with strollers and car seats, as soon as the kids are grown.

imtringued 4y ago

I would rather have an eRockit with some storage options.

yrgulation 4y ago

Please give us more of these in europe as well. We are choked by vws, bmws and mercedeses. Hopefully small electric cars will become the norm in urban centres.

gambiting 4y ago
I got a Volkswagen e-UP recently, and it's incredible for what it is - 160 miles of electric range, small, very nimble, large enough for 4 people and some stuff in the back - it's perfect. I have a much larger much more comfortable SUV too, but the e-UP is my car of choice recently. It costs £1.50 for a full charge too - less than a litre of petrol.
- yrgulation 4y ago
  Somehow the e-up wasn't on my radar until your comment now. Thanks for sharing your experience. I mostly ask uber drivers about their experience with full evs as they push them to their limits, and most drove nissan leaf or renault zoe. At least those i met, and were _very_ happy with them. I was told that even cars with >200km once the batteries are replaced they drive like new. Pretty impressive. But i think even those are still too large for cities. In my view we need to clean the air _and_ free up space, hence something smaller would be more suitable. Imagine how much less traffic there would be on the m25 or london if they were limited to micro cars.
  - aeyes 4y ago
    Another car in a similar category is the electric Smart, the only problem is the price.
  - imtringued 4y ago
    What about electric motorcycles like the eRockit?
  - schiffern 4y ago
    If you want something smaller, in Amsterdam I'd see these regularly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canta_(vehicle) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canta_(vehicle) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOIrBqt21c4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOIrBqt21c4
systemvoltage 4y ago
We should build a dyson sphere and get humanity to a Type II Kardeshev scale. Instead, the future looks like eating crickets, climate alarmicism, living in mobile pods and feeling good about driving 2 seater eco-cars. Sad.
- yrgulation 4y ago
  So whats the plan? Keep doing what we are doing? I am not the hippie type, but we simply cant continue this way. I strongly disagree with people that say we need less creature comforts in order to improve our ways of managing the environment. I think we should aim for even more mobility, even more living space, even more food, but with much more care about our environment. Whats the worse that can happen? We get to breathe cleaner air for “nothing”? I sometimes pause and think about how we are able to harness the power of our star, or control atoms, to fuel our cars and power our homes instead of burning crap and inhaling smoke. I think we are getting somewhere.
  - systemvoltage 4y ago
    Yea, I think there is a general malaise in certain laptop class / elite class people. First of all, Fossil fuels are the most incredible thing mankind has ever invented. It lead to population increase and saved millions of lives, possibly hundrends of millions of lives. It has enabled everything from agriculture, mining to industrialization and medicine. If there is one thing that has had a profound positive impact on humans, that is Fossil Fuels. But ask anyone that they'll want to murder you for saying what I just said even though I haven't said a peep about carbon emissions. The malaise from people/media is separating Non-renewability of FF + negative aspect of carbon emissions from the benefits of FF. So the first thing is to remove the militant climate alarmicism and focus on solutions. Here is EU backpeddling the climate agenda that didn't have a sound backbone, this is what happens: https://www.ft.com/content/a8b179e2-b565-42b6-bb41-90aea44536e1 https://www.ft.com/content/a8b179e2-b565-42b6-bb41-90aea4453... Second, we need to adopt a radical pro-energy agenda that transforms us from FF-mix to renewable-mix. Here is what the current Democratic party can do (but they won't): https://twitter.com/JonSpearman24/status/1539044975429681152 https://twitter.com/JonSpearman24/status/1539044975429681152 Third, push back on people that want depopulation, regression of life, reduction of standards, "equity" based resource usage, etc under the name of ESG, Climate Change, etc. The entire thing is a philosophical and political headwind. We could solve climate change completely and utterly if we invest in technology and build like a gazillion nuclear power plants. It makes me wonder if the malaise is not rooted in facts, but the elite/laptop class that wants to crush lower class into depopulation for their own benefits (their kids would have a less competition for resources for survival).
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

nus07 4y ago

Wasn’t the Nissan Leaf initially something like that ? I knew a bunch of friends who were buying 2-3 years old used Leafs for about 9k and using it for urban driving or daily commute .

