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A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

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Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#191

Post by snowwrestler »

alephnerd wrote: post #7

It has a base range of 150 miles [0], which won't resolve range anxiety worries as the average American travels 42 miles a day [1] and only has 2 seats. I think it will do well for hobbyists and EV enthusiasts, but it would be hard to compete with a slightly pricier Tacoma. When people buy a pickup truck, they often use it as a daily commuter as well. > Got a road trip planned? These trips are all doable on a single…

This is obviously not intended to compete with F-150s and Tacomas. And Honda doesn’t make the Fit anymore. See here for a current Fit owner’s take:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43794437

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#193

Post by NewJazz »

PaulHoule wrote: post #14

I like it. My wife runs a riding academy and we use a Honda Fit the way some people would use a pickup truck: we can fit 10 bales of wood shavings in the back. [1] We’re dreading when it fails because they don’t make the fit anymore and compact hatchbacks seem to be on the way out. Recent experiences have made me a bit of a Buick enthusiast and I can see driving a 2005-ish sedan except that I won’t get those sawdust…

The Chevy Bolt is very similar shape and size to the fit. Supposedly there is going to be a 2026 model. People have thrown after market tow hitches and towed (small) trailers pretty far even. Check out the BoltEV subreddit.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#194

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

PaulHoule wrote: post #14

I like it. My wife runs a riding academy and we use a Honda Fit the way some people would use a pickup truck: we can fit 10 bales of wood shavings in the back. [1] We’re dreading when it fails because they don’t make the fit anymore and compact hatchbacks seem to be on the way out. Recent experiences have made me a bit of a Buick enthusiast and I can see driving a 2005-ish sedan except that I won’t get those sawdust…

Most small SUVs should be fine though. You switched between wood shavings and hay bales, but I reliably fit 7 hay bales in a 2005 Saturn Vue (wife always managed to get 9 in there), which means that 10 bales of shavings should not be a problem since they're much smaller.

TBH, I think a minivan would make it even easier.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#195

Post by JKCalhoun »

cityofdelusion wrote: post #152
discmonkey wrote: post #12

I love the look and the idea, but I wonder if it will go the way of the small/budget phone? Will folks revealed preference continue to be big and expensive?

Agreed. The U.S. market had a very long run of both large expensive and small cheap pickup trucks, and people consistently have bought the big luxury pickups. It is why all the small trucks were axed to begin with. Even back in their prime, I saw many more F-150s than Rangers. Its an easy up-sell as I'm sure any car salesman will say: well for only a few more thousand you get into a full-size, and from there, add som…

The economy (checks 401k) has changed though.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#196

Post by seanalltogether »

yboris wrote: post #54
seanalltogether wrote: post #24

Hand crank windows is a weird choice, are the locks manual as well?

Wouldn't it significantly increase the cost (think wiring, motor, assembly, etc) to have "power windows"?

That's why I'm wondering if locks are manual as well. If there's no wiring at all going into the doors then presumably the doors will be cheap. But if they have power going in for locks already, power windows shouldn't be a costly addon.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#197

Post by reginald78 »

taylodl wrote: post #113
ryandrake wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Lack of a mobile app. Minimalist design is great, but I still want an app to manage charging and be alerted to any vehicle issues. Noooooooooo! No apps, please ! Finally a car not tethered to and dependent on your phone, and we already have our first request to app-ify it! EDIT: Ughhh, according to the video that another user posted, it looks like there's an app, and yes, "updates" go through it :( > - Lack of go…

I'd want the mobile app to be an auxiliary, not a requirement for operating the truck. Keep the dashboard simple.

Nice idea in theory. In practice, apps imply ongoing OTA connectivity, which means the truck will be updated to show ads or at the very least collect and sell all my driving information to any dirtbag that can rub two nickels together. Connected devices can alter the deal so they will, after all I've lost any leverage against them after I purchased the vehicle.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#199

Post by instaclay »

conradev wrote: post #151
adamhowell wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lack of a mobile app… At the 6 mins and 40 seconds timestamp on this video ( https://youtu.be/cq1qEjwSYkw?t=400 ) he shows the car app that will tell you current range, etc

I'd recommend folks watch the video – it's fascinating. The truck gets OTA updates through your phone and not some LTE modem. It doesn't have one. They moved all car management including OBD-like functionality to the phone, too, which I think is awesome. This is how I want the interior design philosophy of manual controls to be digitized – with digital control. I'd pay $10k more for physical buttons, though.

Oh sweet. Delicious. Very reassuring. Was really hoping this thing was going to be device agnostic.

My 2015 car had 3g "smart" features that no longer work since 3g has been sunset in the US. Awesome to see forward thinking of a smart feature-set that can be updated with a module you'll likley already have an upgrade path for.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#200

Post by bko »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #101
bko wrote: post #53

This looks great. But isn't there a long history of new car companies over the last few decades that have an impressive car, take pre-orders and never deliver? Something about production hell?

Slate is financially backed by Bezos [1] and Eric Schmidt [2] so it's not like they're going to run out of money unless they choose to do so. And it's staffed by a bunch of Detroit automotive engineers, so it's not like they're going to be surprised to learn that building and selling automobiles is harder than launching a CRUD app or SAAS. I do expect a steep price jump when they realize that all this customization (…

Being backed by Bezos and the appearance of infinite funding isn't necessarily a good thing. You need someone at the helm that is driven and in control. Don't know who's running the company or if they have the proper mentality to get through production issues, but it's certainly not Bezos.

Either way, I'm rooting for their success. The low end car market is pretty much non-existent. I've heard people blame the cash for clunkers program that got rid of a ton of low end supply in 2009, but haven't looked into it too much.

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