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Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

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Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#221

Post by bitexploder »

freedomben wrote: post #177
bitexploder wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The body panels are some sort of composite polycarbonate plastic. They offered a number of colors in the UI for the pre-order system. It basically allows you to configure options that are available and see what it looks like. The wraps are (offered) DIY and they claim it will take two people 14-16 hours. They offer a number of colors that cost $500 right now. Pretty interesting as far as cars go. I think all of the c…

> The wraps are DIY and they claim it will take two people 14-16 hours. Oh man, that is ... a lot labor. I can't imagine many people are going to want to do it

They designed the vehicle to be "easy" to wrap. Meaning you don't have to remove trim or anything like that. It is still non-trivial and you would want to do it inside of a garage IMO.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#222

Post by gravatron »

coldpie wrote: post #176
vel0city wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I used to go up to Brainerd from the Twin Cities regularly; But you're going to stop somewhere along that path already, right? You're not driving straight there and immediately turning around and leaving right? I've done several road trips between DFW, Houston, and Austin in an EV with ~200mi of range and a 400V pack. The DFW Houston trip is nearly 300mi. Compared to my average trip time in my gas cars, its about a…

> But you're going to stop somewhere along that path already, right? Honestly, no, I didn't. It's only 2 hours. Having to stop for a 30+ minute charge in each direction would add a significant amount of time to the trip. I don't really understand why you're being so aggressive about this. We are almost entirely agreeing. 300mi is a selling point for buyers because it means an easier time doing 100+ mile road trips, w…

All this guy has done for 2 days is make bad arguments in car posts. I don't think he is a very happy person.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#223

Post by coldpie »

vel0city wrote: post #204
coldpie wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But you're going to stop somewhere along that path already, right? Honestly, no, I didn't. It's only 2 hours. Having to stop for a 30+ minute charge in each direction would add a significant amount of time to the trip. I don't really understand why you're being so aggressive about this. We are almost entirely agreeing. 300mi is a selling point for buyers because it means an easier time doing 100+ mile road trips, w…

> Having to stop for a 30+ minute charge in each direction would add a significant amount of time to the trip. Sure it would, but why would you? It would be more like one 20 minute charge in Brainerd. Maybe a half hour if you want some extra buffer. And that's assuming you're unable to charge wherever you're staying.

Well I mean yeah. That's exactly my point, you don't have to do that with the 300mi range. I think 300mi is the "sweet spot" where you're probably going to stop anyway to take a break or whatever, or your trip will be done already, so charging isn't really an issue. 200mi feels on the short side to me, and I think my Brainerd trips are a good example of the difference that 100mi difference makes.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#225

Post by officeplant »

alistairSH wrote: post #59
zamadatix wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm simultaneously not interested in an electric truck & amazed the price is still reasonable if you want to turn it the truck into a hatchback instead. The range is also meh. Same conclusion: interesting, but not necessarily interested. Hope they go places though.

I see lots of tradesmen in Ford Mavericks or Transit Connects. The Slate could work well for some of them - basic truck model, with the ladder rack for long stuff (like ladders or pieces of wood). Saves them some money up front, and gas and maintenance (in theory).

City Vans have completely died in America for the last few years until the Promaster City's recent resurrection. Something like this is a dire need for in city tradesmen in the US.

My boss's have been asking me how life is with my Ford E-Transit, but it doesn't have enough range for most of our site technicians which end up driving 200-300 miles a day.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#226

Post by jkestner »

peppersghost93 wrote: post #213

Neat vehicle but there's no way I'm giving bezos even more money. Maybe I'll buy used if it's proven there aren't always on connections later down the road.

The Bezos investment gives me pause too. But the claim that there’s no telemetry is exciting: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/06/slate-says-its-electric...

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#227

Post by cherry_tree »

alistairSH wrote: post #14

Just built a "hatchback" Slate with what I guess will be common options (speakers, wheel upgrade, spare wheel carrier, and a few other odds and ends) and it came to $35k. So, still pretty inexpensive, but also getting close to some existing EV sedans that are known entities and have pretty decent interiors. So, I'm not totally sold on these, but not not sold either. Need to see one in person, I think.

There isn’t a hatchback option. Did you mean fastback?

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#228

Post by eddieroger »

lastofthemojito wrote: post #130
whycome wrote: post #12

I don’t care that it’s EV. I’m just stoked that they’re making an actually modular system like this. I don’t know why it’s not possible with other cars.

I blame the dealers, at least somewhat. In the early days of the Scion brand, the idea was something like, all of the cars are shipped to the dealer as base models, customers could choose from a menu of add-ons, and the dealer would install them. Want just the basic car? Fine. Want to add keyless entry and mood lighting and a CD changer and chrome alloy wheels? They'll add those for you. But (at least in my experienc…

I vaguely remember that from the Scion days. I wonder what that does to liability? Like if it's something that impacts the safety of the vehicle - like a roll bar? - who takes on the liability if it's a dealer option?

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#229

Post by sokoloff »

vel0city wrote: post #116
llm_nerd wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The four most common vehicle colours in the US are white, black, grey and silver. I believe this covers like 80%+ of vehicles. Canada is worse still (so much so that many makers basically just offer the shades of grey, sometimes with a special-order red or something for the rebels), and a few days ago I was on a walk and saw a light turn red and a dozen cars that pulled up to stop and every single one was white. Peop…

Going by what I hear talking to friends and family, they often don't want to choose outside of those range of bland colors as they're worried about resale value. Its probably easier to find a buyer who is OK with a black car than someone who would want metallic purple and gold car or a bright pink car. Wraps are typically pretty easy to remove. Far easier than removing a paint job.

If you’re that worried about resale value, I’d think that buying a 2-4 year old used car is a way better proposition.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#230

Post by ssl-3 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #179
bryanlarsen wrote: post #153

I wish the design was more function over form. Why is the grill so large? A lower front end would improve efficiency (and thus probably give another 10-20 miles of range), improve visibility, and kill fewer pedestrians. I know why, the market is nostalgia and it wouldn't sell well if it looked more like a mini kenworth which has a hood that slopes down and in and less like a pickup truck. That low range is going to t…

Yeah 200 miles is pretty much the low end of what I'd consider (and I assume that is an "absolute best case" number, e.g. unloaded at a constant speed on a flat road, not running AC or heat but IDK how those are actually computed). 300-350 miles would be a lot better. That would cover most of my trips (and allow for some payload) with a little bit to spare before I needed to stop to charge. I guess the price isn't to…

I guess it depends on the person.

200 miles more than covers all of the driving I do on any normal day. Today is an exceptional day, and I'll be driving a total of 120 miles for work. The Slate would cover that just fine with a ton of breathing room.

I do take far longer trips than that for pleasure, but they're rare.

I think if I only had an EV to drive, and that EV could only do 200 miles on a charge, then I'd be able to figure out how to make these (I can use a break after a couple/few hours on the road, anyway.)

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