Weird Alibaba: 4-door $4.5k Chinese electric pick-up truck for off-road adventures
When most families go on safari, they rent a truck or pay a company for a guided tour. But with this cheap Chinese electric truck I find in the bowels of the internet, you could spend the same amount of money and get to keep your safari truck at the end! And lucky for us, this funky little e-truck is perfect for this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column!
We’re no stranger to mini electric pickup trucks. This series has featured fun little farm trucks, hot pink Barbie trucks-come-to-life, and even stubby little pickup trucks with a bed the size of a suitcase.
But never before have we seen such an off-road ready mini electric truck, and that makes this week’s feature a special find.
It already comes complete with front bash guard with fog lights, full length extended roof rack, rear mesh rack for protected storage, roof light bar, tubular doors, skid plate, and optional running boards (just in case you need help climbing up into a mini pickup truck).
The truck itself is setup as a four seater so you can take the whole family on safari, though there appears to be a two-seater variant as well for the non-breeders to enjoy their vacation in peace.
It’d be nice if this thing came as a 4×4, but the electric motor mounted on the rear axle precludes it. Instead, you’ve got yourself a rear wheel drive truck. The good news though is there’s no driveshaft tunnel, meaning you’ve got a flat floor throughout the entire cab.
The motor isn’t particularly impressive at just 4,000W, though like most Chinese EVs, that’s a continuous power rating. Peak power is likely closer to 6,500W or around 8.7 hp.
That’s enough for the 45 km/h (28 mph) top speed. You may not outrun any lions or charging rhinos, but at least you’ll get a darn good last look at them through those open tubular doors!
For batteries, this truck rocks 72V 100Ah lead acid batteries. The first thing I’d do if this were my truck would be to rip out that 7.2 kWh of century-old battery technology and toss in six new 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 bricks to get some modern day battery technology.
The vendor claims a range of 120 km (75 miles) with the original batteries, and I’d wager that you’d do slightly better with the lithium iron phosphate upgrade, since those batteries are much more tolerant of deep discharges. They’ll also last a good 7-10x as long, so it’s worth the upgrade.
I’ve got an electric boat on the way from Alibaba and I’ve already got those exact LiFePO4 bricks waiting in my garage to load up the hull with modern, safe energy storage.
The rest of the features on the truck are surprisingly good, especially considering the reasonable $4,500 purchase price. We’re looking at rack-and-pinion steering, independent front suspension, aluminum wheels, electric windows, three-point seat belts, and even a front storage frunk.
Of course this thing would never cost you just $4,500 in the end, considering you’ve probably got a couple thousand bucks in freight charges, another grand or so in import duties, several hundred dollars in customs broker fees and port charges, etc.
Then you’re looking at the small problem of it not being even close to street legal in the US. There are a growing number of DOT-approved 25 mph (40 km/h) mini EVs in the US that qualify as road legal LSVs, (low speed vehicles), but this ain’t one of them. There are even street-legal mini pickups in the US that look like what this is based on, though they cost around 4-6x this much.
If your main use is a safari trip though, street legal status might not be at the top of your priority list.
I’m sorry to say that I don’t think I’ll be adding this one to my list of fun Alibaba purchases.
I took a risk on buying an electric mini-truck from China last summer and it actually went quite well.
It was a gamble that I’m not sure I’ll be ready to roll the dice on again though, at least not any time soon.
It’s been an awesome work truck for around my parents’ ranch (it’s another definitely not street-legal situation), though I’ve had to make a few upgrades like adding off-road tires (which weren’t on yet in the image below).
While I wait for my electric pleasure boat to arrive on the slow boat from China, I’ll ponder the missed opportunity of buying a bright orange mini safari truck. Maybe I’ll regret it, but there’s always next summer.
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The Reliance Industries Ltd. oil refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat, India, on Saturday, July 31, 2021.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
India is navigating a tricky balancing act after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a “penalty” over its continued imports of Russian oil — a trade that New Delhi appears reluctant to end anytime soon.
