Tag Archives: pickup truck

Meet IBO, a ‘friendly-looking’ Pickup EV that’s inspired by the curved architecture of the Guggenheim museum

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Opting for an aesthetic that’s a stark deviation from the brawny, macho appeal of most pickup trucks, the IBO’s visual language relies on gentle forms dominated by soft ‘friendly’ curves. However, it’s proportions still make it look like a robust and reliable vehicle.

The IBO’s moodboard includes the Avant garde architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, especially the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum, which defied architectural standards with its unique spiral shape. The continuous and clean lines “represents the resurgence of the American automobile of the eighties,” says automotive designer Ángel Álvarez from IBO’s design team. The IBO shatters perceptions that a good, dependable pickup should look edgy like a Cybertruck, and instead opts for slick, curved surfaces – think Baymax, but a car.

Designer: IBO Team

The IBO seats 4, as it design team describes it as a hybrid between a small pickup and a sedan. The seats are adjustable, allowing the interiors to be flexible for a wide range of use cases, and the truck’s bed may be on the slightly shorter side, but can be extended simply by opening the rear gate. There’s storage for a spare tire right under the bed’s surface.

IBO is currently a conceptual EV, designed and prototyped as a proposal by the Barvelona-based company to explore the limits of electric mobility. There isn’t any word on whether it’ll ever be production-ready, although I’m really liking its uniquely endearing aesthetic.

The post Meet IBO, a ‘friendly-looking’ Pickup EV that’s inspired by the curved architecture of the Guggenheim museum first appeared on Yanko Design.

Cybertruck with ‘big boy pants’ – this Jeep Pickup takes Tesla’s low-poly design to the next level

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When Elon took to the stage to reveal the Cybertruck design, he made a pretty telling and significant observation – when you put the top pickup trucks right beside each other and remove their branding, it’s difficult to tell them apart. That statement ushered in a new age of pickup truck design, with Tesla, Rivian, Canoo, and a bunch of other automotive companies redefining what a new-age electric pickup truck should look like. With this new pickup concept, it seems like Jeep is throwing its hat into the ring too.

The Jeep Pickup Concept by Aitor Amigo López is a balanced fusion of modern yet traditionally brawny… a combination of beastly and refined – sort of like ‘Smart Hulk’. I wouldn’t imagine a lumberjack or trucker behind the wheel of this car… but swap out their flannel shirt and dungarees for a leather jacket and sunglasses and maybe they’d fit right into this modern monster.

Designer: Aitor Amigo López

When López envisioned his concept, he undoubtedly flashed his creative license quite a bit. Purely from a realism standard, there are a few things that feel ‘far-fetched’ about this concept, although on paper, the Jeep Pickup is purely a ‘what if’ exercise, so it’s best viewed from that lens.

The Jeep Pickup sports the same low-poly edgy design as the Cybertruck, although it isn’t shy to explore curves, complex 3D surfaces, and an overall aesthetic that’s more expressive than Cybertruck’s bare-basics minimal design. The concept makes use of both sheet metal as well as carbon-fiber, creating a dual-color effect around the front, sides, and back that’s definitely interesting to look at. The mammoth of a vehicle floats majestically off the floor with ground clearance that’s enough to let you drive over boulders without worrying about them hitting the underside of your car. This concept may look like it was designed to have an electric powertrain under the hood, although grilles on the front of the car make me wonder otherwise.

Now onto the more ‘unrealistic’ details on the Jeep Pickup. For starters, the car doesn’t sport any glass panels. The front and rear windshield are made from a pretty futuristic-looking hexagonal armor-panel (I’m getting Crysis vibes), while the side windows are decidedly opaque. One could assume that the interior of the car’s equipped with massive HUDs and display panels (sort of like the inside of a tank)… given the impression the Jeep Pickup is trying to make, that seems like a pretty fitting design direction. The opaque panels, sadly, mean that there’s no way to see what the insides of the pickup look like. Maybe the designer will detail it out sometime in the future.

Speaking of ‘future’, the car’s modern aesthetic is further completed thanks to its edge-lit headlight and taillight, the lack of side mirrors, and even door handles. The truck does, however, come with a pretty spacious rear bed. Big enough for a quad-bike… or maybe a hovercraft if we’re this far into the future?

The post Cybertruck with ‘big boy pants’ – this Jeep Pickup takes Tesla’s low-poly design to the next level first appeared on Yanko Design.

