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Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

slate.auto

461–470 of 524 posts

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> still pretty inexpensive Can we stop being so out of touch and/or deluding ourselves to believe $35k is “pretty inexpensive” for people not living in a bubble; whether that is the Americas bubble or the tech bubble within the bubble or the urban bubble within that; let alone for a tiny two seater electric truck that has a 200 mile range. The 45th percentile, i.e., the bottom 90% have a median income of roughly $40,…

Most people don't buy new cars, they buy used cars. Particularly in the bottom 45%, they know they can't afford a new car - they might look at them but they know they know it is a dream (or the car they will buy in 5 years). Car makers know they can only charge this price for a new car because in 3 years it will still have a lot of value left - most new car buyers never pay the full price: they only pay the differenc…

I made $225k last year, still have never bought a new car. Closest I got was a 9 month old car with 29k miles on it for $15k off list price.

Seriously tempted with the Slate though. I have the $50 pre-registration down from a few years ago, so I could have it in July-August of next year.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#462

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…

There's still an undisclosed larger battery option, I hope it would be less than $5k additional to unlock a 300 mile range.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#463
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's cool. This is a US market vehicle. The geography of the US is very, very different from Europe, so I don't think expectations for the European market are terribly useful for a US market vehicle. Have a play around with https://thetruesize.com and https://luminocity3d.org/WorldPopDen . 200mi is definitely acceptable in the US, but it's on the low end of the acceptable spectrum.

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.

I drive about 300 miles a week, have a convenient already-wired in 240v socket in my garage, and 200 miles with a 30 minute boost charge should cover 99% of my driving.

I have a pickup and a car, I'll be trading both of them in to help cut the cost of this down, and if I'm going on a road trip I'll just rent a car. It's no big deal.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Trade off, gas prices in California are also much higher. I was there a few weeks ago and the cheap gas was $6.19/gal

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#465
post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notably truck people love customizing their trucks. Less so for economy sedan people.

yeah but this is an economy truck, not the demonstrative Ford 150 Fat Scrotum Offroad Edition

I think you’ll find even people with 20 year old Toyotas are more attached to their trucks and more likely to put money in them for accessories and rims etc than your average Chevy Sonic owner.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

With DIY and no experience I can't help but imagine a vehicle where the entire exterior looks like the really bad DIY window tinting I frequently see in the wild.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#467
post #395

Its size and range are too low for the price. End of story on this one.

The range is fine. Did you overlook that it has an LFP battery? LFP batteries do not suffer increased degradation at either end of their charge range. You can charge to 100% daily and run them down to 0% (although if you leave them at 0% parasitic drain could drain them below the built in below-0% buffer which can be bad). The other common EV batteries suffer increased degradation at the high and low ends and it is g…

> On a non-LFP where I only get to use 60% between charges (80-20%) I'd need a 300 mile range EV. That's more than the 262 mile range of the 2027 Chevy Bolt which is doing fine and costs more than Slate. That's also better than or close to the most popular non-Tesla EVs in recent sales, namely the Chevy Equinox, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and Hyundai Ioniq 5.

Correction: 2027 Bolt is also LFP.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#468
post #457
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.

Does Apple use encryption to ensure hardware is matched and is harder to repurpose? Lol

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#469
post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I decided I hate their website. If I'm looking for a part, sometimes the part applies to multiple model years and I'm not convinced that they've organized it with that taken into account. Also, I don't necessarily want to search for a specific part -- I may just want to know if they have certain vehicles. Why can't I just search by make/model/year and give me a list of all parts. If that's too taxing on the database…

They're not organized: you go into the yard, find the vehicle you're looking for, take the part out yourself, & they weigh it on the way out

Then why do they use the complex part search?

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wouldn't cross-shop a Rivian and a Slate. The Rivian is a high-end luxury vehicle with a laundry list of features, including things like self-driving. The Slate is literally the opposite: it has a laundry list of things it doesn't have and, indeed, its lack of features is part of the sales pitch.

> The Rivian is a high-end luxury vehicle High end luxury vehicles are coach built. The Ferrari Luce is a mid end luxury vehicle. Rivian is more like a low end luxury vehicle.

I'm sorry, but this is nonsense. The Rivian R1T starts at $80k for the dual motor trim and the quad starts at $116k, before options. This is so far outside of the average car that I am comfortable considering it high-end luxury. A Ferrari is unattainable luxury. A custom-built coach should come with an invitation to the guillotine. I forget sometimes that this forum is full of wealthy individuals who insist that they are still just common folk.
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