Despite Trump telling reporters Friday that he “heard” India would halt purchases, officials in New Delhi have remained noncommittal. Foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that the country decides its energy import sources “based on the price at which oil is available in the international market and depending on the global situation at that time.”
“The Indians must be having some confusion” following Trump’s threat — a reversal from the more tolerant approach taken under the Biden administration, Bob McNally, president of consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”
“Now we’re flipping around and saying, ‘What are you doing taking all this Russian oil?'” McNally said.
In March 2022 — a month after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine — Daleep Singh, a former U.S. deputy national security adviser for international economics in the Biden administration, reportedly said that “friends don’t set red lines” and “there is no prohibition at present on energy imports from Russia.”
“What we would not like to see is a rapid acceleration of India’s imports from Russia as it relates to energy or any other exports that are currently being prohibited by us or by other aspects of the international sanctions regime,” Singh said.
On July 30, Trump announced that India would face a 25% tariff beginning Aug. 1, along with an unspecified “penalty” for buying Russian oil and military equipment.
But analysts suggest that India, which is the third-largest energy consumer in the world, isn’t blinking. Reuters reported that there are no immediate changes planned to India’s long-term contracts with Russian suppliers, citing two anonymous Indian government sources that did not wish to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Russia has become the leading oil supplier to India since the war in Ukraine began, increasing from just under 100,000 barrels per day before the invasion, or a 2.5% share of total imports, to more than 1.8 million barrels per day in 2023, or 39%. According to the International Energy Agency, 70% of Russian crude was exported to India in 2024.
India’s energy minister Hardeep Singh Puri defended New Delhi’s actions in a July 10 interview with CNBC, saying that it helped stabilize global prices and was even encouraged by the U.S.
“If people or countries had stopped buying at that stage, the price of oil would have gone up to 130 dollars a barrel. That was a situation in which we were advised, including by our friends in the United States, to please buy Russian oil, but within the price cap.”
Russian oil exports had been capped at $60 per barrel in December 2022 by the Group of Seven nations, representing the world’s top economies, while the European Union had lowered the price cap to just above $47 per barrel in July.
Still, pressure is mounting. Vishnu Varathan, Managing Director at Mizuho Securities, said that the U.S. threats present a “clear and present danger” to India. He said that New Delhi is likely to remain non-committal on oil purchases as it assesses the trade-offs of this “Russia option” as a bargaining chip.
India will need to scour the global market for comparable oil bargains with Russian oil, Varathan, who is also the head of macro research for Asia ex-Japan, added.
New Delhi could explore alternatives, including Iran — if an exemption from the U.S. can be negotiated — as well as a few other producers “either within or outside of the OPEC+ that have been pressured by the U.S,” Varathan said.
The OPEC+ bloc had agreed on Sunday to raise output by 547,000 barrels per day in September, as concerns mount over potential supply disruptions linked to Russia.
India is going to face a tough choice, Rapidan’s McNally said.
“Trump is serious. He’s frustrated with Putin… India is going to have a tough choice to make, but it’s hard to see them continuing to import that a million and a half barrels [of] Russian crude if Donald Trump decides to really put the whole relationship on the line over it.”
Wagons don’t get a lot of love Stateside, with American buyers choosing SUVs over – well, pretty much every other type of vehicle imaginable. That’s our loss, as the latest plug in hybrid versions of the Volkswagen Passat are here to prove.
The latest Passat Variant eHybrid (or, in some markets, Vario, which is what the Europeans like to call wagons) is different from the version we get in the US. Unlike the domestic version which is based on a low-cost platform specific to the US and China, the Euro-market version is built on the MQB platform that underpins VW’s flagship Arteon four-door coupe and both VW‘s and Audi’s entry-luxe SUVs.