Chevrolet just unveiled the ‘Beast’ Concept, so you might want to get that Cybertruck deposit back

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Designed with the same “Drive fast, leave a sexy corpse” bad-boy attitude that the Cybertruck promised back in 2019, the Chevy Beast promises to turn any terrain into a road you can drive on.

Unveiled at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas just hours ago, the Chevrolet Beast is the closest thing you’ll probably get to owning a Halo Warthog. Designed to be the crown jewel of Chevy’s already jam-packed roster of trucks, the Beast is a desert-ready mammoth created specifically to “take the popularity of high-performance off-road trucks to the next level,” said Jim Campbell, GM U.S. vice president of Performance and Motorsports.

Sure, you can’t really compare the Beast to the Cybertruck without acknowledging the fact that they’re both completely different categories of vehicles. One’s a master of terrain, the other’s designed specifically to be a heavy-duty cargo-pulling vehicle… but they do have a common intersectional audience – the people who just want to own a badass vehicle that has ‘big chassis energy’.

Built from a modified Silverado chassis, the Beast concept was created to turn any terrain into tarmac, although the photoshoot heavily hints at desert-driving. Under its hood lies a Chevrolet Performance LT4 crate engine – a 6.2-liter supercharged V8 that’s rated at a mind-numbing 650 horsepower, paired along with a 10-speed automatic transmission that sends torque directly to a two-speed transfer case and distributes it to 37-inch-tall off-road tires mounted on 20-inch beadlock wheels.

Although it’s built strictly for performance, the Beast is, as its name suggests, rather intimidating to look at. Aggressive angular lines and slim lights give the truck a mean, no-nonsense demeanor. Tubular doors and a simple clamshell-type front end reflect the functionality and aesthetic of desert running while the rear of the vehicle was intentionally designed with almost no overhang to maximize the angle of attack on steep grades, and an open design, to let dust pass through without it gathering inside your vehicle. Additional unique design cues include a custom front grille, front and rear bowtie emblems, and powerful off-road lighting from Baja Designs®.

On the inside, the Beast’s cabin has a minimalist, functional design, featuring a quartet of seats with four-point harnesses, as well as a pair of 7-inch-diagonal LCD screens that monitor vehicle functions and performance data, including pitch and roll during off-road driving scenarios.

“There’s nothing else like The Chevy Beast,” says Jeff Trush, GM program manager, Pace Car and Specialty Show Vehicles. “It delivers a ton of performance and capability, which makes it adept at conquering rough terrain — and it flat-out flies in desert running.”

You can’t really buy the Beast for now, although the fact that Chevrolet unveiled such a mean machine at SEMA definitely shows what direction the company’s heading in. The Beast is accompanied by 8 other concepts unveiled at the Vegas event, and you can visit Chevrolet’s own SEMA microsite to know more about the vehicles being showcased at the event.

Designer: Chevrolet

The Canoo Anyroad creates a unique hybrid between a city car, sports-recreational vehicle, and a modern pickup truck

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Calling the Anyroad a traditional pickup truck wouldn’t really be accurate, given its proportions and its designs, but it seems like the most sensible thing to call it. What IS the Canoo Anyroad, though? Well, it’s got elements of a city car, a pickup, a recreational vehicle, and an ATV. In short, it’s the perfect vehicle for living in a city apartment, a suburban home, or even the great outdoors.

The Canoo Anyroad’s real purpose lies in its name. Of course, one could just throw the word Truck into the name and call it a day, but the Anyroad really sort of blurs the lines between the different car categories. It comes with an incredibly minimalist design (in signature Canoo style) and even boasts of those iconic + shaped headlights and taillights (there’s a clever detail within them too that I’ll talk about later). The automobile exists in two parts (as visible in the image below) that separate into a car on the front, and a collapsible tent at the back. The car runs independently and comes with a bed that’s much shorter than the ones found on traditional pickup trucks. However, plug the folding tent-unit in and the Canoo Anyroad is complete; ready to be driven anywhere for a weekend getaway.

The Anyroad’s design balances the need to be in the outdoors along with the need to have a normal car that can still be driven around in the city. For the latter, the tent unit can be unplugged, while the two-seater truck’s sufficiently modern aesthetic makes it look like quite a natural on the city streets.

The tent-half can be set up either as a mobile shelter attached to the back of the car, or as a separate detached entity, made stable thanks to a fold-out stand. The tent itself is pretty easy to set up, as it expands almost like a bellow would to provide ample space for two people. There’s a small ladder to help people climb up into the shelter, and a tabletop surface on the opposite side, for storing your camping equipment or acting as a table for your meals. Storage panels on either side of the tent offer extra space to stash items like your luggage, medical kits, and other outdoor paraphernalia.

