Martin HoffmannSo you made a sedan where the boot is open to the rain?* Congrats.
* And also it weighs twice as much. But luckily, range anxiety isn’t an issue for electric cars.
Peter Brown@partim the reason it weighs as much is to avoid the construction and use regulations in the USA. Anything over 1.5 tons is regarded as a truck and therefore does not have to undergo crash testing, stability testing or fuel consumption measuring. It costs the manufacturers much less to build as a result, which is why they promote them so strongly 💵
The consumer has no idea they’re buying a chassis truck from the 1950s which will kill them if they crash or roll over #notech
The consumer has no idea they’re buying a chassis truck from the 1950s which will kill them if they crash or roll over #notech
@peterbrown Yes, although in particular case, I was referring to them seemingly recognising that the pickup truck format (independent of its size) is kind of stupid for nearly all use cases, but having convinced the public that a pickup is the manly thing to have, they now have to stick to it.
Oliver Blanthorn@peterbrown not just the US - in the UK for many years (recently tightened) anything with a flatbed was assumed to be a commercial vehicle so could be bought tax free through your company. which is why so many consultants had them.
it is quite funny that the taxman looked at them and thought "that is so impractical, there is no way anyone could use that as a personal vehicle". and then people proved them wrong
@bovine3dom @peterbrown In Norway you get green plates and lower tax if the car has only one row of seats, no matter the car. Rip out the rear seats of your Corsa and you can get green plates and save money.
波鉄 (Hatetsu)@partim @bovine3dom @peterbrown Pretty sure I've seen a DIY campervan on Norwegian green plates somewhere once
@HaTetsu @bovine3dom @peterbrown It didn’t have a second row of seats, so that checks out. (Nobody said anything about beds.)
@bovine3dom @partim yes getting the vehicle against tax is another story. But slipping it under the safety regulations is something on a different level. All European vehicles are subject to the same crash testing, with no exceptions over 1.5 tons.
Which makes them inherently safer for both for the passengers and other road users.
In the USA, there’s no crumple zone in 1.5 ton trucks and no rollover prevention. Passengers have no protection whatsoever
#DeathTraps
@peterbrown @bovine3dom From what I understand, there’s even more to it: For one, commercial vehicles are excluded from fleet emmission standards, so you can still use those 6 litre HEMI engines designed in the 1950s. And secondly, there has been a 25% import tax on these for ages, so Japanese car companies couldn’t push prices down with superior models. (They do now by having factories in the US.)
Explains why American car company want to push these things, doesn’t quite explain why Americans fall for it and – worse – why Europeans do.