3 hours ago
> Rather than a distinct floor component, the Fathom’s interior parts mount directly to the top of the structural battery.
I'm looking forward to the IIHS test results.
3 hours ago
Safety asides it sounds like they build the car like a phone, so probably the repairs cost would be more expensive in the long run
6 hours ago
Shouldn't a Fathom have a six foot bed, by definition?
5 hours ago
Not at that unfathomably low price
9 hours ago
So they made the battery, arguably the most concerning thing to replace as the vehicle ages, ridiculous to replace?
At least they're not reusing names for entirely new things. Mustang Mach-e is so weird. New vehicle, new name. Good
7 hours ago
Aging isn't the real problem. Batteries are being found to last ages and ages more than they were ever thought to. By the time it needs to be changed, these will be considered as antiques.
I think the real problem will be in crashes and insurance. The amount of cars that will be totaled for a fender bender will be nuts.
5 hours ago
Nah real problem, especially on smaller cells like 18650 back of the day is balance or temperature cable welds that randomly pop off, rendering entire pack useless and very laborious to repair. Rest of the things are very rare. If you crash hard enough to damage battery usually entire car is written off.
I've been looking for used Tesla in Eastern Europe. Battery repairs are so rare (I think I found 2). Post-crash rebuilds are basically 95% of cars sold here. 100% if car is from USA.
5 hours ago
Upgrading would make that a nice to have. 8 years or so and battery tech should have an affordable higher capacity unit that could give new life to it.
I got a refurbed Nissan Leaf with a 40KWh battery (replaced the original 24KWh battery) which added enough range to eliminate range anxiety whilst tootling about the metro area.
4 hours ago
> the architecture uses large aluminum unicastings to incorporate more than 100 parts that would otherwise be separate
They may have learned a few tricks from those teardowns of BYDs.
8 hours ago
If it's about the size of a Maverick as the article suggests, that's not small at all.
8 hours ago
The Maverick is pretty small compared to other trucks. Smaller than a Ranger, and much, much smaller than the quarter and half ton trucks.
7 hours ago
Smaller doesn't necessarily mean small. Rangers are just normal big, and upper tier trucks are absolutely monstrous.
You know what I thought the Maverick was sized like before looking it up? A Volkswagen Saveiro.
6 hours ago
For what it’s worth, I absolutely love my f-150 lightning. I just wish we had 1 MW charging like the Chinese do.
8 hours ago
Shoulda gone with Canyonero as the name.
Love my ranger. ~700km on a tank of gasoline. Easy to work on at home. The factory installed upfitter switches make adding 12v additions easy.
8 hours ago
Hahaha when I saw ranchero I had the same thought and started singing the canyonero song in my head.
4 hours ago
Imagine buying a new EV that can't drive itself. What a waste of money