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Posted by cobri 1 day ago

Slate EV truck starts at $24,950(www.slate.auto)
297 points | 464 commentspage 5
cjonas 1 day ago|
I would honestly consider one of these for the utility of a cheap, small electric truck, but not having 4wd is an absolute deal breaker for a truck in the mountain west.
rayiner 1 day ago||
How can they make any money on this?
Kalkaline 1 day ago||
I love the concept, but it's giving me Elio vibes.
thegrim33 1 day ago||
I mean, it still seems like a lot for an absolutely barebones vehicle. Going by an inflation calculator, $25K in 2026 translates to $~13K in the year 2000, and in the year 2000 the average completely barebones/entry car sold for $~8K-9K. So this is still 50% more expensive than barebone cars used to be.
superxpro12 1 day ago|
Compared to ICE? Yes. EV's are still paying a premium for the battery. That's not going to change any time soon.

Compared to Ford or GM's EV trucks? It's almost 1/3 the price...

The closest comparison is like the Ford Maverick, and that starts at 29.

mekdoonggi 1 day ago||
The Japanese Kei trucks have a cult following, so if this hits the right niche, it might be viable. I think these might have a slow start, but as long as the company can survive and the trucks last, I think they could have a winner.
frabjoused 1 day ago||
This is very cool, probably should have gotten more inspiration from Porsche on the design UX. It's pretty rough.
dismalaf 1 day ago||
Looks cool but rear wheel drive only is a no-go where I live (somewhere very snowy).
bluGill 1 day ago|
Don't be so sure. Rear wheel drive is just fine in a truck if you fill the bed with firewood. This is an EV, so I would expect they put a lot of batteries under the bed and so have good weight on the back wheels.

Of course I'm waiting for real world reports, but I'm not going to rule it out yet.

dismalaf 1 day ago||
> Rear wheel drive is just fine in a truck if you fill the bed with firewood

"Just fine" lol. Alright let's go straight back to being 16 years old and doing ghetto shit for the sake of it.

AWD is ubiquitous nowadays. Can get it on entry level vehicles as an option. Electric vehicles are way simpler, as in they could simply strap a motor to the front wheels without much complication.

I already have a 4WD SUV. 4WD is simply superior in the snow, even if I could suffer and survive with RWD.

Marciplan 1 day ago||
cute cute car
drunner 1 day ago||
I am glad there is some viable disruption in the auto space here, but I am also really disappointed.

A new 4wd kei style truck is ~10k, with a bigger bed. I know its apples to oranges, but damn do I hate the ridiculous regulatory capture around small vehicles and trucks we have in the US.

gwd 1 day ago|
I like the idea, but the "About" page triggers some warning bells: "We’re not trying to make this about us. BECAUSE SLATE IS ALL ABOUT YOU."

I mean, that's fine, but... I am on your "About" page, that's because I actually want to know about you. How can I trust you with $25k if all I know is "We’re designed in California and Michigan, engineered in Michigan, and assembled in the Midwest. And our team is spread across the entire country, from Washington state to Florida" ?

What's your funding? Who owns you? Who's the CEO? What are the credentials of your engineers? Basically, why should I believe that you can pull this off?

https://www.slate.auto/en/about

pc86 1 day ago||
The general population doesn't care a lick who has invested in the company, who the C suite is, any of that.

Normal people make product-buying decisions based on the product.

gwd 1 day ago||
I mean, that's just not true. You're right that when people buy a Ford, they're not thinking that much about the CEO. But they certainly are thinking about other Fords they've owned, or their friends have owned, or things they've heard about in advertisements or the news. Ford may not be the best car out there, but it's very unlikely to have basic thinks like seals that don't work; and if somehow they do have basic issues, the company will be around to fix it. If you pre-order a Ford, you know there's a near-zero chance that you won't get what you ordered, and an effectively zero percent chance that you don't get your money back.

None of those things are true for a brand new company. Tesla was infamous for having random things wrong with their cars in the early days which the established car companies had figured out a long time ago. And there's a non-negligible chance the company will end up folding before it can give you your product, or before they can fix the product you got.

The amount of money they have, the character of their backers and their CEO, and the quality of their engineers matters significantly.

officeplant 1 day ago||
It's well known to be backed by Jeff Bezos which might be the only reason they haven't ran out of money.
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