Slate Is It Vapourware?

TravisTheHuman said:

The0retical said:

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

It looks like a mini truck. Therefore, we must follow the natural laws of owning a mini truck. Law 1: OE stereo must be removed. Law 2: A stereo that will break every window in a 3 block radius must be installed. This thing just skips the first in favor of getting to the second faster, which is thoughtful.

Looking at their claims of upcoming accessories, I see one that is just a aa/carplay screen with a single speaker, all as one piece.  And I'm totally fine with that.

Looks like there is also an option for 2 speakers in the compartment storage areas?

I dig the "sporty street" look. Lowered, big aerodisc looking wheels. 

Fork it, why not? $50 for a refundable reservation? Done. 

If I'm reading correctly, the pickup can be self converted to SUV .

What I then wonder is can rear seats be added (and easily be removed) to the bed?  Sort of think of it as a clamshell-less OG 4 runner type.

Sounds like the manufacturer intends to sell lots of customization parts but if these are a success there should be an entire sub-market of non-OEM accessories.  

In reply to John Welsh :

https://www.theverge.com/electric-cars/655527/slate-electric-truck-price-paint-radio-bezos

It looks like, yes, the SUV kit will have attachable seats (and seatbelts, of course).

I've been wanting someone to build a simple, useful vehicle like this for a very long time. I would have preferred a simple four cyl power plant for a number of reasons, but that's not gonna happen, this is close enough.

I hope it happens.

I saw an article about this today.  I am thinking it could make a very good company vehicle for several of my employees.    

brandonsmash said:

Fork it, why not? $50 for a refundable reservation? Done. 

 

I may do the same this weekend. So far, I've gotten all my other "might work out" new vehicle deposits back (new Bronco (the one I really wish had timed out better), CyberUgly, Maverick (ok, that turned into an actual purchase)). Still have a $100 Scout deposit in the breeze. I hear that $50 won't kill me from my buddy that says I should occasionally release my inner tightwad.

Funny, we were talking about smaller EVs at dinner since my son brought home a loaded Rivian RT1 from work. So i have a $130K truck sitting in the driveway, which makes no sense to me. My wife could use one of these minimalist trucklets to replace her xB. It gets by with a monthly gas fillup, so 110V charging would be fine for her.

Trying to talk Mrs Warship into one right now.    She really loved driving the TJ I originally bought to flip, and this would be about the same wheelbase, with less fuel and repair issues.   Her use case would be about perfect with a one way commute of 15 miles.   The difficult part has been convincing her that plugging in each night is far less hassle than gassing up occasionally. 

John Welsh said:

If I'm reading correctly, the pickup can be self converted to SUV .

What I then wonder is can rear seats be added (and easily be removed) to the bed?  Sort of think of it as a clamshell-less OG 4 runner type.

 

Sounds like the manufacturer intends to sell lots of customization parts but if these are a success there should be an entire sub-market of non-OEM accessories.  

Yep. In the launch video, they talk about many of the parts are 3D printed and they will be open source so you can make your own or do production runs of parts to sell.

I think this is one of the most interesting things I've seen in awhile. Tempted to put down a reservation..

Russian Warship, Go Berkeley Yourself said:

Trying to talk Mrs Warship into one right now.    She really loved driving the TJ I originally bought to flip, and this would be about the same wheelbase, with less fuel and repair issues.   Her use case would be about perfect with a one way commute of 15 miles.   The difficult part has been convincing her that plugging in each night is far less hassle than gassing up occasionally. 

(Range of 150 miles from fully charged) Subtract 30 miles per day commute = 120 miles remaining.

No need to plug in every night.

Do it 

In reply to Indy - Guy :

  

If it doesn't get plugged in every night, it won't ever get plugged in.


Also, I would start her off with Level 1 charging, as she is not comfortable with the idea of charging right now.

So they're the Lotus of mini pickups? Simplify and add lightness. 

The Out of Spec video just popped up in my Saturday morning YT feed, and I'm definitely intrigued.

Edit-warship, my wife adapted pretty easily to plugging in. She'd much rather take 5 sec to plug/unplug than deal with the gas station. Haven't had her try DCFC yet, but the battery has only seen a DCFC 3 times.

