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Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

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Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The maverick isn't an EV

The Maverick is barley a truck. It's a unibody SUV with a small truck bed. Its built on the Escape/Bronco Sport platform.

Sure, but for most potential buyers, that's not a problem, and the ride/handling is better than a body-on-frame compact pickup.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear the Kia PV5 is pretty much sold-out world-wide and delivery is now 2027 in most markets. A reasonably priced cargo van with decent range was a large untapped market for far too long.

I really hope it gets a US market release. So far only Ford (e-transit) and VW (id.BUZZ) have attempted EV vans in the US and they both cost extreme amounts of money new. I bought an E-Transit anyway to setup as a Home/Office on wheels. Really hoping that in the future we see aftermarket long range batteries for these first two decades of mass market EV's being produced.

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.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dimensions of the maverick vs a 1990's ford ranger are almost identical. The Maverick is slightly bigger. So if the maverick is barely a truck, then the 1990's ford ranger is barely a truck too.

1990 Ranger Regular Cab Short Bed [1] 108in wheel base, 175.6in long, 66.9in wide, 6ft bed. 2025 Ford Maverick 121.1 inch wheel base, 199.7in long, 72.6in wide, 4.5ft bed. 1990 Ford F150 Regular Cab Short Bed 119.9 wheelbase, 202.2in long, 78.4in wide. 6.5ft bed. Idk how you get "almost identical" out of those numbers, unless you are using the long bed ranger or an extended cab short bed ranger. Even the longest 1990…

> The Maverick is barely a truck because of the bed size. But a lot of modern trucks have comically small useless beds so it is hard to fault it for that.

Well it fits sheets of 4x8. I finished half my basement with supplies and tools trucked around in my Mav. Wouldn't have been any easier with an F-150. Would have been more difficult with my hatchback.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet it still has a relatively tall, straight hood that tends to drag people underneath the car. These designs are terrible in pedestrian accidents; to a significantly greater degree when children are involved.

The hood is very short and you sit way closer to the ground. I have driven one of their comparison vehicles (the 1985 toyota) with a very similar profile. There is no way you are missing someone in front of you compare to other vehicles. This thing sits lower and gives better visibility than many SUVs people are driving. This truck is small.

Compared to that Toyota the sightlines are objectively worse with the longer hood. Using the comparison cars the hood stands at 1.12m before the sloped part; a 6 year old could easily stand in front of that and you'd never see them.

Compared to a Toyota corolla, there's at least a 50% higher fatality risk in pedestrian accidents solely from the higher hood. That's for the general population. Given how these fatalities usually work, the risk to children is exponentially higher. There are dozens of studies on this.

No, this car isn't the worse offender, but lets not forget the important part here: This hood design is exclusively done for aesthetics.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#405

crank windows and zero touchscreens is a feature, not a compromise. give me a dumb car with physical buttons over a rolling ipad any day of the week.

I understand zero touchscreens, but what's the problem with power windows? What if you're driving and you want to lower the passenger window?

The obvious answer is that you don't. I don't have any particular preference for crank windows, but drove cars with them for years, and can't ever recall it being a problem that I couldn't lower the passenger window while driving.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, my 10+ year spreadsheet of the maintenance costs on my last ICE lined up pretty well with that - about 1/3 of the costs were ICE-specific issues, 2/3 were for parts that would have been common to an EV. > In reality you can probably bring your EV to the dealer once every 4 years or so. Not really, I need twice-yearly seasonal tire changes/rotations.

How much of that 2/3 was brakes? In 100,000 miles on our ICE we replaced brakes twice and they likely need replacing soon again. On our EV at 100,000 miles they look like they'll last another 100,000.

Brakes were ~8.5% of the total, or ~17% of the 2/3. Some combination of being light on brake use (manual + efficient driving) and the road salt used here means I replaced the brakes from corrosion before they wore down from use.

I could budget for yearly service (rather than the never-service-until-required plan I went with) that would presumably lengthen the lives of my brakes as far as corrosion is concerned, but at current shop rates that would cost more than what my brake replacements cost.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's based on the manufacturer's "lets not upset our dealers" maintenance schedule and is completely unnecessary. In reality you can probably bring your EV to the dealer once every 4 years or so. On that schedule you should: - check the brake fluid for water - change the cabin air filter - change the gearbox oil - check/change the battery coolant If you're going in more frequent than that you're getting a very expe…

FWIW, my 10+ year spreadsheet of the maintenance costs on my last ICE lined up pretty well with that - about 1/3 of the costs were ICE-specific issues, 2/3 were for parts that would have been common to an EV. > In reality you can probably bring your EV to the dealer once every 4 years or so. Not really, I need twice-yearly seasonal tire changes/rotations.

>Not really, I need twice-yearly seasonal tire changes/rotations.

Are you somewhere where you actually need dedicated winter tires or have you just convinced yourself that rocking all weathers all year isn't feasible?

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree. A base Prius is $30k. A base Kia Niro is $27k. Those are hybrids and not EV's, but 50+mpg is not bad. Those also come with power windows and many other features and creature comforts that the Slate doesn't. $35k is not outrageous for a new car, but the Slate is supposed to be affordable basic transportation. Slate is selling barebones, stripped down basic transportation for the price of a middle c…

On the flip side, if you want a car that doesn't try to track you and record you, and doesn't upsell you on a subscription for seatwarmers, and doesn't use gas, Slate looks pretty attractive.

The center console touchscreen is just a self contained vestigial free entertainment, not the "core" of the car by any means. They're exactly what airplane seatback monitors are.

The trackers aren't in the infotainment. Removing the infotainment do not solve the tracker problem.

Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950

#410
post #49

One under-appreciated value of having an EV is that you don't have to buy gas. You literally do not have to buy gas. I cannot emphasize this enough: you do not buy gasoline for these cars. Not only that, but many places let you charge them for free. That is like someone giving you free gas.

You always buy fossil fuels with an EV, not directly but you do. When you stop at the plaza for a quick super charge there’s no way to tell where is the energy sourced from, it could very well be from a diesel generator a few miles down the road. The value is in all the parts found in an ICE that need servicing or replacement that you don’t have in an EV. With an EV you basically need tires and maybe brakes once ever…

GP didn't say that you don't have to use gas; the comment says you don't have to buy gas. Which IMO signifies how miserable gas pump experience is felt to them.
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