When it comes to fun and wacky electric vehicles, the undisputed titans of the industry are those wild EV engineers that must surely be keeping Alibaba in business. Despite a global supply chain crunch, there’s no shortage of fun and fascinating options in the endlessly scrolling EV pages on the site. This week’s entry in the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week is no exception. I want to call this gem a flatbed truck, but it’s not just the bed that is flat. This is a flat everything electric truck.
It’s about time I found a new electric truck on Alibaba. The usual suspects were getting a bit lonely.
We’ve seen adorable mini pickup trucks, garbage trucks, trucklets with a bed so short you’d have to cut your 2x4s into kindling to haul them, and I’ve even gone as far as to buy my own little electric truck from Alibaba, shipping it half way around the world to my parent’s driveway.
But I’ve never seen one of these totally flat, airport-style electric trucks on the platform before, which makes me want one even more.
I have no idea what I’d do with it, but the massive flat surface really opens the doors of endless possibilities, right?!
For a cool $4,500 (plus an unknown king’s ransom in shipping), you could be the proud new owner of the most unique electric truck on the block.
When all of your friends are getting new Rivians or Ford F150 Lightnings, you could show them all up. Why get such a common and dare I say passé electric truck? Instead, you could be the bee’s knees. The king of cool. The cat’s pajamas. If electric trucks are cool these days, then with one of these you’ll be Miles Davis.
And if this giant flat bed truck wasn’t neat enough already, it’s got one more party trick! The flat bed has both tail and side gates, meaning they flip up into a more typical pickup-style bed, perfect for tossing in your shovel or pile of 2-by’s.
The bed is 3.2×1.7 meters (10.4 feet by 5.5 feet), so you could haul a lot back there! And it has a weight capacity of a whopping 3,000 kg (6,600 lb), so you won’t have to worry about maxing this thing out too early. That might not be enough to haul a full grown T-Rex in my upcoming off-brand Jurassic Park attraction, but a juvenile might not be a problem.
The 8.5 kW (11.4 hp) motor sounds a bit anemic for a truck, but the top speed of 25 km/h (15.5 mph) doesn’t exactly require the strongest electric motor this side of the Mississippi.
Besides the modest power, the rest of this truck is looking pretty darn sweet. We’ve got hydraulic disc brakes, Macpherson suspension up front and double wishbone suspension in the rear, and apparently even a backup camera! I’m not sure why you’d need a backup camera though, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen a vehicle with better visibility than this one.
There’s a massive 16.5 kWh battery pack, which should last all day at these low speeds.
The vendor even claims seating for three, though I’m not sure where the other two folks go. If we’re getting creative, I think you might as well say seating for 20. This is a few bales short of the perfect hayride vehicle. Just don’t hit a low branch or you might scrape everyone right off the back!
Of all the different weird and awesome electric vehicles I’ve found over the years, this one is near the top of the list for options that hold a warm spot in my heart.
I may have almost nothing to use it for, but that wouldn’t stop me. I’m sure I’d find something.
With this much real estate in the back, you’re pretty much only limited by your imagination. And I don’t know about you, but that’s means it’s pretty limitless for me!
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