A couple decades ago, when China was initially modernizing its auto industry, they shipped a bunch of concept cars to the Detroit Auto show.
I distinctly remember one of the cars being the same 1-2-1 wheel configuration except with the middle two perfectly centered, roughly where the passenger's feet would be. And that the designer's hadn't modeled the interior of the vehicle so it had hand-me-down seats and you could see the bent wood laths running from stern to prow for the body shape, spackled over with clay or plaster to look seamless from the outside.
The Chinese auto industry has improved a lot more across the century so far than the US auto industry has.
@ardgedee In their electrics in particular. They have one (i can’t recall the make) that has an onboard gas-powered generator to recharge the batteries should you run dry out in the sticks. Such basic ingenuity, completely unavailable outside the Chinese market.
Given that the engine block is on the side, I do wonder how that thing would handle. Right-hand turns would be significantly different than left-hand turns.
@zeitgeist ooooo! I’m not there yet in terms of planning to buy - I worry that it’ll be poorly adopted/supported or even vaporware - but I’m very keen to see how Slate does.
@MackReed The BMW i3 REX had a gas generator to top up the EV battery, but it was hamstrung by a small tank in the US. I always thought they looked like a cool eraser on wheels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
@ang Ideally I'm not conflating the two. @mackreed I have high hopes that a cheap truck without all the fixings will be able to sell enough to survive. I put down a deposit. I'm especially excited about a truck where the company seems to be selling a vehicle and not a complex financial product that comes with a vehicle, which is what has put me off purchasing a new truck recently.
I distinctly remember one of the cars being the same 1-2-1 wheel configuration except with the middle two perfectly centered, roughly where the passenger's feet would be. And that the designer's hadn't modeled the interior of the vehicle so it had hand-me-down seats and you could see the bent wood laths running from stern to prow for the body shape, spackled over with clay or plaster to look seamless from the outside.
The Chinese auto industry has improved a lot more across the century so far than the US auto industry has.