Do youngs know how to use manual windows? LOL
A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
221–230 of 1001 posts
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#222I LOVE it! THIS is the kind of truck I'd be looking at to replace my 1998 Ford Ranger. Here is what could be potential deal-breakers: - 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. - Lack of good charge management and battery conditioning. Either that, or a cheap and easy to replace battery pack. I'd really like both! - Comparable h…
Hopefully it comes with an OBD socket you can connect to as with all other cars. That should provide basic diagnostics/stats. No need for "apps".
It's actually not required for EVs - Tesla has started to drop it from recent models. I bet these guys would omit it as well to save money.
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#223> Instead of steel or aluminum, the Slate Truck’s body panels are molded of plastic. Deal breaker. Plastic gets brittle with age.
Replace it then?
That's really expensive, I'm actually in the process of replacing the plastic front and rear bumpers on my 1999 W210 Benz and just the plastic parts add up to over $1k before paint. Having a shop do the whole thing would probably cost $5k or more. I'd rather pay up front whatever it costs to have steel body panels than deal with plastic.
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#224I LOVE it! THIS is the kind of truck I'd be looking at to replace my 1998 Ford Ranger. Here is what could be potential deal-breakers: - 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. - Lack of good charge management and battery conditioning. Either that, or a cheap and easy to replace battery pack. I'd really like both! - Comparable h…
Bench seats are almost certainly not coming back in modern low cost vehicles due to side impact safety regulations. They aren't _illegal_ but its extremely difficult to meet those standards with a bench configuration and ironically probably why a budget pickup is less likely to have them. Cutting those corners by not having a bench at all is an easy way to save money in the design. The hauling and towing is another o…
The rear seats of almost all new cars are bench seats though. Is side impact safety requirements the same or apply the whole side of the car?
I believe airbag requirements prevent this because the middle seat would require a console mounted airbag where infotainment systems normally live
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#225> It only seats two yet has a bed big enough to hold a sheet of plywood.
Not really the point of the article, but, does it? This[0] says the bed is 60 inches long and 43 wide, and plywood is 96x48 inches. Is it like, any vehicle fits plywood if you cut it to the size of the truck or stack it on top?
[0] https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-slate-truck-is-two-feet-sh...
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#226~$30k for a manual-window, slow-charging truck? Will anybody in the US actually want one? It's a cool concept... looks good to my eye, small trucks are neat, etc. But, I'd want push-button windows, up-to-date charge controller/battery tech, and the normal EV integrated app. Maybe if it was really a $20k truck (they're advertising the price after incentives, many of which are either going away or vanish for higher inc…
Why slow-charging? I didn't see anything about that in the article?
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#227People say they, and many other Americans, want a cheap and simple truck. They're lying.
I know you don't believe me but it's true.
Automotive sales numbers are public information. Every single time a VIN is stamped into some metal, that record is public. The gradual decline in the sale of small, simple, cheap trucks is well documented.
People want full-sized trucks.
People say they love manual transmissions, too. They walk right past the manual Tacomas and Jeeps and buy an automatic.
People say they love station wagons. Then they go to the Volvo dealership and walk right past the V60 and buy an XC60.
People say they want a cheap car. Then they walk right past the base model Corolla and throw down $50k on a Rav4 Limited.
Only enthusiasts and weirdos like me will buy one of these.
A company whose audience is enthusiasts and weirdos must charge a shit-ton to stay in business. $20k isn't a shit-ton and if their strategy is to make up the difference on upgrades, they're not selling cheap trucks anymore.
I know what Americans, in aggregate, want. They want a big-ass SUV with heated and cooled seats with a screen that stretches across the entire god damned dash, 360 degree cameras, RGB mood lighting, 47 speakers, and second-row captain's chairs that make getting to the third row easy.
I own 3 cars, a Fiat 124 (MANUAL) Spider, a Volvo V70, and an Alfa Romeo Giulia.
But I am a weirdo, and because of this those companies are about to go extinct (in the US, at least).
I'm the guy that ran OS/2 and BeOS until the bitter end. I prefer writing software in Ada. I had a Saab.
I am literally and actually a subject matter expert on this shit.
I know what normal people want, and this ain't it. I know this because I want it.
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#228I LOVE it! THIS is the kind of truck I'd be looking at to replace my 1998 Ford Ranger. Here is what could be potential deal-breakers: - 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. - Lack of good charge management and battery conditioning. Either that, or a cheap and easy to replace battery pack. I'd really like both! - Comparable h…
Your passion is something that market researches for this company should salivate over, especiall from a curated forum like HN.
Unforuntatley, this company and this project are VC expenditure "throw away projects", made to fail.
No motor vehicle satisfying NHTSA can be made in america for below 20k cost of materiels, nevermind msrp. This article and the company are pitching that this is "realistic" due to cutting costs of paint, radios. Which...are pennies on the dollar compared to what satifys US road requiremnents for EV; safety, suspension, manufacturer support, parts availability, reparability. Are they skimping there too? will this 2025 electric vehicle have LEAF springs?
20k is the pre-production estimates. When in history has that not balloned especially for car platforms made in USA? What will a made in USA replacement lead acid accessory battery cost? 3k?
Once this goes over 40k (which, is guaranteed. A mazda miata which is as bare bones as it gets, old technology, is still 32k base, and thats made in a cheaper labor market.), the funding will back off, and all the R and D money wasted.
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#229I LOVE it! THIS is the kind of truck I'd be looking at to replace my 1998 Ford Ranger. Here is what could be potential deal-breakers: - 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. - Lack of good charge management and battery conditioning. Either that, or a cheap and easy to replace battery pack. I'd really like both! - Comparable h…
Bucket seats. I need a bench seat so I can take my wife and dog.
Ah, there's the problem. You have violated Pauli's "spouse/dog size exclusion principle". You need to either have a dog that can sleep curled up on the spouse's lap during the trip, or a dog big enough that the spouse can sleep curled up on the dog.
Bench seats also aren't a panacea, I still feel the burn of my dog's stink eye when then girlfriend was prompted to center of bench seat and dog on the side.
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#230I see this and I don't see it as an every day, driving-on-my-commute style vehicle. As someone who (previously) drove a 2014 honda civic, cheaper cars leave a lot of comfort for longer drives. I can't imagine this barebones vehicle being fun to drive for any extended period of time, or any extended distance, unless you'd spent considerable time customizing it to those needs (at which point, you've probably spent more than buying something off the shelf).
I do see this being great for short utility trips (think running errands, picking something up, etc), and as a utility vehicle (would be nice to be able to have an 8ft bed).
It would be really interesting to me to see a fleet of vehicles like this that are ultra-rentable; think a Bird/Lime scooter, but a utility truck.