The world is rapidly filling up with big, tough, capable electric trucks that are ready to rough-and-tumble their way through a post-apocalyptic landscape. Everything from the Tesla Cybertruck to the Rivian and the massively powerful GMC Hummer is set to prove that electric trucks can be just as big and bad as fossil fuel trucks — only more so. The Xbus, meanwhile, says something different. Like an angry koala, it seems to say, “I’m sensitive — but, also: fight me.”
It’s my favorite.
Xbus EV at Sunset
Image courtesy Xbus.
As you can see from the pictures, the Xbus is tall and narrow — but it’s also tiny. So tiny, in fact, that it’s not only not really a truck, it’s not even legally a car! At least by the legal definition in Europe, the Xbus is an L7e class quadricycle. Like a pedicab kind of thing, which is why its 10 kWh battery is enough to push it over 120 miles on a single charge. Those batteries are cleverly placed in centrally-located drawers for easy swapping, which could cut down on downtime significantly in the rural/industrial settings the little Xbus is bound to find itself in.
In case an Xbus ever does want to go onto public roads, however, the 75 peak HP electric hub motors are good for hauling up to almost 1000 lb of stuff (or 450 kg, for people from countries that haven’t landed on the Moon) from point A to point B on 12″ wheels (?) at what has to be an absolutely bonkers 62 MPH. If you load it up with batteries, too, you can keep on driving for more than 300 miles before you have to stop and swap — which, now that I think about it, would be a great name for a convenience store/battery stop. It beats this one, anyway (no pun intended).
Image courtesy Kum & Go.
The only downside I see to this Xbus is the hub motors — which, I mean, Lordstown Motors kind of proved everyone who doubted the durability of such motors right when they failed to finish a 250 mile off-road race at any speed, let alone racing speed! Still, this is a different animal, with much smaller loads and (probably) a lot fewer use cases, so it might be worth the approximately $20,000 asking price.
For their part, the makers of Xbus have begun offering several body styles to choose from, including a fully enclosed bus, a pickup, a dump bed, and a flatbed version with fold-down sides that, frankly, I’d love to have for trips to the nursery. There will even be a camper variant with a refrigerator, sink, gas stove, and TV inside. But I already understand, without having seen it, that I am too fat for it.
You can click here to play with the Xbus configurator for yourself. If you come up with a neat one, share it in the comments section at the bottom of the page. In the meantime, enjoy Xbus’ launch video. It’s the cutest.
Xbus Product Debut (auf Deutsch)
Source | Images: Xbus, via Motor 1, the Driven.io.
