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!
I’m fairly sure that the aftermarket will sort out 4x4 situation
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.
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/
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.
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.
suburu
brumbybrumb-e 🤤subaru e-sambar 🤤🤤🤤
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.
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.
The concept is a good one. The marketing and financial backing is bad. I think an affordable ev would be a good thing, but this is America.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Hard pass for me for various reasons but I hope this does well enough to make other auto companies want to compete.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It also has a trunk in the hood
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.
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.
Wasn’t Rivian owned by Amazon too?
I didn’t know this if it was!
Wikipedia says they own 18.1% of it.
After seeing the bumper repair I’ll pass there
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.
Only 2 doors for the SUV is pretty wonky.
I mean, Blazers and Broncos have been around forever as 2-door SUVs, not a big issue there
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)
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
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.
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.
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?
You can go on their site and spec it all out with pricing. A few accessories have pricing incoming on then but most of the accessories seem reasonably priced.
I was faffing about in the designer; did they remove the option for power windows entirely?
So it wasn’t just me, I didn’t see power window options either this time around…
I only have a truck so i can tow a trailer. I wish they included some towing capacity and range numbers.
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.
