
Peapod Comes Live Today. - nav
http://www.peapodmobility.com/
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teilo
30 mile range on an 8 hour charge, 25mph max, no roads posted above 35mph.
What a fracking waste of money.

Sorry, but I just cannot see this being useful. It will work for a small
number of people, no doubt, but not enough to make this a viable product.

Honestly, how far can you go when you have to avoid all roads posted above
35mph?

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anigbrowl
Um, around town? I don't know if this would cope with the hills of San
Francisco, but the reason I don't own a car is that I rarely go past the city
limit. Of course this is useless if you live in the country or some sleeper
town where you face a long commute to work. Fine, it's not aimed at those
markets, any more than city dwellers are the prime market for full-size pickup
trucks. Sheesh - they even call it a ' _neighborhood_ electric vehicle'.

I do think the graphic design of the thing is sheer genius. If the price is
right and things are sufficiently maneuverable, then great. Not so smart,
however, was choosing the same name as a poorly-perceived grocery delivery
service: <http://www.peapod.com/>

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teilo
Granted. Yet not once has the concept of "neighborhood vehicles" succeeded.
This has been tried before.

Working against them is the perception that a car is supposed to be driven on
roads, any roads. Now they are trying to sell you a car that can only be
driven on some roads. Part of the appeal of high economy vehicles, even those
that one would traditionally consider "local" vehicles, is that they could be
used for longer distance travel when necessary. Example: The Vespa-style
scooters. Take away even the possibility of using this vehicle to travel, say,
to the town down the road, or even the other side of the metro area, and it
becomes much less appealing. It's a lot of money to spend on a vehicle that is
hard-limited (legally speaking) to local travel.

I could see in certain densely populated areas, this could become more useful.
My judgment may be totally flawed. Yet if I had to put money on it, I'd say
this thing is going to flop.

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anigbrowl
Agreed, a lot depends on the price. However, you can't take a 50cc scooter on
the freeway. If the price/TCO is right, I could see these selling as fleet
vehicles for, say, mail delivery. Those little 'smart cars' from Mercedes and
others seem to be doing OK.

I don't own a car, so to me a car fit for a road trip and a little runaround-
town vehicle are two completely different products. I'd rather own the latter
and rent the former once or twice a year.

edit: the proposed $20k isn't a winner, though. I think this kind of vehicle
needs to be shooting for $5-7,500.

