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.
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.
Pickups don’t need 4wd due to poor weight distribution, they need it for traction on loose surfaces.
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.
My point is that 4WD is never used on pavement in pickups. Many pickups don’t even have 4WD and they do just fine, they have plenty of traction on pavement. Trucks don’t have 4WD due to weight distribution, they have it so people can take their trucks off the pavement. If you never intend to go off pavement, like so many pickup owners, you don’t need 4WD regardless of whether you’re in an ICE or EV truck. If you want to go offroad in an ICE or EV truck, you’ll want 4WD.
I have taken a few physics classes, was required to get some science credits to obtain my CS degree. I’m pretty sure they didn’t cover this concept as, well, duh.
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.
I have a modern-ish F150 with a single cab and 8ft bed. I feel like I have the only one that isnt a company truck.
I do if I want to take it on proper off-road trails, mudding and rock-crawling and such.
I’m fairly sure that the aftermarket will sort out 4x4 situation
The aftermarket is not going to make an entirely different drive train.
If there is enough money they will. Though I agree with your doubt that enough people will buy this to make it worth it.
Maybe not for an ICE, but it wouldn’t be hard for an EV
Tons of cars fet drivetrain swaps! It’s not bad, lots of kits out there and a little custom fab goes a long way. I have personally put hemis and 8hps in JKs, swapped an 02 drivetrain into my 87 YJ, have swapped a gas V8 rover to a diesel td5, have many auto to manual and vice versa conversion. Hell my co worker just put a Corvette engine in a rover backed by a 6 speed tremec and an adapter plate to the original rover t case. It’s surprisingly simple! Hell u can even convert ice to elec pretty easily if u have the where-with-all!
I’m fairly sure some spying is required by law, like the new driver cam legislation. Wonder how they’ll get past that.
I was wondering about that 2027 legislation and how this vehicle is affected. I didn’t see anything. Maybe that’s a next year production problem.
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.
Very interesting indeed.
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.
I’d hope you can precondition your battery from within the truck as well.
Yeah I don’t know, that’s just what Slate said “the telematics module is primarily for fleet customers, Slate told Ars.”
https://arstechnica.com/features/2026/06/we-take-a-ride-in-slates-24950-electric-pickup/
This! I’m probably ready to pay a bit more to NOT be under constant surveillance by a car maker!
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
Hilux are not small, look at a Ford Falcon AU Ute.
Seriously!
I still cannot fathom why Honda hasn’t released an ev civic with a 120 mile range. it would sell huge.
suburu
brumbybrumb-e 🤤subaru e-sambar 🤤🤤🤤
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!
Not much of a turnaround on plastic, but worth a shot I guess.
It won’t be. But cute idea.
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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?
They’re offering a 5 seat SUV body as well. Not a minivan, but, closer.
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
https://m.made-in-china.com/hot-china-products/Electric_Mini_Van.html
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.
I want a people’s van.
Really tho you’d think that vw would be making an easy to maintain ev version of their Volkswagen van instead of targeting 60k+
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.
I want a people’s van.
You mean the id.buzz?
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.
Maybe not a minivan but I’m pretty sure you can configure this with a lot more seats for not too much more and that’s until after market parts become a thing.
The original price of 24950 included the federal tax rebate. This is why they used cheaper batteries and other cost cutting to try to keep the price the same. The rebates are gone.
Hard pass for me for various reasons but I hope this does well enough to make other auto companies want to compete.
Thats why I want to consider getting one. Hope the segment offers better options, but someone has to be the early adopter
Same. I want to want one. The interior colors are either melt-your-balls black or something else I didn’t like. But the older battery tech kills it for me.
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.
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.
Sorry, my European brain cannot fathom how such a pickup truck bed could be useful in daily life.
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.
Go camping and just throw all the dirty stuff in the back to clean at home. Take all the yard clippings to the mulcher without having to bag them or keep a pile on the curb. I have a hard tonneau cover so sometimes I like keeping my tools under there if I have to park in the city without worrying about people seeing the valuables through a window.
People like to say truck owners never use their trucks but I use mine constantly. I’m camping at least 12-15 weekends per year, hauling yard equipment, kayaking, helping people move, and all in a midsized truck.
I don’t really hear people say that about tacomas or equally sized trucks. Moreso the bigger ones and usually they don’t have a scratch on them.
Go to the garden store, buy 20 bags of mulch
I can’t afford a car, but I’ve got a house with a yard that needs that much mulch?
I think the point is that a pickup truck bed is better for hauling this than vehicles with other body styles.
People act like the home depot wont deliver, and that trailers don’t exist and that they have to daily a pickup so that they can move mulch once a year.
My brother in christ its a codpiece for insecure people. What you need is a fiesta, rented/borrowed/shared utility trailer and a removable tow ball.
You can get a flatbed pickup for $25k if it’s not brand new. And it does the job just as well as whatever this thing is.
I’m sorry? We have an acre that we’re converting from all grass to trees, shrubs, herbs, crops, and wildflowers.
We have an acre
Must be nice.
So… a fiesta then? How many times a year do you need to haul 20 bags of mulch? Do you not have a trailer hitch?
Still not seeing the daily need for something so agricultural. I don’t drive a unimog to the grocery store.
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.
We know.
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.
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
Okay, I won’t pass judgment until I see the actual real-life price of the truck with the modification for an additional row of seats and can compare that to other car models.
It also has a trunk in the hood
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
Wasn’t Rivian owned by Amazon too?
I didn’t know this if it was!
Wikipedia says they own 18.1% of it.
Buy a used EV. They all drop in price dramatically.
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.
I’m not very familiar with this stuff, but it sounds terrible. When has this happened in the past?
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.
Damn, that’s terrible. Thank you for the links (although I’m not going to read them all, to preserve my sanity)
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.
Jeff Bezos’s truck?
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 know. I wish it weren’t that way, and I think it important we all strive for better alternatives.
At that point you might as well consider every possible publicly traded company as benefitting Jeff Bezos.
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.
We need to throw the baby out with the bath water. Burn out the cancer. If we can’t plug the leak, it’s time for a new boat.
Then in the meantime, after you’ve tore everything down and while you’re building your utopia from scratch, everyone starves to death.
That’s kind of a shitty argument though. Because I don’t think we should just give up. We have to at least try.
But also, when society is this fucked, this deeply, by this type of cancer… It’s systemic and we’re heading in a very dark direction. People are going to starve to death no matter what, and compared to full on ww3, I think at some point we need to head it off, identify and cut out the cancer, and try our best to not let corruption back into the power vacuum.
None of this is easy. Not easy to do, not easy to talk about, not easy to even think about. It’s uncomfortable. And many won’t agree. But until society isn’t ratfucking select parts of itself and enriching evil people, I think there’s some structural improvement to be had. The real question, then, is how far down do we need to go? How deep do these shitty roots with a stranglehold on all of us go?
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 think TELO seems better idk
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.
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.
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)
If you are camping for a week a few solar panels can give you some useful range, perhaps enough to get a full charge (depending on sun, how many panels, and what else you do for power)
“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.
Yeah, this is my scenario: stay for a week of hiking or going to the beach. I live in New England where everything is close and there are plenty of superchargers.
For example Acadia National park is 280 miles, has dozens of superchargers enroute, and lots of hiking.
Or there’s beach camping like 20 miles away
Yeah, I’m in the northwest of the US and often I drive for hours after leaving the pavement, then move on the next day.
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
