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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

#701

Post by solid_fuel »

taylodl wrote: post #43

I 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…

There is an app - see about halfway down this page https://www.slate.auto/en/charging

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

#702

Post by klipklop »

ethbr1 wrote: post #292
kyledrake wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All micro cargo van providers have stopped building them. The Transit Connect, Metris, Promaster City and NV200 are all now discontinued. The VW Caddy isn't sent to the states. There are rumors that they will make a cargo van based on the Maverick but they make them in Mexico, and with the tariff situation I'm not sure if they will be going through with that anymore. All of the perfect compacts and hatchbacks are slo…

To give credit where credit is due, the ~$25k Ford Maverick was a decent step towards "enough" vehicle for many people, while minimizing cost. https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a64351746/2025-ford-mav... And definitely went the other way from the industry.

Too bad the "ecoboost" engines in them are total garbage.

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

#703

Post by hansworst »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #646
resters wrote: post #632

This is extremely refreshing. I think that it would be possible to make something like this in the US for under $15K even. Cars and trucks are so over-engineered and come with tons of low value options intended to drive up the price. For a case in point, consider that headlights that turn on and off automatically in response to darkness (or rain) are not a standard feature on many cars, yet they include a manual swit…

BYD could totally avoid the tariffs by making in the USA (well, they were planning a factory in Mexico, and tariffs on car parts will kill that if something doesn’t change). They already set up a bus factory in SoCal. My guess is that Chinese automakers are still hesitant about introducing their brands to Americans given politics (Volvo and Polestar are Chinese owned but I think the design is still mainly done in Swe…

Wouldn’t they still need to pay tariffs on all the parts they manufacture in china? Maybe I’m misunderstanding the tariffs but it sounds like Chinese companies would have to build completely separate supply chains to keep the US market

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

#704

Post by osigurdson »

MostlyStable wrote: post #308
aidenn0 wrote: post #253

For anyone curious, if you made a similarly sized gas-powered pickup with an i4 engine, it would be penalized more than a full-sized pickup for being too fuel inefficient, despite likely getting much better mileage than an F-150 because, since 2011, bigger cars are held to a lesser standard by CAFE[1]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_average_fuel_economy...

Example #5621 that a simple carbon tax would be miles better than the complex morass of regulations we currently have.

If interested in a case study, have a look at Canada's experiment with it.

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

#706

Post by [deleted] »

skort wrote: post #609
maerF0x0 wrote: post #587

Earlier quoted context omitted.

feature, not a bug, they want you to buy their $4000 BOSE upgrade which is actually $500 of equipment.

Do you have any proof or even a hint of a reason that this will be the case? Or is this just nonsense? Their FAQs even state: > Built-in infotainment systems raise a car’s price, and they become outdated quickly and have high failure rates. It seems unlikely that a company saying this will throw in a $4,000 infotainment system in a $20,000 vehicle.

[deleted]

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

#707

Post by diggernet »

dmonitor wrote: post #465
dogline wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just want some power ports and good mounting points, then I can put whatever I want there, and upgrade it. I'd imagine that people will come up with a mountable radio kit, like the DIN format radios of old, but with less restrictions.

DIN format radios are still around. My recent-ish corolla's infotainment display is just a well integrated double-DIN. I'm surprised this car doesn't as far as I can tell, have a DIN slot for one.

Yes, they have a nice storage bin right behind where you put the optional tablet mount, but the only option I've seen for that bin is a speaker kit. I don't want a tablet mount or speakers in the bin. I want the left side of the bin (above the controls) to be a double DIN mount.

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

#708

Post by greenbit »

themaninthedark wrote: post #283
JackC wrote: post #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...

Tailgate down, plywood lying with one edge on the bed and the other on the side? But I agree, I would expect it to be able to fully contain a standard sheet of plywood if it made that claim.

Perhaps .. but then try the same thing with drywall

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

#710

Post by overfeed »

taylodl wrote: post #43

I 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…

> I'll be comparing this to the Ford Maverick.

This truck might just steal the thunder from an EV Maverick, and Ford can't release that soon enough.

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