USA: Slate's New Electric Truck Will Cost Slightly More Than $24,950
4 months ago by tychosmoose to c/technology
cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/...
Range is said to be 205 mi (330 km), higher than the original estimate. This price is for the basic truck. The SUV configuration is expected to be $5000 more.
Slate raised at least $111 million in Series A financing, including an undisclosed amount from Bezos. Slate then raised $600 million in 2024 from Mark Walter, the controlling owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and CEO of Guggenheim Partners, Jeff Bezos, and General Catalyst, a venture capital firm.[5] In mid-2026, the company said it had completed a $650m series C investment round, which took its total capital raised to $1.4bn.[6]
Bezos was seed money AND part of the owner conglomerate that raised all the capital the company started with in 2024. That is enough for me to avoid this like the plague as it will, certain as the sun is hot, be enshitified to the core
If you do not believe me, here is an article explaining how this is all a big Amazon initiative
I would truly not be surprised that this would be an attempt to take over there ev truck market, but manufacturers should have been paying attention. There's a huge market for small ass trucks, no one is catering to it
While I'm sure they'll try to enshittify, the downside to that plan is that they need to make sure no one takes their place and they need to have something people want that they can enshittify. The benefit of simplicity is that it makes it simpler for another manufacturer to pick up the slack.
I drove a small truck at one point. Think a late 90s Tacoma, Ranger, or something like that. I don't want an F250. I don't want a Ram 3500. I just want to be able to haul a bed full of bikes to the MTB trail and help my friends move a washing machine.
There’s a huge market for small ass trucks, no one is catering to it
Absolutely correct. The American car makers keep on saying "we only want big trucks" but that is complete BS, there is plenty of demand for smaller trucks which is why they have lobbied the gov to all but ban any possible import
The benefit of simplicity is that it makes it simpler for another manufacturer to pick up the slack.
While this is true in theory, in practice it rarely shows up. If these trucks do deliver a good, simple experience at $25K, others would not be able to just copy it and catch up. It would be easier for any of the big guys to just buy the company.
If the company is not for sale, then they would have the monopoly on small trucks and thus, freedom to enshitify
There's a huge market for small ass trucks, no one is catering to it
Ford is. The Maverick is selling like hotcakes (not the 60s coupe). And they have an electric small truck coming soon as well. There's also Tello.
There's a huge market for small ass trucks, no one is catering to it
That's incorrect. The Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz exist and are very popular.
Toyota is about to release one to compete with the Maverick, and Dodge has a small and a mid sized truck in the works.
For the life of me I don’t know why we don’t develop something like this in Canada. It’s so frustrating, we have the people, the manufacturing space, the materials, we could do this.
Whenever something about Canada making vehicles gets brought up, all the nay sayers climb on immediately saying how it can’t be done. I’m sick and tired of them. Nothing worth doing comes easy, if left to these naysayers we’d all be still living in squalor.
We need to move away from the U.S. entanglement, the American public can’t be trusted to elect a proper government.
Building our own low cost, modest feature vehicles would be an excellent start. How many features of a car do people use for a normal commute to work, or such? I’d love a truck like the Slate, except it has to have 4 wheel drive ability. After having Hondas with all wheel drive, I’ll never go back to an older 2 wheel drive vehicle.
We don't do R&D in Canada. All we do is assemble shitty vehicles for export.
4WD is unnecessary if you use proper winter tires.
New Chinese EVs will be hitting the streets soon. Much cheaper and higher quality.
Higher quality from CCP run China. Nope. If the EV was from Taiwan, then yes.
Lol.
Wow, people really are this dumb.
Eleven down votes from the CCP representatives.
I heard that Bezos left the company as an investor. I don't blame you for disliking anything American, but Slate Auto seems alright so far...
He was never "in it"; but he put up the seed money, then participated in the main round of fund raising and placed a ton of his people in the company. So even if his is not personally involved, he has all the strings he needs to pull it where he wants it to go (which, IMO, means Slate will be enshitified to the full the moment those little trucks start selling)
What I wonder is how exactly are they going to enshittify it? It's extremely barebones and modular in a way that anyone can design add-ons and accessories for it. I can see them doing subscriptions and the like for various add-ons but you can always just get the base model and get add-ons elsewhere.
If they enshittify in the future, then you can just not buy one of the enshittified trucks. The old ones will still be out there, rolling around fine, without any internet connection that the company could use to remotely sabotage them.
At this point I think there's a high likelihood that production will start close to their plan of late this year. As the other commenter said, you can go watch multiple videos of test drives. Pre-orders opened yesterday. But what do I know?
They've been promoting it recently and have several working prototypes that they've been driving influencers around in. There was one video with Marques Brownlee and they even let him drive it himself.
Ew Edison...
But yes, some other poster also was surprised something like this could not be started up in Canada
I know our government here is also crappy and has tried to squash related initiatives before but I should look into it more
The man... Edison was last century Jobs, best that can be said is that he had a good eye for business but basically just took other people's work, milked them and toss them aside making a profit for himself in the process without regards to the harm he was knowingly causing
Interesting, the telematics module is sold separately at $275.00. So for everyone worrying about spying, for this vehicle you got to opt-in and pay extra for it.
