>A small affordable truck works great as a commuter
Not if it has two seats and you want to carry more than two people.
>picking up supplies from a hardware store for home improvement.
I don't remember where I heard it. But it was something like "most people buy cars for reasons least likely to happen". If you aren't using your bed daily you bought the wrong car. Buy a trailer if you need to go to a hardware store once a month.
> A tiny minority of Americans are so often at a home supply store that choosing a pickup over a trailer would make any sense.
Your scenario here makes even less sense because most cars do not come with a trailer hitch (trucks on other hand...), you're buying another thing (which lowers that this is supposed to be an "affordable" EV), you have to renew registration for the trailer, and have a place on top of your vehicle to store it.
A truck bed is nice to have sometimes. You can quickly throw things in it (like plywood, a new large flat screen, bicycles, fishing gear, a dead deer, etc). You don't have to hookup a trailer or fiddle with wiggling things between doors and so forth.
Not if it has two seats and you want to carry more than two people.
>picking up supplies from a hardware store for home improvement.
I don't remember where I heard it. But it was something like "most people buy cars for reasons least likely to happen". If you aren't using your bed daily you bought the wrong car. Buy a trailer if you need to go to a hardware store once a month.