The Canoo Pickup Truck

 

Every year the brand-newest pickup trucks we see heaving themselves around here in Downeast Maine seem more gargantuan and cartoonish. Massive bogus action-hero toys, Tom Cruise-trucks, Trump-trucks. Make-My-Day-Masculinity Trucks. Like aggressive schoolyard bullies they make our full-size GMC 1500 from 1975 look like something tiny and nimble, maybe handmade, maybe from Italy.

There's so much ersatz masculinity thrown into US truck design. Consider, on the other hand, that Peugeot van from the Fifties we posted a few days ago. Okay, it's a van not a pickup--but form follows function, right? You can't really go wrong following that principle. Today's massive chrome-festooned pickup trucks are dream machine toys, fake manhood machines--every year, it's like  Dumb & Dumberer all over again. 

So it's good to know some people-and not just Elon Musk--have been rethining the concept of the pickup truck as a work and recreation tool. Thanks to Alex Emond for the heads-up on the Canoo truck, above. From Business Insider: "Electric-vehicle firm Canoo on Wednesday took the wraps off of a striking truck it says will hit streets come 2023. Preorders open later this year, but Canoo hasn't yet released all specs or pricing details....The startup initially announced a pill-shaped EV it plans to sell under a subscription model, but has since pivoted to offer commercial vehicles people can actually own. In December it announced a lineup of delivery vans of various shapes and sizes, and now it's moving into pickup trucks, which it's targeting toward businesses and regular consumers. Shares of Canoo rose more than 14% as of Thursday afternoon following the news...."