In reply to XLR99 (Forum Supporter) :

I agree.

But to get her to that point, I first have to get her to the point of accepting an electric vehicle.  And her main stumbling block is the idea of charging and remembering to charge.

It will be interesting to see what hits the market first, the Slate or the Alpha Wolf.  Really like the Slates use of plastic panels, everyone in the salt belt will cheer for that!  The box does need to be a true 6' though and the cost of accessories will surely add up fast. The Wolf still has an edge on style while both are RWD which makes me happy.

This is exactly what GM did with the S-10 in the early 90's

A stripper model S-10 2wd, short box, cloth seats, rubber floor, 5-speed, 4-banger. Out the door for under $5K Canadian.

They sold a ton of them.

Some further reading says:  

Slate is putting a lot of faith in the federal EV tax credit sticking around, because with the $7500 subsidy, the company's battery-electric 2027 Truck will cost consumers a little less than $20,000. Even without that, the Slate Truck will retail for just under $27,500.

At $27,500, if the credit goes away, the market offerings change.  That's more than Maverick.  The 2 door truck is a thing of the past.  My suspicion is that its not being overlooked by the current manufacturers but that so rarely anymore are trucks a second vehicle.  To justify the expense of a new truck, buyer need it to be a one-and-do -all type vehicle.  If I could suggest one thing to Slate it would be to add a rear door.  Have you ever seen this version of Chevy Colorado that was offered called The Mid Box?

It was intended to be storage space:

But, if Slate offered similar they now have rear passanger access.  At least optional rear access.  

The two door car was king in the 70's and 80's.  All "personal luxury cars" were 2 door and the Olds Cutlass used to be the best selling car in America offering 2 dr and 4 dr.  The death of the 2 dr car has been the advent of child car seat laws.  You are not reasonably using a child's rear facing car seat in these Slate 4 seaters as they stand.  

The addition of this mid-door would allow Slate to not only take on the cheap truck market but take on the entire cheap car market.  

In reply to John Welsh :
Booo this man! 
 

Slate has my $50. The proposed vehicle is the vehicle I want to buy. If they make fundamental design changes, or miss the target price, I'm out. 

Here's to hoping they don't need the same market justifications as the current big manufactures to push this thing thru.

I wonder where they plan to get their batteries. China? If so, I wonder how that plus the EV credit will impact things given the current political climate.

I really want this to be a people's car, and a big part of that is price. Again, there's a part of me that would rather have a cheaper ICE I4 (or I3!) than an EV. Battery production is concerning to me, and I'm not all in on EVs yet. Yet.

gumby said:

In reply to John Welsh :
Booo this man! 
 

Slate has my $50. The proposed vehicle is the vehicle I want to buy. If they make fundamental design changes, or miss the target price, I'm out. 

Here's to hoping they don't need the same market justifications as the current big manufactures to push this thing thru.

Everytime I get excited about start ups and concept vehicles i'd say 99% of the time they seem to make design changes/miss the target price. Recent cars in memory for me: Ineos Grenadier, Lotus Emira, and probably this. It doesn't look like the EV credit is going to survive and I'm sure the tariffs will stick around in some shape or form.

In reply to RyanGreener (Forum Supporter) :

See also the Elio (three wheeler)

In reply to CyberEric :

The batteries are to be supplied by a Korean company in a factory in the US. At least that's their plan. I think the $7500 credit is dependent on the battery being made domestically. 

In reply to mblommel :

Thanks for the response.

So the battery material comes from Korea and is then "assembled" in the US? If so, I don't understand how that complies. I have a hard time imagining they are actually mining this material in the US, but I am open to being educated. A quick Google search shows there are some mines in Nevada, so I guess that could be where they get the materials?

gumby said:

In reply to John Welsh :
Booo this man! 
 

Slate has my $50. The proposed vehicle is the vehicle I want to buy. If they make fundamental design changes, or miss the target price, I'm out. 

Here's to hoping they don't need the same market justifications as the current big manufactures to push this thing thru.

I agree. I figure a $50 investment is pretty low risk. I can always back out if the price drastically changes, the tax credit goes away or Slate simply evaporates. 

This is exactly what I want from an electric vehicle. Even though it would be a second (or third) vehicle.

I'm hopeful they can pull this off.