Slate EV truck starts at $24,950 • Hacker News Board

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#331

Post by officeplant » Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 5:59 PM UTC

tristor wrote: post #282

coldpie wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good criticism. It looks like the car's EV tech is average at best; definitely not outstanding. That's probably why they don't advertise it strongly, and also probably a big factor in why it's so cheap. They list some details on the Specs page[1]. They quote 200 miles of range, which is not great especially for a small car. They list a 20-80 charge time of 30 minutes so it's probably a 400V architecture, which is bec…

I pretty much concur with your take. I'm interested in this because I sometimes need a truck, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on an oversized gigantic vehicle I don't really need to have a truck the sometimes I need it. For me, that is mostly to go to the home store and back w/ materials, which is something I expect to do more regularly near the tail end of this summer onward as I ramp up my carpentry hobby.…

To be fair texas also has a fairly decent amount of charging stations at this point as well. I road trip my E-Transit from South Louisiana to Austin/Dallas all the time. Does it suck? Yeah kinda, but stopping every 1.5 hours to charge isn't so bad once you get used to it. I hate road tripping in ICE cars now that can go 500 miles on a tank of gas and no one wants to stop to pee and stretch every few hours.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#332

Post by alistairSH » Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 6:00 PM UTC

cherry_tree wrote: post #227

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?

Yeah, whatever the 4-seater with a notchback style is called.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#333

Post by bluGill » Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 6:00 PM UTC

WarmWash wrote: post #312

bluGill wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People buy their vehicles with the 1% use like the 5 hour road trip in mind. The cost of renting a car is high enough that it is cheaper just buy the one you need for everything. That is before you realize that sometimes who show up to pick up your rental car and they don't have anything.

The weighing though is "and extra hour per 5 hours driven, cost of a rental, savings using an EV (time and money) the other 99% of the time". For example, my boss, who has a 1.5 hour driving commute, refuses to get an EV because he drives a 750mi road trip once a year. In order to avoid spending an extra 3 hours for this road trip, he shoulders all the additional gas costs (and many more than 3 hours spent driving to…

It is a reasonable bet that your boss has a "wife" who is also driving a car every day. Which is to say they could have an EV for the closer trips and whoever really is doing the long trip that day can get the gas car. Or a PHEV works well in this situation, my wife has that and it saves more than $200/month in gas since we now only fill 1/month.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#334

Post by alamortsubite » Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 6:03 PM UTC

tristor wrote: post #319

coldpie wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW I just rent a truck from the home center when I need to do that two or three times a year. Small hassle but a lot easier than owning a whole vehicle.

That's what I do now, but as I spend more time on a hobby that requires trips for materials, it becomes unreasonable to do that. I am not quite at the break point where I think buying a truck makes sense, but I could see that happening by the end of this year. For those wondering, Home Depot rents pickups for $20/day if you are not leaving the immediate area of the store (the metro pretty much).

A 4x8 trailer is also a great option, if you have a place to keep one, and super cheap. I have a Thule that stands on end in the garage. Trailers are a lot easier to load and unload than an American pickup, too. It seems like every time I take mine to the Home Despot I see someone struggling to get materials into their SUV or short-bed pickup, and I'm in and out in a flash. Just don't expect to win any races driving in reverse.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#335

Post by SoftTalker » Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 6:03 PM UTC

neogodless wrote: post #322

SoftTalker wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 own a Polestar 2 with an effective 75 kWh battery and an average efficiency of 3.3 mi / kWh. So 248 mile range if you charge to 100% and run it down to 0%. Real world, 99.9% of driving I do is well under 100 miles per day, and my charging between 6pm and 8am on a 120V outlet adds 50-60 miles. You could plug in every night, but in practice I wait until the battery is below 40%, and tend to plug in every 1-2 weeks de…

> average efficiency of 3.3 mi / kWh.

I'm curious, is that your personal average or is that what the company claims?

