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VIA Motors (VTRUX)
- Thread starter Iamthecaliflower
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- Electric Vehicles
As I recall Via came about from a disagreement between Elon and one of his partners regarding the viability of pure EV to handle work loads required by commercial vehicles?
Almost a decade later and Via have a 20kW hybrid truck/van offering around the 60-70K USD mark and Tesla are building high end luxury cars with 70KW batteries around that same price point and have started making plans towards commercial vehicle development.
Plot the trajectory of both product lines and companies in the next few years and it would seem that Elon is going to get his change for an "I told you so" moment du jour.
Almost a decade later and Via have a 20kW hybrid truck/van offering around the 60-70K USD mark and Tesla are building high end luxury cars with 70KW batteries around that same price point and have started making plans towards commercial vehicle development.
Plot the trajectory of both product lines and companies in the next few years and it would seem that Elon is going to get his change for an "I told you so" moment du jour.
RobStark
Well-Known Member
The Elon partner you are referring to is Kiwi Ian Wright of Wrightspeed . He raised $400M in venture capital and is making EREV powertrain replacements for garbage trucks. He was on one of the American business cable news channels last week saying Tesla's pure EV Semi truck is impossible, that it needs a fossil fuel range extender.
He has repeatedly said Elon's plan to make an every cheaper BEV in ever greater numbers to eventually compete head on with Toyota and the Camry is impossible.
The Elon partner you are referring to is Kiwi Ian Wright of Wrightspeed . He raised $400M in venture capital and is making EREV powertrain replacements for garbage trucks. He was on one of the American business cable news channels last week saying Tesla's pure EV Semi truck is impossible, that it needs a fossil fuel range extender.
He has repeatedly said Elon's plan to make an every cheaper BEV in ever greater numbers to eventually compete head on with Toyota and the Camry is impossible.
Too many former business partners to keep track of
swaltner
Active Member
I saw a VTRUX in real life on Wednesday night. It was parked by the EV charging station at the Westar Energy's (they're the local electricity provider) Operation Office. I pulled up for a 10 minute charge on the Leaf and thought someone had ICE'd the charging station with one of the company trucks. Quickly noticed the VTRUX badge on the tailgate and was excited to see one in real life. I sent an e-mail off to the EV group within Westar hoping to arrange time for a closer inspection of the VTRUX in daylight, possibly at any public event they plan on having the vehicle at. Hopefully, I'll receive an invite from them in the near future.
It was charging at the time, and was locked up with no one in sight. The odd thing I noticed was that the dash was lit up, kind of like it was in ACC mode on the ignition. I wonder if that's related to grafting onto the original electrical system and needing certain things active during the charging process. Nothing bad, just was odd to have something lit in the vehicle during the charge cycle other than just a simple status LED like most EVs and PHEVs seem to use.
If the VTRUX was available to the public and a little cheaper than the $79k price I saw at one point, this would be a really compelling option. Almost all of my driving is currently done in the Leaf. The only other driving is summer vacations, which are done in the 1/2 ton pickup. Collapsing both uses to a single vehicle would be nice.
It was charging at the time, and was locked up with no one in sight. The odd thing I noticed was that the dash was lit up, kind of like it was in ACC mode on the ignition. I wonder if that's related to grafting onto the original electrical system and needing certain things active during the charging process. Nothing bad, just was odd to have something lit in the vehicle during the charge cycle other than just a simple status LED like most EVs and PHEVs seem to use.
If the VTRUX was available to the public and a little cheaper than the $79k price I saw at one point, this would be a really compelling option. Almost all of my driving is currently done in the Leaf. The only other driving is summer vacations, which are done in the 1/2 ton pickup. Collapsing both uses to a single vehicle would be nice.
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