-October 25, 2021 at 6:03 a.m. Pacific Time

Some readers may remember that I bought a cheap electric mini truck on Alibaba a few months ago. I know this because since then I have received emails almost every day asking if my Chinese electric pickup truck has arrived (someone humorously calls it my F-50). Well, now I can finally answer, "Yes!" and share with you the exact information I received.

But first, a little background.

I first found this truck while perusing Alibaba, looking for weekly gold nuggets for my "Very Strange Alibaba Electric Car of the Week" column.

I found that an electric truck worth $2,000 looks perfect, but its ratio is about 2:3. Its speed is only 25 mph. And there is only one 3 kW motor. And you have to pay extra for battery, shipping, etc.

But concealing all these small problems, the truck looks stupid and great. It's a bit small, but it has a lot of charm. So I started talking with a trading company (a small company called ChangLi that also supplies some importers in the United States).

I was able to specify the truck with a hydraulic dumper, air conditioning, and a huge (for this small truck) 6 kWh lithium-ion battery.

In addition to the basic price, these upgrades cost me about US$1,500, and I had to pay a staggering US$2,200 for sea freight, but at least my truck is now on its way to me.

The transportation process seems to take a long time. Everything went well at first, and a few weeks after the payment, my truck drove to the port. It sat for a few more weeks until it became a container and loaded it on the ship, and then six weeks later, the ship arrived in Miami. The only problem is that my truck is no longer on it. No one knows where it went. I spent a few days calling the freight company, logistics company, my customs broker and Chinese trading company. No one can explain it clearly.

Finally, the Chinese trading company heard from their shipper that my container had been unloaded in South Korea and loaded onto a second container ship-probably because the water in the port was not deep enough.

To make a long story short, the truck finally arrived in Miami, but was detained by customs for several weeks. Once it finally popped out from the other end of the customs, I paid an extra $500 to a guy I found on Craigslist, who used a larger flatbed truck to drag the boxed truck to my parents’ home in Florida , This will become the new home of trucks.

The delivered cage was beaten all over, but the truck was miraculously intact. There, I opened the box of the truck and I was happy to charge the angle grinder in advance. In the end, the unboxing went smoothly, and there were only a few minor issues in the video I took during the first test ride (of course, my dad and wife were watching the show live, and they quickly voluntarily tested it).

I am really surprised that the truck is in such good condition after a long journey. I thought that preparing for a crashed truck would help lower my expectations, so when the truck arrived with almost no dents, I was shocked.

Believe it or not, the truck is actually better than I hoped.

It is not particularly powerful, although the 3 kW motor and 5.4 kW peak controller provide it with enough low-speed power to move around on my parents’ property. The top speed is only 25 mph (40 km/h), but in any case I rarely reach this speed on uneven ground around the fields-more soon.

The dump bed is great, I have used it well to collect yard garbage around the land and drag it back to the garbage dump.

The truck itself is doing very well in some respects. It has a full metal body panel, electric doors and windows with a key fob for locking, and a full light package with flashes, headlights, spotlights, taillights, reversing lights, etc. There is also a backup camera, a steel luggage rack and bed frame, a high-power charger, a windshield wiper with washing liquid, and the air conditioner is even very powerful (tested in hot and humid Florida).

I can even connect my phone to Bluetooth and play music or movies on the infotainment system.

Some better rust inhibitors can be used for the whole thing, because after months of sailing at sea, I have noticed rust in some places.

This is definitely not a golf cart-it is a fully enclosed vehicle, albeit at a slow speed. I mainly drive off-road. Due to the rough suspension, I rarely get close to the top speed of 25 mph (40 km/h), although I did a small amount of road driving to verify the speed, which is almost exactly the promised 25 mph. Hour.

However, I did not do much road cycling, mainly due to the next problem.

Unfortunately, these Changli cars and trucks are not legal on the streets, and there are hardly any community electric vehicles (NEV) or low-speed vehicles (LSV) made in China.

The problem is that these 25 mph electric vehicles fall into the category of federally approved motor vehicles (LSV), and believe it or not, there are actually applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards.

I used to think that as long as NEV and LSV reach 25 mph and equipped with flashing lights, seat belts and other equipment, they can legally go on the road. Unfortunately, this is incorrect. It is more complicated than that.