Never mind the low price, not having that shit built in is the killer feature for me, making it the only new car I would even consider buying. (It's just too bad they won't have a 4x4 version for another couple of years.)
It is kinda good that there's an optional module available, though, because it means there's an interface that, in theory, a third-party module running Free Software could hook into.
because it means there's an interface that, in theory, a third-party module running Free Software could hook into
Absolutely this!
You don't need 4 wheel drive with an EV truck, the weight is properly distributed between the 4 wheels, not like stupid pickups that put all the weight over the wrong drive wheels.
A pickup is supposed to be used such that the weight is properly loaded. If you don't have the back full of firewood or something else anyway you are doing it wrong.
Then again if you don't have a full 8 foot bed you are doing it wrong, and those are almost impossible to buy.
JFC...take a physics class. The drive wheels are in back, the cab and motor are in front. Of course there is no traction, all the weight is at the wrong end and 99% of idiots who buy those trucks drive with empty beds.
The aftermarket is not going to make an entirely different drive train.
Very interesting indeed.
It goes into effect September 2027 and I'm guessing there will be a price increase.
The driver cam does not need Internet connectivity to meet the new standards.
I read that the telematics package is meant for fleets, not average buyers
For remote app to vehicle features:
Description A plug-and-play solution that acts as a cellular bridge between your smartphone and your Slate vehicle, unlocking features like remote access and battery pre-conditioning.
Product details Includes: One (1) Telematics Unit, complete with a one year service subscription for your vehicle. Fits all body styles.
Yeah I don't know, that's just what Slate said "the telematics module is primarily for fleet customers, Slate told Ars."
I hate the state of current website reporting.
so many sites give so much information but absolutely refuses to provide the original website or source. Instead, deciding to send the viewer through ClickHell as they try to navigate their own website sending the user in circles usually via links that go to their own pages to propagate views/clicks. I hate it
How hard is it to just link to the Slate's main webpage after reporting on the product that way, the viewer can look at it themselves. Not one of the web pages they link there or any of the pages in said links lead to the actual vehicles site that they are reporting on.
Hello Nissan and Toyota. Where are your small EV and hybrid pick-up trucks?
The new Hilux does have both mhev and bev version.
Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Hilux
Seems like it's available everywhere except america
lol, they're $66,000 in Canada.
Seriously!
I still cannot fathom why Honda hasn't released an ev civic with a 120 mile range. it would sell huge.
Something about this vehicle not mentioned: Because of the easily replaced plastic panels, insurance should be a lot less expensive.
But of course, meth heads are going to start stealing panels now.
If they sell enough trucks for meth heads to profit in the grey market by stealing the plastic panels, that's a huge win
And do what with them? Scrap yard don't buy plastic.
Enter the aftermarket replacement panel bolts with security heads. Now they can only mangle the panels while trying to remove them!
It won't be. But cute idea.
This sounds nice for someone who needs a truck. But I have lots of kids. Why can’t I get an EV minivan for under $50k?
The minivan is important. That sliding door means my kids never slam the door open into the next car... Many people get too attached to perfect paint on their car even though they have a history of trading in "that old thing" every 3 years.
Also the SUV config is 2 doors only, not really comfortable for everyday use as a family.
Politics. It can be done
The Chinese government is subsidizing the cost of their EVs. They are smart enough to realize that's the future and want people hooked on them as the supplier. So, yeah it can be done cheaply if you own the entire supply chain and receive government subsidies.
Perhaps some sort of people's station wagon.
Or just a people's wagon.
Or why be so formal, why "people," instead of the more casual and fun "folks."
The folk's wagon, if you will.
There is not an auto manufacturer on this Earth that isn't heavily subsidized by its government. The same industry, skills, and infrastructure that make it possible to build consumer vehicles also allow you to build military vehicles. In wartime, a government can come to an auto manufacturer and tell them, "you're done making consumer pickups. You're making army trucks now!" And domestic industry cannot be blockaded or embargoed.
And that's not an industry you can just spin up overnight. If your country doesn't have an auto industry, and you would like one? Even if you have an unlimited budget, it would still take you decades to get to the point of competitiveness. Countries have a lot of incentive to subsidize their domestic auto producers as a means of ensuring the country retains the ability to make its own military vehicles.
But I have lots of kids. Why can’t I get an EV minivan for under $50k?
I think you can get a vasectomy for less than that. Unless you're murican, in which case, condoms maybe... if they're legal in your state.
You'd have to be a massive idiot to think buying into a Bezos led infrastructure won't nickle and dime them to death down the road....
Tbh that kinda sounds like the point from the start. The price they give is the base-base. Like, an absolute barebones build. Any color you want as long as it's grey.
But making each individual add-on available...individually...is pretty damn sweet. And also making them available after-market...presumably in an easy-to-install method (kinda figure to be scalable it must be, otherwise the build-to-order model would flop at the assembly line), is icing on the cake.
It sucks that it's a Bezos initiative, otherwise I'd be yelling to shut up and take my money. A basic-ass EV two-seater that can handle light open loads is exactly what I want. And one that is (seemingly) user-servicable? Hell yeah. AND A FRUNK TO BOOT!
But if bezos is behind it, it's instantly sus. More sus than any other billionaire, save for a handful.