I've not taken the plunge on an EV yet, but realistically I'm interested in the actual range driving 70-75mph on the highway, with the AC running, as compared to the manufacturer's claims.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#336

Post by officeplant » Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 6:05 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #219

vel0city wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah all of us Americans drive 200mi+ each way nine days a week 'cause the average house is on a 2,000 acre ranch. People often really overestimate their driving habits. Some Americans would absolutely be heavily impacted by a vehicle with a vehicle with 200mi range on a good day. A ton of Americans would never really be affected.

That is 200 miles in perfect conditions. Last winter I tried to make a 120 mile trip in my EV and I didn't make it despite having a claimed 220 miles of range when I left. I realized in time to make it to a charger (this was in a very rural area there were few gas stations), but it was a slow level 2 - an hour having lunch someplace other than where I would have chosen and I was able to get home but the car switched…

The Slate got swapped to LFP so you can take it down to 10% without care.

I take my E-Transit down to single digits because I gotta make this 130 miles of range work for me. I max out around 80 miles between stops during winter road tripping.

The EV life is just getting used to planning ahead of time like the old days again. I always pull up the route on ABRP app, and check its suggestions on plugshare for recent issues if I'm driving somewhere I haven't before.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#337

Post by IshKebab » Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 6:09 PM UTC

mgrandl wrote: post #220

beaviskhan wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you've got an extra zero in there somewhere $35k - $26k = $9k $9k / $0.12/mile savings ~= 75,000 miles breakeven

And that is completely ignoring maintenance cost which tends to be a lot cheaper on EVs.

Somewhat cheaper anyway (30% according to https://www.thecarexpert.co.uk/petrol-vs-electric-servicing-... ), but I wouldn't be surprised if that is wiped out by the increased insurance costs.

I definitely wouldn't buy an EV based on lower service costs.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#338

Post by officeplant » Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 6:12 PM UTC

bell-cot wrote: post #34

coldpie wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only that, if you have access to an outlet at home (many do; many do not), then you just never have to think about your "gas tank" at all. You start every day at a full "tank". After a month of ownership, your state of charge is just not even something you think about, at all.

Not quite that simple. "Normal" home outlets (120v, 15A) charge EV's very slowly. And even then, non-trivial driving will show up on your electric bill.

400 miles of driving a month in my EV van which gets on average 1.7 miles/kwh is around 235.3 kwh.

At local rates that $16.47 in electricity (235.3 x $0.07). On average my electric bill went up 15-25 dollars a month.

I spent the first two years of ownership charging mostly from the 110v socket outside the house because over night its enough to cover my commute of around 27 miles at the time.

Now that I have a 60A 240v circuit setup outside and a 40A EVSE I never even worry about what state of charge I get home with.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#339

Post by SoftTalker » Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 6:15 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #257

SoftTalker wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no. I'd think residential plumber or HVAC service tech can easily drive more than the stated range just going from job to job during a day. They're going to want to be sure that they don't have to stop to charge between jobs; time is money for those guys, and especially if the fast charging infrastructure is not well built out in their area it could be a showstopper.

A fast charge over lunch would be acceptable. However there are not near enough fast chargers. Every fast food place needs to have 1/2 of their parking spots equipped with a faster charger (1/4 if there is a way to limit them to people charging)

Yeah this is another concern I have. When I have time to fast-charge, it's likely the same time that a lot of other people want to fast-charge, such as during lunch. So you'd have to overbuild fast-chargers to meet peak demand.

Gas stations have this problem too but it's not as bad, because filling up a fuel tank takes maybe 5 minutes not 20-30.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#340

Post by alamortsubite » Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 6:19 PM UTC

deltoidmaximus wrote: post #304

__mharrison__ wrote: post #51

Wish it had all wheel drive...

Wish it was at least at FWD. I know, I'm the oddball that wants a subaru brat. I'm more concerned about snow handling with very limited truck utility.

In an ICE pickup, maybe, but assuming the Slate has an EV weight distribution advantage, RWD is probably better. To each their own, but I much prefer my driven wheels not to be my turning wheels.

That said, lack of 4WD is really a bummer.