Tesla spent years building a brand plenty of people liked and selling a great many Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers just to forfeit that business for impractical two-seat robotaxis and hypercars that might achieve five seconds of uninterrupted flight, if such a thing can indeed be considered flight. Now, a startup wants to take those forgotten “regular” EVs and turn them into pretty much whatever the owner desires.
So many young automakers have tried to harness the potential of modular EVs on skateboard chassis, and a company called Hoffman is doing that in a sense, only using the guts of Tesla’s smaller sedan and SUV in tandem with their own bespoke platform. Hoffman, which previously carried out EV conversions for DeLoreans, is essentially pulling various components from used Teslas, including steering wheels, seats, screens, and airbags, along with the computers and software that drive them, to manifest new pickup trucks, vans, buses, and the like. It calls its creation the Badger.
One demonstration vehicle the company showed Out of Spec Reviews is an off-road-oriented utility van with aggressive approach and departure angles, a raised battery pack for a better breakover angle, and removable doors and roof panels. Hoffman plans to sell it as a kit with a VIN that buyers can build themselves—Tesla donor parts not included—or as a turnkey product assembled fully in-house by the company. It expects to be able to produce about 100 per year.
Because these vehicles will run on Tesla code, all of the existing services and conveniences Tesla owners enjoy will apply. That means they’ll support the Supercharger network and can still be controlled remotely via app.
As far as pricing, CEO Geoffrey Hoffman told Out of Spec that while pricing will obviously be highly variable depending on what the buyer wants, the ballpark the company expects is more expensive than a Slate pickup but less than the dearly departed Cybertruck. Right now, that figures to be somewhere between $24,950 and $82,490, which is quite a vast ballpark, indeed.
It should be said that this prototype van looks about as bare inside as can be, with a flat dashboard and floor. The curvy Model 3 steering wheel juts out of the expanse of featureless black plastic, and the big touchscreen sits center, exactly where you’d expect to find it in a real Tesla.
In these respects, the Badger makes the Slate look more refined. But this is a small company working with a secondhand market of existing parts, and assuredly the Tesla basis will bring some unique advantages of its own. With its four rectangular headlights evoking the sealed beams of the ’70s and ’80s, what Hoffman’s cooked up won’t be for everyone. But the Badger could allow tinkerers to cobble together something unique, out of cars that aren’t.
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