That might seem weird, since VW has sold more than 34 million units sold worldwide and the Passat is the second top-selling Volkswagen of all time (behind the Golf and ahead of the Beetle). It’s understandable, then, that the European execs are pretty proud of their Passat.
The latest evolutionary stage of the modular transverse matrix (MQB evo)forms the highly innovative technical basis of the ninth Passat generation. Thanks to the significant economies of scale of the MQB evo, Volkswagen has again democratised numerous high-tech developments and made them available for hundreds of thousands of drivers. The two completely newly developed plug-in hybrid drives (eHybrid) are a perfect example of this. In combination with a new battery, they make all-electric ranges of around 100 km possible. This distance turns the new Passat Variant into an electric vehicle for everyday life – this is additionally ensured by short charging times as the battery can now be charged at AC charge points with 11 kW instead of the previous 3.6 kW. The Passat Variant eHybrid can even be charged with up to 50 kW at DC fast charging stations. In addition, the combination of electric drive motor and new economical turbocharged petrol engine provides overall ranges of around 1,000 km.
KAI GRÜNITZ
Member of the Brand Board of Management, VW
In case the jealous American wago-philes reading this aren’t jealous enough, Volkswagen has announced new Passat eHybrid Match and Black Editions that add nearly £5k of options for the new model year effectively for free.
“Match is better equipped than the outgoing Life, with additional features including metallic paint, VW’s IQ.Light LED matrix headlights, tinted rear windows and an ‘assistance pack’ which adds area view and emergency assist,” reports Alastair Crooks, from the UK car site AutoExpress. “The new Black Edition comes with metallic paint, 19-inch alloy wheels, a panoramic sunroof, tinted rear windows (darker than the Match’s), heated front and rear seats, a head-up display, a 15-inch central touchscreen and the same assistance pack as the Match.”
The entry-level Match replaces the previous Life trim, but costs the same £45,555 (about $60,500), while the Black Edition costs the same as the outgoing R-Line, from £48,900 (about $64,950). The order books open 14 August.
You can take a look at some of the VW press photos of the European Passat wagon Variant, below, then let us know if you’d rather have this for $60K or the discount American version in the comments.
VW Passat Variant gallery
SOURCE | IMAGES: VW, via AutoExpress.
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Wirtgen Vögele recently revealed the battery-powered MINI 500e and the MINI 502e electric pavers. With an electrically heated screed, a range of paving widths, and zero-emission operations, they’re paving a greener, cleaner path.
Co-developed by Wirtgen Vögele and Italian road equipment manufacturer C. M. S.r.l., the new electric pavers will enable contractors to bid on construction projects that are subject to even the strictest noise and emission limits – but the company is quick to point out that they’re capable enough to serve on conventional job sites.
“These pavers excel on small-scale construction projects and jobs covering a small area – the type of work for which paving crews would not previously have been able to use machines,” reads the official Wirtgen Vögele copy. “Thanks to their elimination of manual labor, among other benefits, the new MINI pavers improve the efficiency and quality of asphalt paving, particularly in the construction of sidewalks and drains, as well as in tight downtown locations.”
The new Wirtgen MINI 502e (the one with wheels) and the MINI 500e (the one with crawler tracks) offer pave widths from 0.25 to 1.8 m, feature a battery-electric drive outputting 22.8 kW (30 hp), and your choice of either a 15 kWh or 22 kWh 48V li-ion battery – good enough battery capacity for up to 16 hours of continuing paving. Both versions can be fully charged on a conventional 110/120 “L1” power socket in about eight hours.
Electrek’s Take
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the federal EV incentives are or even what the guys on your crew want to operate. What matters is that construction noise upsets Mrs. Clancik’s terrier, and she will force the town council to keep the noise down all by herself.
If your construction company wants to bid on any municipal work, that means you’re gonna have to stay quiet. Maybe even keep the smells to a minimum, too. Buying electric equipment means you can do both.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Wirtgen, via Construction Equipment International.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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