cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/electricvehicles/p/2162853/usa-slate-s-new-electric-truck-will-cost-slightly-more-than-24950
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.
Ford’s $30,000 EV truck is supposed to be here fairly soon as well, although it looks like that will only be available as a crew cab, sadly.
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.
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.
None of your comparators are a truck though, if just looking for an EV I agree with you.
A truck is not needed by a lot of people, but when you need one, you need one.
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.
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.
I wouldn’t touch a Ford with someone else’s money
The company who invented plastic oil pans.
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.
The Lightning was Ford trying to make the massive profit margins Tesla was making.
Lightning was also supposed to retail at $30k IIRC.