Off the bat, this thing is basically a dumb phone and it’s going to be very easy for third parties to mess with the platform. My bigger concern with the first launch is quality control. It’s a new vehicle, a new platform, and they’re trying to be extremely cost conscious. I won’t be surprised if there are quality issues with the first production run.
My guess is that, like with Rivian, Bezos is more interested in an EV platform for logistics. These are cheap, they don’t dent, they the don’t have a lot of electronics that can break, they can be easily retrofitted with new logistics platforms if you have an Allen wrench, they’re small enough for urban areas, and you don’t pay for gas.
Bezos is a lot of shitty things, but what made him rich was being a penny pinching logistics geek. This is right up his alley. Cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, cheap to operate.
FYI: it looks like slate has switched battery chemistry and suppliers. They will now be using LFP batteries. Cheaper, but they'll last longer. Especially if you charge them to 100% and discharge them below 15%.
An overall win, as there was a zero chance I would have bought one if they put the NMC batteries in it they were going to use.
There will no longer be battery options for a small 150 mile range battery or a bigger battery that would go around 240 miles, though. Now (due to LFP batteries not being as energy dense) there's only going to be one battery option that they claim will have a 205 mile range.
Unfortunately for me, this means I won't be getting one. I need to go 180 miles round trip between charges, and that's just cutting it way too close. Especially during winter time when the range would be reduced by quite a bit.
Yeah, same for me. Buying groceries or going to see a doctor is a 100+mile round trip for me. At a 240 mile range, it was doable for me. At around 205 miles, that's cutting it really close considering winters here can be very cold trimming the range. And while I know I can charge at home, chargers in the wild are still far and few between.
I still want one though. I'm very jealous of those can find them useful. The whole concept of being able to absolutely repair and change your base vehicle at home and when you want to is going to be a big selling point to many.
Yeah. I'm hoping it's a big success and after a couple model years all our supply issues with Trump's dumbass and AI and lack of tax incentives for EV will be different and they release one with a longer range. I want a 20 year vehicle (my Prius is about 20 and it's still going like a boss at nearly 300k miles) so ideally, with battery ware and such, I'd like one that would start with a 300 mile range. I'd expect that to get me 200 miles in the winter after 10 years of battery ware.
Hard pass for me for various reasons but I hope this does well enough to make other auto companies want to compete.
Meanwhile in germany that's the cost of a compact car EV...
But those are usually 5-seaters while this looks like a two seater. And it doesn't have a trunk, just this weird truck bed that does nothing to protect your stuff against the weather. I like the design philosophy of this truck, but I'd argue that you get much more value out of a compact car.
just this weird truck bed that does nothing to protect your stuff against the weather
That's what's called a pickup truck bed.
Go to the garden store, buy 20 bags of mulch, sling them on the back, drive home. Or go to the drive-in theater and lay blankets in the back! Or put a kayak in the back and leave the tailgate down.
That's my use case anyway.
How could such a bed be useful? They're incredibly useful!
They're useful to load things quickly. Awkward objects can be placed in the beds without having to carefully maneuver around a vehicle interior and all its obstructions. I do a lot of woodworking. Before we got a pickup, I would transport 2x4s and other lumber inside a Toyota Corolla. I've discovered it is actually possible to fit several dozen 8 foot long 2x4s inside a Corolla. But the pickup truck is such a better tool for the job. Plus you're not moving a full sized sheet of plywood in a sedan.
They're useful fit to large objects that would never fit inside a vehicle. If properly strapped down, a pickup can transport an object much taller than the roof of the truck.
They're useful to move really dirty things you wouldn't want in your car interior. Imagine you want to fill some garden beds with mulch or compost from a garden supplier. You could get it in small bags, but that would be expensive. It's cheaper to buy in bulk. You could have them deliver it, but that would be more expensive still. If you need to move soil, compost, rock, or anything else dirty in bulk, a pickup is the way to do it. You can have the garden center fill your truck bed with a back hoe. Just dump it right into the bed. Then shovel it out when you get home. To clean out the bed, all you have to do is hose it off.
Now, this is pickups in general. We have a mid-2000s Ford Ranger, which is much smaller than the trucks all the big American manufacturers are selling today. A small pickup is a great utility tool. A giant one is a pointless penis extender.
Toss my bike in and goooo.
EDIT: Dammit I am legitimately curious why someone down voted this. Did they read my comment and go "You know what fuck you for riding a bicycle." Or were they like "You fool! You have to strap it down too. That's unsafe!" Maybe they're a hardcore bicyclist and had sympathy pains imagining me tossing my bike in the back of a truck.
I. must. know.
We know.
I love how riled you got them.
Pickups are big, stupid and wasteful. And not pedestrian-friendly. Just get a van-based tipper truck if you really need to haul mulch or waste.
The Americans have a pickup-truck based cognitive blind-spot and really cannot see it any other way.
and the point of the truck is that it’s highly modular, if you want more seats it’s made to add them in
oh its from the usa and bezos involved? well no thanks.
Do u have any better recommendations for EVs available in the USA that don't have a rich dickhead involved? The slate truck looks very appealing I'm not gonna lie!
Is the Rivian owner an asshole too? I don't know enough about him honestly that's the only one I'm not too familiar with.
The Nissan leaf is always an option though they seem to be well received. And the bigger model one of the Nissan electric line I can't remember the name.
