The Electric Car Thread
- Thread starter Skoop
- Start date
I may have mentioned it earlier, I don't remember. I have a reservation for a Telo but not for a Slate. It just doesn't fit my use case. Since I have an Aptera on reservation which is a two-seater, I need something with more than 2 seats for a second vehicle. I would also want it to have more range that the Slate can do - 240 miles for the longer range version is less than even the short-range Telo.
The Slate might find a niche among fleet buyers as a cheap work truck, and EV-wanting people for whom price is the one and only consideration. I'm skeptical that the modding community will be big enough for the large accessory market that they seem to be counting on. By the time you load it up with enough add-ons to make it worthwhile, it may be just as expensive as better options, which you'll be able to get without the extra work.
I expect the pricing to be about $27-28k. When they first announced it, the hype was 'under $20k' and that was specifically with the $7500 tax credit. So the real price was always going to be about $27,499, and I don't think that has changed much.
The Slate might find a niche among fleet buyers as a cheap work truck, and EV-wanting people for whom price is the one and only consideration. I'm skeptical that the modding community will be big enough for the large accessory market that they seem to be counting on. By the time you load it up with enough add-ons to make it worthwhile, it may be just as expensive as better options, which you'll be able to get without the extra work.
I expect the pricing to be about $27-28k. When they first announced it, the hype was 'under $20k' and that was specifically with the $7500 tax credit. So the real price was always going to be about $27,499, and I don't think that has changed much.
I will admit I don't know anything about trucks but I imagine for the fleet use case, you already have some relationship with a manufacturer or maintenance shop, so what does a Slate get you that you can't get from a Ford Maverick today? $26k for a brand new Ford Maverick today and your TCO is probably pretty low as it works with all your existing Ford infastructure (if you have a ford fleet now)
The EV needs to have significantly lower TCO to get fleet managers to switch.
The EV needs to have significantly lower TCO to get fleet managers to switch.
Hmm I wonder who it was who mentioned the Slate earlier (apologies @ProphetM !).
Me either to be honest-- I would assume the Slate is more about curiosity, at least in context of this thread. (aka ignore me, carry on!)
It's like the framework laptop. Turbo needs that spell Microsoft with a $ love it but it's modularity makes it pretty much worse in every metric but "is modular"
It's kind of like Edison Motors. They've done some pretty cool stuff with not a ton of money, but if what they were doing was viable then Volvo/Freightliner/etc would have already done it.
It's kind of like Edison Motors. They've done some pretty cool stuff with not a ton of money, but if what they were doing was viable then Volvo/Freightliner/etc would have already done it.
So, I own a Framework desktop and have a $50 deposit on a Slate. One thing that attracted me to both of them is the size. Both are priced a bit higher than I’d like to pay for a non-essential item.
If I could get the Slate for the original sub-$20K price, I’d probably still go through with it. The ~30% effective price increase due to the expired tax credit pushes it to the point where I start feeling like I should be more responsible.
The hope was to get the Slate as a second car and run our 2019 Outback into the ground and see what the EV wagon situation looked like then. The ground appears to be approaching much faster than we expected, though, so trading in the Outback for a Trailseeker or used Solterra or Hyundai is probably happening shortly.
So, barring some extremely unlikely windfall, I’ll be asking for my $50 back and we’ll remain a one car household for the foreseeable future.
I still would like a Slate (or something quite similar).
As I said, the size is probably the number one attraction. I can borrow a new-ish Tacoma from my parents, but I find it obnoxious to drive, with the stupid hood scoop blocking the forward view. We had a 2003 Tacoma that was just about perfect. I like the idea of an even smaller truck, though.
I also have hated every touchscreen I’ve used in a car. I find the whole concept ridiculous. We’re not supposed to use screens while driving, so let’s just build one into the car? I’ve not found one to be any more useful than a phone for phone-like tasks and a giant step back for car management tasks (maybe with the exception of things like setting the clock).
When I need a second car in the summer, I’ll borrow my dad’s ‘96 Miata. I basically want that with some ground clearance and a bed that I can drive into the woods and haul out firewood. I’m doing that now with a 1970s Allis Chalmers tractor, but it would be really cool if that were an EV that I could also drive to the market or for my twice-monthly 25-mile trip to the office.
If I could get the Slate for the original sub-$20K price, I’d probably still go through with it. The ~30% effective price increase due to the expired tax credit pushes it to the point where I start feeling like I should be more responsible.
The hope was to get the Slate as a second car and run our 2019 Outback into the ground and see what the EV wagon situation looked like then. The ground appears to be approaching much faster than we expected, though, so trading in the Outback for a Trailseeker or used Solterra or Hyundai is probably happening shortly.
So, barring some extremely unlikely windfall, I’ll be asking for my $50 back and we’ll remain a one car household for the foreseeable future.
I still would like a Slate (or something quite similar).