The headlight remains the Canoo Anyroad’s most impressive detail. While it serves its original purpose – of being a road-illuminating light for the car (and its branding element), the Anyroad’s headlights have a secondary purpose too. They detach from the car’s front, becoming portable lights that can then be used as torches/flashlights, or even floor lamps, thanks to a built-in tripod that lets the light stand erect. Conceptually, it’s an incredibly interesting concept, and just goes to show how committed the Anyroad is towards being the ideal vehicle for outdoor travel and recreational camping.

The Anyroad is the brainchild of automotive designer Jerrick Chow. Its existence is summed up by two words “Tranquility Always”, as it aims at providing a tranquil oasis, or a getaway from the chaos of a city’s bustling life. Canoo’s current line-up features a lifestyle vehicle, a pickup truck, and a delivery van. All of them cater to either city life, or outdoor off-road living, but not both. The Anyroad concept aims at bridging that gap, while utilizing Canoo’s advanced electric platform to power the vehicle.

Designer: Jerrick Chow

The Canoo Anyroad is a fan-made concept and has no relation to the Canoo brand. The use of the Canoo name and its brand elements are purely for representational purposes.

Playmobil Adds Marty McFly’s Truck to Its Back to the Future Playsets: Great Scott!

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Presumably, because its previously released time-traveling DeLorean playset sold like hotcakes (and how could it not?), Playmobil is releasing another set, this time in the form of Marty McFly’s often overlooked pickup truck (affiliate link). I’ve already bought two – one for playing with and one for keeping mint in its packaging.

Inspired by Marty’s 1985 Toyota SR5 Xtra Cab pickup truck from the original Back To The Future movie, the playset includes the truck with an opening and closing hood and tailgate, along with Marty McFly, Biff Tannen, and Jennifer Parker figures. As the package notes, the playset is for ages 5 to 99, which means there are probably a lot of heartbroken 100-year olds out there right now, my grandfather among them.

I just performed a couple of quick internet searches to see what an actual 1985 Toyota SR5 Xtra Cab pickup truck costs these days, and they are not cheap. I’m talking like $20,000 restored. And, based on the cobwebs I just counted in my wallet, that’s a little out of my price range. Now, if only I could travel to the future and return with a Grays Sports Almanac.

[via MikeShouts]

Honda’s INSANE electric pickup truck concept will have the Tesla Cybertruck begging for mercy

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In a back-alley street fight, the Cybertruck looks like the edgy teenager who just lifts weights and has never done a leg-day… the Honda Ridgeline EV, on the other hand, looks like a 40-something veteran who’s returned from being stationed in the middle east for decades. Pitch the two together and it’s pretty evident who’d win in a bare-knuckle scuffle.

Something about the Ridgeline EV concept makes you want to take it seriously. It wasn’t built for fun, those windows aren’t for lobbing steel balls at… it’s inherently sinewy, bold, and is purpose-built for power-tasks.

The Ridgeline EV concept comes from the mind of California-based Rene Garcia, a concept designer at ILM who’s previously worked on The Mandalorian, Thor: Ragnarok, The Avengers, and the Transformers anthology. Garcia began designing the vehicle as a Dakar rally truck, but gradual iterations slowly turned it into a conceptual pickup truck for Honda. Designed to handle pretty much anything you can throw at it, the EV comes with its own winch-hook on the front, a frunk behind it, suicide-style rear doors that give you access to the car’s spacious interiors, and an expandable truck-bed on the back that even comes equipped with tools and emergency medical kits.

A standout feature of the car’s design is in its use of hollow spaces. The Ridgeline is bulky to look at, but negative spaces in its design help cut its volume manifold, still making it look like a chiseled, mean machine. Two cutouts in the hood let you look at the top of the car’s shock absorbers, while the doors come with two sets of windows – one on the top as well as fixed windows near the legs, to help sunlight pore in. There’s a skylight built in too, and if at any point of time you need more open space, the back of the car opens up and allows the rear seats to flip 180° and face backward!

Designer: Rene Garcia

Chevrolet is working on a full-size electric pickup truck

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GM has revealed its various brands’ electric vehicle plans in its 10th sustainability report, and one of the most notable projects is Chevrolet’s BET Truck. Apparently, Chevy is working on its first full-size electric pickup truck, and it will have t...