I could never support Nissan after all their predatory loan tactics, their fucking sheisters and feed on poor people! Can't speak on rivian don't know much about the company besides their too expensive lol well over 2x price of a slate.
After seeing the bumper repair I'll pass there
I didn't know this if it was!
Buy a used EV. They all drop in price dramatically.
My buildout went to $33,600 for fastback with roof rack and speakers
While that’s a lot more than base, it’s exactly what I want and it’s still a great price compared to any other EV available to me. The only thing it would really not be good at is road trips but I still have my model Y
But as a big and tall guy I would never buy a vehicle without trying it to see if it’s comfortable for me ….. and to see if I can remove the back seats and fit it out as a camper. (My brother is doing that with a sienna hybrid and he probably has the right idea: lack of range could be a problem if you want to camp for a week with no electric)
"Hey Jim, can you get started on dinner?"
"No, I'm busy setting up my 25 panel 5kw solar array so I can get home!"
That sounds ridicoulous, but it'd still take 14 hours of broad sunlight to charge the Rivian R1T with the 141kwh battery from 25 to 75%.
Unless all the camping you do is staying for a week in each location, or just stay in campgrounds near highways, an EV just doesn't work yet, as much as I want it to. Offroading is brutal on range in both gas and electric vehicles, and without a way to refuel quickly in rural areas, it just doesn't work. If there were as many fast chargers as there are gas stations, it probably would be viable, though you'd still run into the edge case where you want to go further between charges and can't simply bring a Jerry can with you.
I understood this as camping in one location, or parking in one remote location and hiking for a week. This is a fairly common way to camp. Over a week you can get a useful charge if you are not driving. Likely just 1kw would be enough to get a useful charge over a week. If you are driving to a new spot every day this doesn't work (unless the drive is really short).
I suppose I'm not the type to camp like that. I usually stay in each location two or three nights tops. Also, I don't think I'd feel comfortable relying on solar to get me home, even if I was in the same spot for a week. If the weather changes to rainy/overcast and I'm getting 100w instead of a kw, I wouldn't want to be stranded. I'm also not a fair-weather camper, and go out in all conditions, which could be considered unusual.
big and tall guy I would never buy a vehicle without trying it to see if it’s comfortable for me …… and to see if I can remove the back seats
The range is now 205 miles, from a 63-kWh battery.
That's... Not that great. For comparison, the 2022 Chevy Bolt has a similar sized battery (65kWh) but about 260 miles of range. The weight's a little less than the slate at 3,600 lbs though it still wouldn't be enough to gap the difference in performance. There's either some heavy drag introduced by the truck or some drive system inefficiencies.
Rural people, as in the folks who actually have a use for pickups. As it so happens, it is about 200 miles round-trip to my nearest airport/major city, so if this were my vehicle, I'd have to take a charge break when picking someone up/dropping them off at the airport, or making a shopping run, or going to a concert/special event, or seeing a medical specialist. And I'm not even that far off the beaten path; I have family for whom the one-way drive to their nearest major city/airport is over 200mi. Plus if you're hauling anything, I'd imagine that range goes down quick.
That 200mi estimate is based on driving around 30-40 mph
You can expect like 140 miles of range at highway speeds
I live in Wyoming so I understand rural, however we are not the only folks with a "real" use for trucks. Plenty of reasons for a townie to own one.
My point was more that a pickup's core demographic live in places where range is absolutely a consideration. Some city folks do have good reason to own a pickup, but for most it's an aesthetic/image thing. Which, given the environmental/traffic safety consequences of driving a larger vehicle than necessary, is plenty deserving of judgement imo.
The range is reduced when used to haul things around or when the AC/heat are used. With charging being significantly slower compared to filling up a gas vehicle and without the option to use a gas can if it runs out, there are unknowns and people don't like unknowns.
I think the range is fine for regular light use personally, but being concerned about a fairly short range isn't completely baseless. Or would be if the people buying it actually used it as a work truck.
Americans get anxiety from having to do math in their heads. Average commute distance is 30 miles a day, and there is always some asshole who whines about towing his boat.
But don't try rational arguments with pickup drivers who commute to office jobs and drive a tank for that one time they needed to move a brother in law's couch.
Miles are a bad way to track performance because real life conditions can wildly impact BEV efficiency. I can tell you from first hand experience that towing, elevation changes, or moving at highway speeds in winter can cut per kWh efficiency in half.
And beyond that, you're supposed to be capping your daily charge limit below 100% for battery longevity. 200 theoretical miles can turn to 160 miles and down to 70 real quick. That can get uncomfortably tight if you miss an overnight charge.
Frankly, its dumb to criticize people who expect their personal vehicle to perform reasonably well in situations where a personal vehicle should excel. Why own a car if it can't do a round-trip weekend excursion or haul a bit of furniture?
By your logic everyone should only need a tiny moped with a rain jacket and a backpack. It's irrational to worry about climate control or passengers or suitcases, you statistically never need them.
You know what? You've led me to the diagnosis of my own EV range anxiety: Unpredictable performance.