standardUser 4y ago
The Nissan Leaf is the most underrated car in the world. It's perfectly suitable for a vast majority of the trips Americans make by car and it's ridiculously economical (especially if purchased used). I don't think there are any rational reasons why it's not the most popular car in America.
- throwaway0a5e 4y ago
  >The Nissan Leaf is the most underrated car in the world. It's perfectly suitable for a vast majority of the trips Americans make by car and it's ridiculously economical (especially if purchased used). >I don't think there are any rational reasons why it's not the most popular car in America. It's still a subcompact. For the hordes and hordes of people who need a tad more utility out of a vehicle it just doesn't work without a level of compromise that is solidly into "yeah, F that" territory when you're paying new car money. Furthermore, it's only economical to buy used because it's not super popular even on the used market. If it was they wouldn't be so cheap. And I say this as someone who would own one yesterday if it could out "utility vehicle" a 1990s Taurus wagon. The execution is great but the concept that was executed is ill suited to what most people want in a car. All subcompact hatches in the US market suffer from this.
  - standardUser 4y ago
    A lot of families have two cars and it becomes pretty difficult to explain why one isn't electric when the Leaf is an option and the second car will certainly be bigger. "If it was they wouldn't be so cheap." If demand surged, Nissan would make more (barring any specific supply chain constraints). Mass producing cars at competitive prices is Nissan's core competency. "ill suited to what most people want in a car." This is the actual problem in my eyes. Americans especially have a lot of frivolous ideas about what a car is supposed to be.

NullPrefix 4y ago

>lithium battery with an eight kWh capacity. It can drive up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) with one single charge, and it takes between six to eight hours to fully charge It depends on how far is your urban run-around. 62 miles seems reasonable, but not at $16,500 to $18,250 price point.

chiefalchemist 4y ago

You're not alone. I thought we'd be there by now. But at this point in the USA the tipping point seems to be having short distance autonomous mode such that you can order a car and it will deliver itself to your door. That said, it's also telling the fed gov has made little to no effort to promote such an idea. Thanks Big Oil?

sjcoles 4y ago
That just sounds like public transport with more steps.
- chihuahua 4y ago
  I think it would be more accurate to say that it's public transport with fewer steps. Because you skip the walk to the bus stop, the many stops that the bus makes on the way to your destination, potential transfers to other buses, and the walk from the bus stop where you exit the bus to your destination.
- chiefalchemist 4y ago
  Nah. It sounds like personal transportation without the overhead of ownership, maintenance, time wasted waiting for the bus, etc. If there's an underutilized resource in the First World, it's automobiles. They probably spend on average 22 or 23 hours of 24 hours doing nothing. Just sitting there. Uber-izing your own driving could change that, without exploiting under-paid drivers.
kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
Most people don't have a secure place to plug in.

chroma 4y ago

US laws prevent this car from being sold to the masses. The vehicle lacks airbags, anti-lock brakes, and electronic stability control. I also doubt it would pass crash tests. You might be able sell it as a motorcycle, but then passengers would be required to wear helmets and the driver would need a motorcycle endorsement on their license. Another option would be to sell it as an ATV, but states tend to restrict ATV usage on public roads.

catawbasam 4y ago
It would meet a need in the US if restricted to low-speed roads, eg for older drivers. Maybe young drivers and low-income people too. At low speed you just don't need a lot of the fancy stuff.
- dymk 4y ago
  What are these low speed roads you're talking about? I'm not aware of any laws that allow a car to not have airbags on public roads based on speed. The closest thing I can think of is e.g. communities that have dedicated paved roads (which don't allow normal cars) for golf carts to putt around.
  - crooked-v 4y ago
    You seem to be unaware that low-speed vehicles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-speed_vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-speed_vehicle) exist as a legal category.
- crooked-v 4y ago
  Vehicles for that already exist in the US, like the Polaris GEM line: https://gem.polaris.com/en-us/street-legal-carts/ https://gem.polaris.com/en-us/street-legal-carts/ You just don't see them because nobody in the US is willing to restrict the usage of normal cars, even where it's obviously needed.
jasonpeacock 4y ago
The Arcimoto is technically a motorcycle (most states classify anything <4 wheels as a motorcycle) but there are exceptions in the majority of states that do not require a motorcycle endorsement nor a helmet for these types of vehicles. https://www.arcimoto.com/ https://www.arcimoto.com/

sjcoles 4y ago

The Aptera is trying to be something like this.

crooked-v 4y ago
The Aptera is substantially more upmarket in both price range and functionality.

crooked-v 4y ago

You can already get equivalent vehicles for around the same price: they're street legal golf carts. For example, this company sells a bunch of models: https://bintellielectricvehicles.com/category/street-legal-golf-carts/ https://bintellielectricvehicles.com/category/street-legal-g...

adrianN 4y ago
Golf carts go 25mph with a range of thirty miles. The car in the article goes 65km/h with a range of 100km. That enables completely different uses.

jasonpeacock 4y ago

Here you go: https://www.arcimoto.com/ https://www.arcimoto.com/

aeharding 4y ago

An Urban Arrow? https://na.urbanarrow.com/family-bikes/ https://na.urbanarrow.com/family-bikes/

kazinator 4y ago
That looks to me like another piece of cruft to get rid of, along with strollers and car seats, as soon as the kids are grown.