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Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

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Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#451

Post by esseph »

vel0city wrote: post #445
esseph wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people cannot afford a new car, therefore they do not get to choose the color options. Fearures and colors are reserved for first buyers or those lease people.

Features and colors are often not even reserved for the actual first buyers. Trying to get a dealership to actually order you what you want is like pulling teeth. You get what the dealerships around you ordered, if you don't like it tough luck!

> Trying to get a dealership to actually order you what you want is like pulling teeth.

Order from the manufacturer, they will deliver it to the in-network dealer of your choice.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#452

Post by stasomatic »

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.

A base trim Hyundai Ioniq 5 is now $35K in the US. The Slate looks very cool, I'd take 3, but it doesn't seem a good value as basic transportation, not including the perceived value of no telemetry, etc.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#453

Post by [deleted] »

coldpie wrote: post #3

Interested to see how this turns out. I'd like to see a size comparison. Is this actually a reasonably-sized vehicle, like a pre-2000 pickup, or just a cheap modern monster truck? Sadly it's not on carsized.com (yet). If the company is still around 5 years from now, I could see myself getting one of these to replace our current "compact" (but still enormous) SUV.

[deleted]

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#454

Post by overfeed »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #422
overfeed wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also Mercedes (eSprinter). Electric vans will remain ecpensive until the eSUV market has been saturated: the cost to make either is similar, and using the limited inputs and lines to make more of the lower-margin vehicle model makes no sense when the market can absorb more of the higher-margin ones.

I see Rivian vans all the time.

Amazon is a Rivian investor and ordered a bunch of them.

Rivian vans start at $80k, which is in the same ballpark as the R1S starting price of $83. Rivian axed the cheapest SUV trim in its line-up, so we're even less likely to see cheaper Rivian vans now.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#455

Post by bradlys »

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).

It's $20 for 75 minutes in California. Add on that you'll spend an extra hour at the store minimum just trying to get the truck and return it. I would use the service way more and buy more from Home Depot but they have the worst customer service out of any retail I've ever been in.

I've decided to just buy my own vehicle rather than deal with the hassle.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#456

Post by bradlys »

officeplant wrote: post #191
woeirua wrote: post #110

Slate was far more compelling when we still had the federal EV incentive. Now... you can get a far better equipped Ford Maverick hybrid just around $30k (maybe less with dealer discounts). Hard to see what the market is for the Slate.

>Hard to see what the market is for the Slate. Well you quoted a hybrid, which needs fuel. At current local electric rates ($0.07/kw) I can fully charge my E-Transit (~68kwh usable in the battery) for $4.76. Then I can go around 130 miles before coming back home to charge. Vastly cheaper than a gas van, but lets look at the Maverick which gets even better economy. Most gas stations I drove by today were $3.15 to $3.3…

YMMV here. Your electric rates are insanely cheap and places where EVs are most popular are in states like California where paying $0.50/kwh is not uncommon. Plus many of us in CA can't even install solar to offset any of it.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#457

Post by sowbug »

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.

Does the modularity make it easy to steal the accessories? I'd be sad if my new customized truck were downgraded to the base model while parked on the street overnight.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#458

Post by mycall »

sowbug wrote: post #457
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.

Does the modularity make it easy to steal the accessories? I'd be sad if my new customized truck were downgraded to the base model while parked on the street overnight.

Third-party mods might be the trick here.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#459

Post by Schiendelman »

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…

Now that I've had an EV for a few years, I don't even think it's saving 3 hours. My lunch stop on a road trip is almost never shorter than my charging session; I usually have to hurry out to get back to the car.

And with lots and lots of typical road trip hotels (your Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express) now with L2 chargers, there's even a good chance that my only charge for the day is the lunch charge, and overnight I fill up for free. A few years ago they'd sometimes be broken, or there'd only be two, or whatever, but it's just steadily getting better.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#460

Post by scoofy »

flumes_whims_ wrote: post #446
scoofy wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If every couple had one EV truck for heavy lifting and a small ICE hatchback for long distances, we’d reduce our emissions and our gas bills massively. Most people don’t have to pick an everything vehicle. We all benefit when we focus on maximizing our division of labor.

Are you including the emissions of producing two cars instead of one?

No, because the family is going to have two cars anyway.

Once we're at the point where a single vehicle and, say, an ebike are acceptable transit options, then America will have already exceeded it's climate goals. To achieve that, we'd likely need density near that of San Francisco (about 1.10 vehicles per household) or Chicago (about 1.12). Even bike friendly cities that are fairly dense, like Portland, have about 1.5 cars per household.

Again, though, the savings from that would be exceedingly obvious for anyone who chooses this path.

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