As I said, the size is probably the number one attraction. I can borrow a new-ish Tacoma from my parents, but I find it obnoxious to drive, with the stupid hood scoop blocking the forward view. We had a 2003 Tacoma that was just about perfect. I like the idea of an even smaller truck, though.
I also have hated every touchscreen I’ve used in a car. I find the whole concept ridiculous. We’re not supposed to use screens while driving, so let’s just build one into the car? I’ve not found one to be any more useful than a phone for phone-like tasks and a giant step back for car management tasks (maybe with the exception of things like setting the clock).
When I need a second car in the summer, I’ll borrow my dad’s ‘96 Miata. I basically want that with some ground clearance and a bed that I can drive into the woods and haul out firewood. I’m doing that now with a 1970s Allis Chalmers tractor, but it would be really cool if that were an EV that I could also drive to the market or for my twice-monthly 25-mile trip to the office.
Some complete moron has imported a Cybertruck to the Trondheim area. They're still not type approved anywhere in Europe due to being fundamentally unable to meet required safety standards, but Norway, at least, has a long standing loophole where a car that is registered in certain other countries may be registered here without reservation by the road administration. They're also so monstrously heavy that you need to qualify for a category C licence endorsement to legally drive one, so quite possibly whoever owns it is in for some light harrassment from the police whenever they need to make up a budget shortfall.
I find it amusing that anyone in the US can drive a vehicle at 16 years old with no special license on a vehicle up to 26,001 pounds.
The concept of needing a special endorsement for a passenger vehicle is wild.
The concept of needing a special endorsement for a passenger vehicle is wild.
Normalcy bias is a real thing. You're on-board with the idea of an upper cut-off for a standard driving licence, but automatically assign 26,000 lb the status of being an obvious and unsurprising cutoff, and yet a cutoff at 3,500kg is surprising and unnatural?
3500 kg is the limit for Europe including UK, EEA, Ukraine etc, most of Asia, Africa, pretty much everywhere in the world (Signatories of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic), with notable exceptions:
US, Canada
Australia (they also like large, and have road trains), New Zealand
China (4500kg)
So no, this 21000 lbs POV is very uniquely US. And Elon is pretty stupid to release a vehicle that can't be driven legally in a ton of countries lol.
probably could strip the metal plates off the outside to get it in compliance. Like how the fancy European sports cars in the 80s had to staple third brakelights and re-done side mirrors onto their USA offerings
Not really, the thing is just large. If you go back to super thin steel you can't use completely flat pieces, the curves and folds are there for structural integrity.
It would save weight but look completely different.
3500 kg is also weight of the car plus payload capacity, the total may not exceed that number. You can cheat by gimping payload like 4 person plus tiny bit of luggage max, but if you exceed it at any checkpoint, which are plentiful on highways and measure axle load, total weight, speed and ANPR camera (lookup the load limit on type approval plus ownership info), you get flagged for inspection and a fat fine.
And it's the Cybertruck. Load limit is only one thing, it would never pass pedestrian safety rules previously discussed and codified in the laws.
It would save weight but look completely different.
3500 kg is also weight of the car plus payload capacity, the total may not exceed that number. You can cheat by gimping payload like 4 person plus tiny bit of luggage max, but if you exceed it at any checkpoint, which are plentiful on highways and measure axle load, total weight, speed and ANPR camera (lookup the load limit on type approval plus ownership info), you get flagged for inspection and a fat fine.
And it's the Cybertruck. Load limit is only one thing, it would never pass pedestrian safety rules previously discussed and codified in the laws.
it was only designed for the North American market, it's not like you can drive an F-350 in Europe either (i think there are 2 on my block in USA suburbia)
It wasn't designed for you guys.
I saw someone saying how a MachE was a "Large SUV" and turns out they were in europe. It's so tiny!
After 10 days or so of charging my iX by plugging it into my garage's standard 120V outlet overnight, the GFCI started tripping after a couple of minutes every time. I pulled it out yesterday to check the connections and one of the line ins was melted and the wire was burnt. 
I'm just happy that it tripped. I am sure it was original to the house so ~25 years old but still kind of concerning. I wired up a new one and it seems all good now, but I did change the car to limit it to a 10amp draw just in case. We've been doing ok so far with just the slow charging, but I'll need to get a proper charger soon I think even if it is just for peace of mind. Then the question becomes do I put it on the side like in the gas cap spot where the BMW plug is, or put it on the nose for future proofing...
I'm just happy that it tripped. I am sure it was original to the house so ~25 years old but still kind of concerning. I wired up a new one and it seems all good now, but I did change the car to limit it to a 10amp draw just in case. We've been doing ok so far with just the slow charging, but I'll need to get a proper charger soon I think even if it is just for peace of mind. Then the question becomes do I put it on the side like in the gas cap spot where the BMW plug is, or put it on the nose for future proofing...
I've always done that the few times I've used the L1 charger. It's very slow either way. Why risk it?