What I find appalling about Slate is that it's already more expensive than actual low end EVs. All the supposedly radical cost saving measures don't seem to be doing anything. I guess it was just Amazon trying to undercut Rivian EDV, in the end.
Slate EV truck starts at $24,950
411–420 of 524 posts
Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950
#412Slate Auto filed patented its electric pickup in India. https://www.team-bhp.com/news/slate-auto-patents-its-electri... Hope they can enter India in the next 5-10 years.
Is that not just a standard design patent (which is different from a utility patent, but nobody understands that), like the infamous first iPhone?
Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950
#413Earlier quoted context omitted.
I own a Polestar 2 with an effective 75 kWh battery and an average efficiency of 3.3 mi / kWh. So 248 mile range if you charge to 100% and run it down to 0%. Real world, 99.9% of driving I do is well under 100 miles per day, and my charging between 6pm and 8am on a 120V outlet adds 50-60 miles. You could plug in every night, but in practice I wait until the battery is below 40%, and tend to plug in every 1-2 weeks de…
> average efficiency of 3.3 mi / kWh. I'm curious, is that your personal average or is that what the company claims? I've not taken the plunge on an EV yet, but realistically I'm interested in the actual range driving 70-75mph on the highway, with the AC running, as compared to the manufacturer's claims.
A good rule of thumb across most makes is to take the EPA range number and multiply by 0.85, and that’s what you’ll get at a constant 70-75 mph in moderate weather (say, 55-85 degrees) with the climate control on.
Of course, you probably want to arrive at your next charge stop with 5-10%, and the top 10% of the battery charges very slowly in all EVs, so you normally multiply by another 0.80 factor to take that into account.
Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950
#414Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 fatalitie…
You've got the direction right, but the numbers are inflated in the Slate's disfavor. The 1.12m is an unmeasured estimate of the hood's high point; the figure that actually drives risk is the leading edge, realistically ~40–42" here — the very floor of the "tall" category. The "50%+ solely from the hood" is really IIHS's 45%, and that's a bin average for everything over 40", a group dominated by full-size trucks whose leading edges sit at 46–50"+. A vehicle sitting right at the 40" line doesn't carry that average, and the 45% bundles height with front-end shape, so it was never "solely" the hood. The F-150 and Silverado people are actually buying are a clear tier worse than the truck you're complaining about.
Kids, women, and the elderly do take a disproportionate share, but nobody measured anything "exponential". "Dozens of studies" is fair. "Exclusively for aesthetics" isn't, though: the front houses a 7 cu ft frunk, and more importantly the Slate's short hood and modest height give it a smaller forward blind zone and better sight-lines than a full-size truck, which is the axis that decides whether the driver sees the kid at all, and the one the 45% fatality stat doesn't even cover. The real villains here are taller, longer-nosed, and parked in way more driveways than this thing will ever be.
This vehicle is a step in the right direction, especially for the urban environment. If we really cared, everyone would drive a Honda Acty in urban zones.
Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950
#415Earlier quoted context omitted.
Presumably you could reconfigure it easily later. Which seems like a plus
Yeah, you could buy a basic one and add the rear seats and roof later. But, is that likely? Most people buy cars on credit and won't have $10k cash to spend on those bits later. I guess they could put it on Visa, but that's a terrible financial choice.
They'll end up being worth a ton of money in the future like those roofs from the original mazda miatas.
Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950
#416I 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.
They are significantly simpler than something that needs to burn fuel and have a transmission system.
Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950
#417I 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.
it kinda is with old defenders. with a bit of work I can turn mine into a pickup or whatever
Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950
#418Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anything beats https://blog.iseecars.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Graysca...
Why is this? I find it hard to imagine the appeal of so much grey. Half of them look like cheap plastic.
Supposedly it holds/people think it holds more resale value to not have loud colors.
Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950
#419Earlier quoted context omitted.
AFAIK there's actually only one color and you can wrap it. The wrap kits are supposed to be DIY friendly so you can change it yourself when you want a new color.
That sounds a bit like one of Saturn's (1985-2010) original ideas from the 80s. The plastic paneling was easy to take off so that people could DIY change the colors or add their own panels (and Saturn engineers could quickly revise styles). I am not sure very many people ever did, however. Or even if the cars were all that customizable in the end.
Smart also used to advertised one of their early cars (maybe fortwo in the early 2000s?) emphasising how easy it was to swap the plastic panels. I just realised, I've not seen any adverts like that for many years, googled and found an article [1] describing how it was never as easy as they claimed.
[1] https://www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/maintenance-and-gear/it-l...
Re: Slate EV truck starts at $24,950
#420pretty cool, now wait for the Chinese to list this company as national security threat and ban selling any parts to it. oh, wait, that is what Americans do.
Ha, no way. China will welcomes any American manufacturers to procure parts for their products. In fact, China is already capable of competing freely in any field. So, it will only happen that the US blocks China, not the other way around.