In a gas powered car, you pretty much can think in miles. They put the "24 city, 29 highway" numbers on the sticker in the window, and that's pretty close to what you'll get out of it. Maybe loading it until it squats on the suspension or pulling a trailer or driving like a maniac will decrease the economy. But, if you do those kinds of things, you can fill the tank, note the mileage, drive like that awhile, fill the tank again, note the fuel consumed and the mileage performed and you've got a figure you can pretty much rely on no matter the weather. The limiting factor is almost always the driver. Drive 200-300 miles, stop for 5 minutes to fill the tank, drive 200-300 miles, stop for 5 minutes to fill the tank...
I happen to be a flight instructor. There's a whole chapter in flight school about cross country flight planning and predicting aircraft performance. Wind is such a factor that you really can't rate a plane in miles of range, but in hours of endurance. So to plan a flight, you look up the route of flight on an aeronautical chart, the weather forecast, read performance charts and tables out of the plane's Pilot's Operating Handbook, crunch a whole bunch of numbers and you'll know fairly precisely how long you'll be aloft and how much fuel you'll burn.
With an EV...they spit out a range in miles that the vehicle will do in unspecified ideal conditions, tell you that heat, cold, using the heater, using the air conditioner, carrying weight, wind and age will reduce the range, and then they'll get impatient with you if you try to work out what the vehicle will actually do and they'll mail you anthrax if the answer you arrive at is "not enough."
Why own a car if it can't do a round-trip weekend excursion or haul a bit of furniture?
The overall point I’m getting here is that yes, that’s a fine expectation to have. But do you really need a King Ranch Super Duty just to go to the airport twice a year?
It isn't regularly, it is what you do on the margins. that one trip a year. Those really cold days in winter (ICEs have a built in heater). 200 miles is more than enough most days, but once a month it will be really close.
Only a fool purchases a vehicle for 100% of use cases. That's how you end up buying twice as much car as you actually need, "just in case."
A wise person figures out what vehicle will meet 95% of their needs and then simply rents a vehicle specifically designed to do that job. Do you need to haul a giant camper twice a year? Just a rent a pickup truck capable of towing it.
Buying a thing only saves money if the alternative is REGULARLY renting that thing.
It is likely impossible to rent a truck for pulling your trailer. Most contracts have a no towing clause. Uhaul only allows towing their trailers. When you find the rare exception you are risking they are sold out that week. And the cost when you do find it is high enough to pay for the additional payments for most of the year.
My obsession isn't with range, it's with charge time. Yes I'm a bit irrational wanting a fully charged car every morning but that may not happen with a lower battery efficiency using a level 1 charger. I'm sure you'd appreciate better range efficiency like any gas car user would want better MPG.
Even with high efficiencies, you are going to have troubles with a level 1 charger. Level 2 charging is 5 times faster and still takes a long time to fill a battery. The most efficient consumer EV, the Kona, only charges at 6 miles per hour of level 1 charging. Yeah, you can get 80 miles of charge leaving your car charging overnight, but it completely limits any flexibility in using your car outside of commuting. I should know, I tried to do level 1 charging with a 90 mile range car for a couple months. It sucked, so I got a level 2 charger installed. After that, the 90mi range was fine for 3 years.
Yeah, 120v15a is a pain. At least see about rewiring an outlet for 220v 15a. An electrician can often do it cheaply because its the same wires. Then you can get most of a full charge between commutes.
The shorter your range the more important fast charge is. My car with a 200 mile range is almost(!) always fine on level 1 since I so rarely use make so many trips in a row that it would empty the battery. My wife's phev with only 30 miles of range is always at near 0% when she gets home and she (like most people) is likley to be making another trip soon so level 2 is a must. (of course it could switch to gas it isn't charged, but gas is several times more expensive so we try to use gas for long trips only)
More range not only means driving further without charging but also fewer charge cycles being needed.
Imagine it being like your phone when you play games and the battery dies after 6 hours. How long do you think your phone's battery is going to last when you're regularly charging it that often? Now imagine you paid $30k-$100k for the phone and you'll see why range is important to most people.
I personally have a 100 mile work commute and have decided not to get an EV for the time being because I want one I can keep at least a decade like my current ICE (Camry) without worrying about a $20k battery replacement or having to constantly keep it on a charger. It looks like the new solid state batteries should solve this issue but nobody is producing them yet.
My only problem with the Slate's range is that, being a truck/SUV, I would want to use it for overlanding (the kind of use-case where even gasoline vehicles need extra fuel tanks strapped to them, as shown here). Trying to do that with an EV with anything less than exceptional range would be limited and take careful route-planning.
Obviously it's not a "regular" use and therefore shouldn't rationally be a deal-breaker, but nevertheless taking a couple of jerry cans is a lot less weird and complicated than towing a generator. (And the fact that I'm seriously considering the latter as an option just goes to show how much I like the Slate truck anyway.)
I would say probably the boxy front and truck bed. They have to do the range tests on the base model so I wonder if it would improve the range with the SUV mod
Pickups have better aero without a bed cap.
I remember watching that Mythbusters episode and being convinced. But it still doesn't fit neatly into my intuition of the thing.
Intuition is just bias. Physics explains why.
Squarebacks have a huge void you have to drag along.
That seems likely, yes, but you don't know for sure without CFD or wind tunnel testing. It could be that there's some weird detail with the fastback that somehow manages to make it worse.
