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Comment by dangus | Hacker News Reader

If we want Tesla to make a low-profit margin work truck to actually get things done, you’re talking about a 4 cylinder Nissan Frontier with an extended cab.

That’s not the market for a $60,000 luxury truck.

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Indeed. The Ford Maverick base model is $23k (edited: was $21k which was the base price in 2022). Despite being "not really a truck" in many ways, it actually demonstrates a lot more utility per dollar than most pavement princesses. Every white Ford Ranger or Toyota Tacoma fleet vehicle you see out there hauling parts from store to store, doing groundskeeping/facilities/security work, and doing small household hauling can be replaced with a Maverick. In a world where $50k gets you a base model "full size" truck, the Maverick is going to clean up (in my opinion).

The Maverick is a great product but if I were a shareholder I’d want to be selling the $50k profit machines instead.

The margins on the Maverick are tight. It’s really just the Toyota Corolla of utility vehicles. Completely different buyer, and that’s okay.

We’re still waiting for the economy car EV breakthrough that has the kind of range needed for long North American drives.

One interesting thing is that you can also easily spend $50k on a luxury-spec Maverick. I drove one a couple weeks ago that was $52k out the door, fully 100% over base price. I'm sure the profit margin on those packages is pretty impressive. I ended up buying a bare bones one that was under $25k, silly miniature bed be damned.

Did that $52k include dealer markup? Pretty sure they top out around $40K fully-loaded.

Not that I recall, but it did have a lot of what I'd consider "above-and-beyond" extras, like a $400 console safe and powered moon roof (oh and lol, it was red!). Plus the $52k included all the seattle local charges like insane registration and sales tax, so those shouldn't really be counted.

Just as a note, "insane" registrations and sales tax are not "insane." Driving a vehicle has negative costs on society that neither the owner of the vehicle nor the producer pay for, and fuel taxes do not fully cover these costs.

Seattle/Washington charges you money based on the weight of your vehicle, which is reasonable since weight is the primary driver of road wear. A lighter vehicle costs the city and state less money in maintenance.

Sales tax in Seattle is also relatively typical for a city, and applies to every product you buy. It has a very similar sales tax rate to cities like Nashville, Memphis, Phoenix, and New Orleans.

Would clean up if everyone could get one. I placed an order for a 2023 and had to place another order for a 2024. I am still waiting. In the meantime I had to buy out my existing lease since the used car market was nuts, and I am pretty sure I am now under water on that lease.

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