Comment by abdjdoeke
22 days ago
I would like this in a new car company. Low tech, simple to operate, repair, etc. the tech is what goes out of style and I don’t know how (or don’t care) to use half of tech cars have to offer aside from the automatic safety stuff.
The problem with making a low-tech car is that a lot of high tech stuff is mandatory for the car to be road legal.
In most US states, if you're willing to build it yourself, you have a lot more leeway. It was part of the formula that allowed Local Motors to exist (sadly they aren't around now).
YMMV of course, but worth checking into if you have the mechanical and welding skills.
People put whatever engines they can find on old truck chassis. It’s up to you to do the swap. Most people do want to DIY anything on a car. Enthusiast based models usually don’t sell in high volume.
Sounds like the Slate truck.
Nice that looks pretty cool! Maybe once they become a real product I’ll look into it haha.
The hard part is convincing enough capitalists to invest into a high volume low margin product/company that doesn't have a real chance of being a jackpot win down the road. Investors don't want stocks that at its best gain a percentage or two above the overall market, there are plenty of other options with similar returns that have better worst-case results if there is a market crash. A co-op business could theoretically do it and would be happy with such margins, except it is unlikely a co-op is going to have enough capital to start with enough scale to actually push into the automotive market.