Aerodynamics. The Bolt is a slick little running shoe. The Slate is a slab.
To be fair, you really shouldn't be driving a pickup truck long distances anyway. They're for hauling loads around town. If you need to move something across the country, a pickup truck is a poor tool for it anyway.
well it's not a minivan
I mean, Blazers and Broncos have been around forever as 2-door SUVs, not a big issue there
ah, but todays full-sized husky American kids can't squeeze past the seats in a two-door.
The livestock can ride in the bed.
Slightly more than $24,950, so likely less than $30,000
Yeah, leaving the destination charge unknown for this announcement leaves a lot of uncertainty.
He's an investor in Slate. He had no role in the concept or the design.
Yeah I don't have a problem with giving credit to engineers if it's a good thing like this. It's when it directly gives evil people like that more wealth and power.
Jeff Bezos is a very evil man and I don't want to touch or support anything that benefits him with a million foot pole.
Imagine if it were Musk or Trump or worse. I have a hard time accepting that, ethically.
I love trucks, and the electrification of everything, sustainable infrastructure and energy. But it has to serve the wellness and the future of the people, not a fucking evil billionaire who is going to turn around and choke us all to death as slaves while the takes over the world.
And as much as I really love stuff like this, engineering and sociologically, and would have idolized this as a teenager and bought it blindly could I have afforded it then, I'm an adult now and have a pretty strong sense of social responsibility to my fellow citizens and the future wellness of both people individually and society. And I just... It's really hard to justify buying or advertising or supporting or even wanting stuff like this if the net outcome is just gonna be the same old, same old.
Like, I don't want a Tesla anymore. Not only because their quality has dropped SIGNIFICANTLY, but also because the company refused to drop musk after all of his literally political interference and throwing up multiple sig heils or heil hitlers or whatever the fucking Nazi salute.
So when I ask "is this Jeff Bezos's truck?" And the answer is "he's an investor", I really don't think anybody should be promoting it or talking about it irresponsibly without considering the ethical concerns and track records of these far alt right billionaire backed corporations.
And unfortunately, I still see way too much of it.
I get that people are sick of horrible shit and life is short and these are nice things... But repeated exceptionalism and social irresponsibility are EXACTLY how we got here in the first place. I'm disgusted, disappointed, frustrated, angry, and sad.
I need good news. Not head-in-sand and keep-shitting-in-the-house-because-it-feels-good.
I don't want to touch or support anything that benefits him with a million foot pole.
I hate to break it to you, but probably over half the websites you go to are powered by AWS, Amazon Web Services.
I'm sure Bezos is broadly invested across the entire market. If you're buying anything from any publicly traded company, you're giving Bezos some money.
Can you recommend an electric truck for me that doesn't have the stink of men who have raped the planet, children, or exploited the poor?
I do understand what you are saying. I do.
But its impossible to not benefit some greedy dickhead CEO of a corporation in one way or another. Anything you buy will do that. Some companies are better than others but there's no avoiding having the money go to bad actors in some way shape or form in the end. Its all venture capital companies and billionaire ceos all the way down.
Its been designed to be this way.
Yep. Seen this schtick a hundred times.
Now that the seal is broken on price hikes, it'll climb more and more. About the time it reaches double, the project will be canceled. Investors will be screwed, and some slimeball will run off with the cash just like he always planned to.
Just like all the other ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elio_Motors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lit_Motors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptera_Motors
Here's a few. But there's more of these dating back at least to the 70s.
Canoo, Nikola, Bollinger...US EV startups have all been scams. Aptera has been scamming since 2009.
Well, Rivian and Lucid did okay. Tesla is an outlier.
BUT they didn't lead with a selling price. That's where my bullshit alarm goes off.
I'd be happy to be wrong on this one, but... The signs are there.
Unlike Slate, Ford has access to their vast trove of sales information over the past 8 decades from their truck division. I am pretty sure they figured out that a truck at a 30k price point needs to be a crew cab or larger to sell in the volume they need to make it work for them financially.
Unlike Slate, Ford is a business that needs to be profitable in what they do. They can't start-up style burn through a bunch of investor money to see if a market exists for bare-bones single cab trucks.
As a result I think both may well have a place in the market, and I am excited to see affordability overall coming back into the picture.
As I recall, you can get the OG cab on food trucks, but it’s something that they primarily sell to fleets vehicles. Consumers usually want the extra cab storage.
But it will be a real vehicle made by a real company with things like a ‘radio’
I put a deposit down on one when they were first announced. But that was when its price was competitive with cheap used EVs. Then accepting the stripped down bare bones truck made sense. This is too close to new EV pricing. Bolt, Leaf, Ford EV are all within range of this, especially with an option or two to make it livable. Plus at $25k you’re now competing with very clean used examples of the Hyundai triplets and mustang Mach e.
Best of luck, Slate, but to me the truck doesn’t justify its price.
The upcoming ford ev truck is absolutely a truck, and a Ford truck, not some plastic startup
The Slate is a truck, a real truck. The Ford is a penis extender. The Ford is over 2' longer than the Slate.
But it will be a real vehicle made by a real company with things like a ‘radio’
That's a bad thing, because "radio" these days implies "spying and enshittification."
Slate is the only EV on the entire market that isn't fucked with that deal-breaker.
