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Slate Truck is a $20,000 American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, and no touchscreen (www.theverge.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/electricvehicles@slrpnk.net
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[–] 28 points 2 years ago (10 children)

Headline is misleading and assumes the government is going to subsidize production. The initial, and likely optimistic price is $28k.

How much will the 240 mile extended range battery cost? That's going to be just about mandatory to make the thing useful. You don't typically fast charge past 80%, and start looking for a charger when you get down to 25%, so the effective range of the 150 mile battery is actually only 83 miles (150 * 0.55).

That aesthetic, of highlighting rather than hiding battle scars, is key to the Slate ethos.

I wonder how the owners will feel about the scars on their truck when a plastic body panel cracks and they need to caulk it back together?

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I wonder how the owners will feel about the scars on their truck when a plastic body panel cracks and they need to caulk it back together?

    Who gives a shit? It's a truck. Will it still drive? Haul? Tow? If yes, then there is no problem. If you're getting it to look good, then you have completely missed the point of a truck; which, to be fair, most truck owners have.

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  • [+] 6 points 2 years ago (5 children)
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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (4 children)

    it will be relatively easy to replace the body panels on this truck

    IDK, if they're injection molded plastic then it kinda seems like the only way to get major damage repaired is to buy a replacement from Slate Auto. You can't just visit the junkyard and start cutting material to weld on for patches.

    Slate Auto will have a monopoly in addition to having a more expensive manufacturing process. Going with plastic panels means they need less capital to build the factory, but it also means the panels will take longer to produce. Stamping sheet metal can be done fast and cheap, but the machines to do that have a higher up front cost.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I remember not that long ago, there was a Silverado commercial where they threw a toolbox in the bed of an F-150 and a Silverado. Toolbox punched through the F-150's aluminum bed, and bounced off the Silverado's steel bed.

    As the owner of an S10 with 20 years worth of dents in the welded steel bed, I have to wonder how soon I'd put a board clean through an injection molded plastic body. I could see making most of the cab and engine bay...well, "engine bay" out of maybe fiberglass panels but injection molded plastic with no reinforcement?

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