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!