CarPlay isn’t enshittification
CarPlay itself, perhaps not. The telemetry, ads, annoying safety nagging, and sometimes even paywalled vehicle features that tend to be implemented alongside it (because the underlying computerization facilitates both the good and the bad) is, though.
Im planning on waiting 5 years to see if it will become a thing and be well supported. Ive been burned by experimental tech before. But I hope to see more of these kind of projects pop up in the future.
Ford screwed up royally, the Lighting was way to overpriced, over complicated, and soiled the market. Ford’s dealers are also heavily to blame, asking well above msrp prices due to initial interest.
Lightning was also supposed to retail at $30k IIRC.
The Lightning was Ford trying to make the massive profit margins Tesla was making.
The company who invented plastic oil pans.
no screens!? I'm sold. would be perfect for me to have a little around town truck like this. but it will be $80,000 by the time I can actually buy one. and I'm sure it tracks everything you do and everywhere you go.
There's an entire website about it
Cargo is 1500lbs. Towing is 2000lbs. I doubt... at the same time.
Those are numbers similar to a small truck in the 1980's. Im sure its fine unless youre one of these guys who NEEDS to haul four tons of cow shit to texas twice a week or whatever excuse is always given against a small electric vehicle.
The payload is actually pretty damn good for a truck of its size. Compare it to an S10, most are rated for 999 pounds in the bed. In which I have hauled cow shit, half a ton at a time, from one end of the county to the other. Thing is...I don't think the Slate can carry 1500 pounds of cow shit, the bed is too small.
Towing capacity is better than they initially said, earlier they quoted 1400, 2000 is lawnmower trailer territory. Compare that to the 5600 pound towing capacity of my S10.
I wonder if Aging Wheels will be able to get a hold of one of these for review.
Oh god, another cross country roadtrip collab video please.
I love the old couple energy they have when they are together, lol.
They've done two road trip collabs before. Theres been a few other crossovers too, mostly on Aging Wheels. . Though Robert did appear in Alex's video about the color Brown.
Can an Electrick Truck Tow Long Distance?
I am a avid fan and patreon of both of them, lol.
Alec is the best. Love his stuff. Valid ranting with well backed reason is such a niche area (especially non political) but I really enjoy finding it.
You should watch his videos on solar panels if you like a rant, though it gets increasingly political as it goes.
The video may be primarily about solar, but he goes nuclear by the end.
I loved that episode. I don't mind political stuff, I'm just inundated with it around every corner and happy when I find something without it as a regular or defining feature.
I've been wanting to buy the detergent powder he helped with. But it's pretty pricey compared to what I can get locally.
It looks very familiar but I can't place the similarity... new Land Rover Defender maybe?
It's got a lot of elements that evoke other trucks and 4x4s.
A lot of the face evokes Toyota Landcruisers. The shape of the hood is very Land Rover. The thick B pillar reminds me of a Nissan Hardbody. The Slate graphic on the tailgate reminds me of old Toyota pickups. The fastback roof reminds me a lot of the later model 2-door Chevy Blazers.
Roblox generic pickup
I have just placed my pre-order. I'm so pumped!!! :D
Nice. Did they have options to select at this point, or just the base truck?
I was faffing about in the designer; did they remove the option for power windows entirely?
Might be cheaper to buy a used kei truck and convert it to biodiesel or electric.
Why do EV companies keep trying to make electric trucks, it seems like the least efficient form when it comes to getting long range out of a car, is it that insecure American men won't buy a ev if it wasn't in the gender affirming shape of a truck
In what way? It's lighter than the average US vehicle. And the height of the grill/hood is much lower than a typical full size pickup truck. It's only a couple of inches higher in front than a circa 1985 compact pickup.
I think it has a substantial look to it that can make it seem larger than it is. I walked around a prototype and it definitely felt closer to my VW Golf in size than to a big modern pickup or SUV.
I did have a look at the profile comparison (and therefore also deleted my initial comment as the car does look larger on the image that it apparently is). It is indeed way less terrible than currently popular pickup truck. However, like their huge brethren, it still has a long and tall hood and poor visibility for children crossing in front of it, compared to regular cars. This increases risks towards pedestrians substantially.
That's fair. I much prefer a small vehicle with a short overhang for visibility and convenience.
In fact what I'd really like to see is a Telo truck with the modularity of the Slate. They're already planning AWD, but the SUV/hatchback option isn't as complete as Slate's. Hopefully their second gen nails everything and gets the price down. It seems like it will be difficult for them to compete with the much more heavily capitalized options.
Interesting vehicle. The Telo M1 still has a very tall "hood", but given incredibly short it is (on the brink of not existing) Sight lines appear to be good. That thing also packs a lot more usable space than the Slate car. This is what a no BS pickup truck should look like and all within the size limitations of a Mini (or close to that). I can't really get behind the look, but then also the Fiat Multipla was ... unique, in its looks yet a damn impressive car.
It looks like a scam
Of the 100 or so options available at launch, 33 percent cost under $100, 50 percent are under $250, and 80 percent are under $500.
It just looks like they're going to nickel and dime people for every little thing. Car meets DLC.
Have you ever bought a car stereo? Those numbers sound completely reasonable in comparison to third-party vehicle mods. It doesn't sound at all like they're nickle-and-diming people.
