this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
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It'll be interesting to see how Slate does, if it makes it to production.
It's DoA. At 20, they kinda make sense. At 27 without the EV credit you could be buying a maverick.
Or the fully electric small truck Ford is working on.
As proof of concept, Slate is cool. Up against a vehicle from an actual truck manufacturer, it’s probably a hard sell.
Except the Maverick isn't an EV. It's a hybrid, at best.
And? It comes with everything you'd expect from a 'normal' vehicle before you load up on your slate for several thousand dollars. You also get towing up to 8500lbs.
What's the value proposition here? I only see this being successful in area where you MUST own an EV and even then it's a hard sell without the tax credits.
For most people in general, the value proposition is that an EV is a Hell of a lot cheaper and simpler to operate and maintain in the long run (I say as the owner of a mid-1990s small pickup truck, among other vehicles). Your emphasis on towing capacity and purchase price is subjective preference, not objective superiority.
For my subjective preference in particular, it may well be the first modern EV ("modern" meaning not some NiMH fleet sales only compliance car from the '90s) that I can actually stand to own, because "everything you'd expect from a 'normal' vehicle" includes spyware that makes it a deal-breaker for me. Having it stripped down is a feature that makes it worth more to me, not less!
The eyebrow raiser in the Slate's base configuration is that it doesn't come with any audio systems: no radio antenna/tuner, no speakers. It remains to be seen how upgradeable the base configuration is for audio, how involved of a task it will be to install speakers in the dash or doors, installing antennas (especially for AM, which are tricky for interference from EV systems), etc.
I'd imagine that most people would choose to spend few thousand on that audio upgrade up to the bare minimum expectations one would have for a new vehicle, so that cuts into the affordability of the package.
I don't think a $1000 delta in maintenance costs over the first 5 years is a big a driver for the general public as you think it is. You're not the target audience very few purchasing decisions are based on privacy.
It was a decent idea when the EV credit applied. But I'd be happy to betb a few hundred dollars the average new car buyer with that purchasing power and who is actually shopping for a vehicle will see the value. Especially not in the US where it's sold. Gas is cheap.
As an owner of one (PHEV) I'm saving nearly $200/month in fuel. That is much more bigger than maintenance. I hope this lasts as long as the last one but the transmission isn't known to be good (the "better" transmission on the last one was failing) Only time will tell, but so long as I need to drive I the question is how much I spend in a lifetime and electric has proven it to me.
I love PHEVs, but not for saving money.
If you're spending that much in gas at 30 mpg at $3.16 then you're driving 22,000 miles a year. Almost double the national average.
You've also likely spent at least $6k on an engine, but typically it'll be at least 10k more expensive than the base model. For most people, in most cases, you buy the PHEVs because you get a great around town experience, without the charging fears, and usually better power overall.
Maybe there is a specific model you're thinking of where the economics are better but you really need to be driving a lot of miles and own the vehicle a long time before you are saving money. If you're doing 40 miles a day 300 days a year you're talking a 6 year payoff in a highly charitable situation where the PHEV is 7k more than the base, and the base is only 30mpg. I'm not even sure that exists in the US.
I'm not sure what any of this has to do with the slate. Is there a 27k comparable PHEV truck?
Their headquarters is down the road from me. I will let you know when the sign no longer lights up. Should be a few days.