These cars actually need to meet a long list of requirements, including installing DOT parts throughout the road to be legal on the street. The glass must come from a DOT-registered glass factory, the backup camera must come from a DOT-registered backup camera factory, and so on. It is not enough to drive at 25 mph with seat belts and flashing lights.

Even if the car has all the necessary DOT parts, the factories that produce them in China must be registered with the NHTSA to allow the car to drive on the roads in the United States. Therefore, although some American companies have imported these cars into the U.S., some of them falsely claim that these cars are legal because they have a speed of 25 mph. The sad truth is, no, we can’t actually register these Cars or accept them on the road. Producing these products in the United States or establishing a factory in China that meets DOT standards and can be registered with NHTSA requires a daunting task. Perhaps this explains why a 4-seater Polaris GEM at 25 mph with lead-acid batteries without doors and windows costs as much as $15,000!

You often see these items priced around $2,000 on Alibaba and other Chinese shopping sites. The real cost is actually much higher. As I mentioned, I must immediately add $1,000 for the large battery, $500 for the upgrade of my choice, and $2,200 for shipping.

In the U.S., I had to add an additional $1,000 or so in tariffs and brokerage fees, as well as some arrival fees. In the end, I spent $7,000 to buy the entire kit and a bunch of things. This is definitely more than I expected. Back when I placed the order, I hope to avoid the loss of $6,000.

Although some people may refer to the final price as extortion, please consider alternatives. A bad golf cart with submerged lead-acid batteries starts at about $6,000 today. A half decent is $8,000. Really good prices are between 10-12,000 US dollars. Even so, all you have is a golf cart. It is not closed, which means you will rain. No air conditioning. There are no wipers. The door is not locked. There are no windows (electric or other). There is no adjustable bucket seat. There is no infotainment system. There is no skylight. There are no truck beds with hydraulic dumping devices, etc.

Therefore, although some people may think that this is a beautified golf cart (I must admit they have some truth), it is cheaper than golf carts and has practicality that golf carts do not have.

Although this truck is illegal on the street, it is no problem for me. I didn't get it for this purpose, and of course it has no safety equipment, which would not allow me to use it comfortably in traffic in any way.

Instead, it is a work truck. I will use it (or more likely my parents will use it more than I do) as a farm truck on their property. A few days before I used it, it has proven to be very suitable for the task. We use it on land to collect fallen limbs and debris, drag moving boxes and equipment around the house, and visit neighbors just to have fun!

It definitely beats the gas-powered UTV, because I never have to fill it up or suffocate with exhaust. The same goes for buying some old gas trucks-I prefer my fun little electric car, which can do everything I need in this place.

At this point, I am happy to start modifying the truck. It is already a good foundation, although it may require some work. The suspension is not very good, I am not sure how much I can do there. Some softer springs may be a good start.

But I will also make some other supplements. Trucks can use some good rust inhibitors, so this is another starting area.

I am also considering putting a small solar panel on top of the cab. Even relatively low-power panels, such as 50W panels, can be quite effective. Assuming that the efficiency of the truck is 100 wh/mi, passive solar charging can be completely offset even if only a few miles are used around the property every day.

I tested it with the Jackery 1500 solar generator and found that I can use a 400W solar panel to get a solid charge from the sun, although this requires dragging equipment and panels, or creating a semi-permanent installation somewhere nearby.

I also want to add some brackets to the hydraulic lift bed so that my parents can pick up their trash cans and drive them along the same lane as a country road to the public road for garbage collection.

I think I should also draw a racing stripe on it, so I can squeeze a few more miles per hour.

There are other interesting modules on my list. A bicycle ramp, an amateur radio, maybe an AC inverter, so I can directly use the truck’s 6 kWh battery to charge power tools and other equipment. If you have any ideas, I am also willing to accept suggestions. Meet me in the comments section!

I will definitely update it further in the future to let you know how my mini truck is maintained over time. Before that, catch you on the (dirt) road!

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Micah Toll is a personal electric car enthusiast, battery nerd, and the author of Amazon's number one best-selling book DIY Lithium Battery, DIY Solar, and the Ultimate DIY Electric Bike Guide.

You can send him a reminder via Micah@electrek.co

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