Perhaps a better comparison is that the mainstream automakers are forcing vast feature bundles on everyone. You aren't given the choice to buy a paired-down automobile. It simply has to come with a spyware infotainment system glued into the dashboard.
Honestly, it would be a lot better if vehicles came in fairly and cheap forms. Then you can take them to any third party mechanic to add whatever additional upgrades you want.
This. I don't need a shitty touchscreen that lags over the simplest tasks. I have a high quality one I carry with me.
I first heard about these cars a few months ago and it made me realize I'd be fine just leaving a bluetooth speaker in the car. Doesn't need to be a part of the vehicle. Just need power.
I agree. Besides the spying, the big issue I have with infotainment systems is, let's call it, lifespan incompatibility.
Cars routinely last decades. Ideally, they would last forever. Once you strip away the bells and whistles, a car is a simple utilitarian object meant to accomplish a universally necessary task - the movement of people and cargo from one place to another. People dealt with the transport problem a thousand years ago, and they'll be dealing with it a thousand years from now. There will always be need for a box on wheels that can move large amounts of things around quickly. Critically, a car can be a reasonably independent device - it doesn't need to interface with some outside network in order to function. Yes, modern vehicles do often phone home, but that isn't necessary to fulfill the vehicle's core function. There are people living in 2026 still driving around Ford Model T's. Sure, cars need roads and gasoline or electricity, but the same electricity can charge an EV from today or an EV from a century ago. When the Saturn car company went under, its passing didn't brick all the Saturns on the roads.
Consumer electronics are the opposite. They're built knowing that they'll be obsolete relics in just a few years. The tech moves quickly and people want the newest features. People who change their phones even just every 5 years are considered frugal. Devices like smart phones also exist deeply embedded in vast tech ecosystems. My phone needs to be able to work with countless other sites, services, and apps. As their protocols and languages change, the phone must keep up. If my phone can't talk to all the computers in the cloud, it can't do its most basic functions. A 20 year old phone would be pretty useless in 2026. I would doubt you could even get a carrier to sell you a plan for it.
Consumer electronics and cars are fundamentally different types of objects. Assuming it was properly preserved, a person from 2126 could get real every day utility out of a car from 2026. But a 2026 phone, even if it was miraculously functional, would be a paperweight, of no use to them at all beyond a historical artifact. Cars fulfill a universal and timeless need. They should be designed to be bullet proof. Phones are born with their days numbered. Consumer electronics are meant to be a thing of the moment, constantly evolving, constantly changing. There's no need to build in extreme durability. (I would prefer phones that can be repaired, but I'm not going to use even a highly repairable phone for 30 years.)
And this is the problem with permanently embedding consumer electronics into cars. They fundamentally exist on different time horizons. Inevitably the infotainment part of the car ends up a junk relic while the car part of the car still has years of good life left in it.
Pricing looks crazy. $2300 for a 300w flexible panel cover https://www.slate.auto/en/store/ACCMEU019?fromCategoryId=accessories_exterior&fromSubcategoryId=accessories_exterior_utility
That's a pretty reasonable price. You can't just look for a big number and conclude anything based on that. Sometime things cost money. You have to compare it to comparable third party products.
You're not just talking a few panels here.
BMW has that tied up with "subscription needed heated seats"
Well there you are it really is as crap as they promised.
That build quality would embarrass an Indian auto worker.
How do you know what the build quality is like? It wasn't mentioned in the article and the Slate isn't in production yet.
Tiny wiener trucks can rot in hell. Any advantages from electric engines are killed effectively by the insane weight, and people get killed even more effectively by these monsters and their obnoxious asshole drivers.
The Slate is 3600 pounds, which is 800 pounds less than the average car or truck in 2024, and a whole ton less than the F-250
I'm going to give the person you responded to the benefit of the doubt that they were talking about the electric Silverado and F-150, not this Slate truck. An even better comparison is the Ford Maverick Hybrid, which weighs 3856 pounds, so this is 250 pounds less than a comparably sized hybrid. The Maverick XL with gas engine is 3650 pounds, and this still beats that.
The funny thing is, I think this truck looks visibly closer to a tiny wiener than trucks that imply the driver has a tiny wiener.
Tiny wiener trucks can rot in hell.
Sounds like someone's got a tiny wiener himself
If you say so buddy. Oversize trucks are still almost exclusively for showing off and pissing off snow flake lefties or something, too bad these evs can’t do coal rolling eh?
too bad these evs can’t do coal rolling eh?
Would you buy one if they could?
Hell no, I hate those monsters. They’re a traffic danger too.
More Slates than Silverados will be powered by coal.
I can put a fog machine on any vehicle if I want it too do that. Currently the fluid is generally white, but I'm sure for a few $$$ they will make me a colored fluid with any color I want. Also I many offensive scents are an option as well (again, probably not available, but for $$$ you can get it) The people who like to "roll coal" are more than willing to spend the $$$ needed so there is likely a market if you want to go into that business.
Personally I consider my trucks for working hard not show. I won't be doing this because my truck isn't supposed to draw attention to itself - and with the antiques I'm towing it can't complete anyway. (Trucks are also female so those hangers are wrong)
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As Canadian…
American company?, nope
Owned by Bezos?, hell nah
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