Weird Alibaba: Cruise all day on this cheap electric… flatbed cart?
When it comes to four-wheeled electric vehicles, Alibaba is known to have some doozies in the low price department. But this model might take the cake for cheapest electric vehicle yet. I’m not sure what I’d use it for, but at least the $600 price tag wouldn’t be nearly as hard to justify to my wife as my $2,000 truck was.
And as some nice bonus points, it works perfectly for this week’s edition of the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week!
They call this an electric hand truck, but it seems more like a whole body truck. I’ve never seen a hand truck that I could ride to work!
The beauty of this thing is that it isn’t just a rolling cart. And it’s not even just an electrified rolling cart. It’s an entire ride-on vehicle.
It’s got a quasi-bicycle seat included so that you can ride it around instead of walking behind it. There are handlebars, a throttle, brakes, and, well… I guess that’s it. But that’s all you need to turn this into the coolest little work buggy at the job site.
The bright yellow cart will blend in with all the massive Cat diggers and other real equipment at your local construction site. Or perhaps something like this is better suited for warehouse work, where it can ferry around pallets or loose goods through endless aisles, no back strain necessary.
It even has a reconfigurable design, with the seat mount either bolting on in front of or behind the handlebar stem. That means you can sit way out behind it, steering like a Venetian gondola (see video below), or you can sit right on top and pretend you’re in the world’s flattest electric car.
There’s a foot stand too in case you want to leave the seat off and just stand up while driving, though that doesn’t sound nearly as comfortable as sitting.
For those that carry more odds and ends than big flat sheets of plywood, there’s a pickup truck-style bed option with what look like fold-down tail and side gates. That can make it easier to toss smaller items in without worrying about them shaking off somewhere along the journey.
At just 25 km/h (15 mph), it’s not like it would be too hard to come to a stop and pick up something you lost off the side. But with a measly 800W motor, you’ll probably want to keep your momentum up since the off-the-line acceleration likely isn’t much to write home about.
The 60V 20Ah lead acid battery pack doesn’t seem very large at just 1.2 kWh, but they claim it offers 50 km (30 mile) of range, which is probably farther than anyone will realistically drive this thing.
Let’s put it this way: There are worse ways you can waste your money than on buying a fun little ’round the parking lot work cart like this.
If it were me, I’d use it as an awesome blank canvas for building the coolest parade float you can imagine. Or save it for halloween and rack up more candy than anyone else with your own little mini e-truck for carrying it all back home.
The sky is the limit when you have your electric Chinese hand truck, that’s for sure!
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On the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Tesla’s massive round of layoffs, Elon Musk putting Tesla all-in on Robotaxi, important shareholders vote, and more.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
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Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET):
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Norway has signed a contract with Ventyr Energi to develop Sørlige Nordsjø 2, its first commercial offshore wind farm.
Norway’s energy minister, Terje Aasland, and wind consortium Ventyr Energi representatives signed the contract. Aasland said:
This marks an important milestone in Norway’s commitment to renewable energy. I firmly believe that Sørlige Nordsjø II can be a catalyst to achieve our ambitions for the offshore wind industry in Norway.
Ventyr Energi, a consortium formed by Parkwind and Ingka Investments, won Norway’s first auction to develop offshore wind in Sørlige Nordsjø 2 (Southern North Sea II) last month.
The Norwegian government opened the application window for Norway’s first offshore wind auction in March 2023. It offered a capacity of 1.5 gigawatts (GW) at Sørlige Nordsjø II and 1.5 GW at Utsira Nord.
In February, five groups qualified to participate in the auction: Aker Offshore Wind, BP, and Statkraft; Equinor and RWE; Norseman Wind, a subsidiary of EnBW; Shell, Lyse, and Eviny; and Ventyr.
Norway’s aim is to achieve 30 GW of offshore wind power by 2040.
Read more: This ‘spider’ crane enables an offshore wind turbine to virtually build itself
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Chinese EV maker NIO is denying rumors of a second round of layoffs circulating on social media. The speculation comes as several EV makers recently announced plans to scale back.
NIO announced in November it was trimming its staff by 10% amid “fierce competition,” according to a memo reviewed by Bloomberg.
The letter from CEO William Li said the company was eliminating duplicate and inefficient roles. Furthermore, projects not expected to generate earnings within the next three years were delayed or omitted from the plans.
“This is a tough but necessary decision against fierce competition,” Li said, adding, “Our journey is a marathon on a muddy track.”
NIO’s job cuts came after market leaders like Tesla and BYD aggressively slashed prices all year. NIO cut prices by up to $4,200 in June as it looked to keep pace.
After opening orders for the new ET7 this week, all NIO models are now underpinned by its updated NT 2.0 platform.
NIO clarifies no new layoffs are planned
After reports of a new round of layoffs began circulating, NIO set the record straight. The rumors were started by foreign bloggers, making their way to Chinese social media.
The rumors claimed NIO was implementing another round of layoffs. Reports cited falling sales and increased competition. Li said he was unaware of the situation.
Rising competition and higher interest rates are making it harder for EV makers to compete. Several automakers have announced plans to reduce their workforce or scale back.
Rivian announced plans to cut another 1% of jobs after revealing it was laying off 10% of its salaried employees in February.
The news comes after Tesla revealed it was reducing its global workforce by over 10% this week.
Meanwhile, NIO’s sales rebounded in March as new models launched. NIO delivered 11,866 vehicles in March (its highest monthly total in 2024) for 30,053 in the first quarter.
NIO topped estimates after trimming delivery forecasts just days before the release. Refreshed models like the 2024 ES8, ES6, EC6, and ET5T fueled the growth.
The EV maker expects the momentum to continue in the second quarter with the 2024 ES7, ET7, and ET5 rolling out.
NIO’s (NYSE: NIO) stock is down over 50% this year as the EV sector has slipped into a downward trend. NIO shares are down over 90% from the all-time high of over $62 set in February 2021.
Source: CnEVPost, NIO
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