This looks awesome.
this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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Sure, but it's American, so it'll somehow shit out a connecting rod around 150,000 miles and will cost $8000 to repair.
Edit: some of you clearly missed the joke.
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(2 replies)
It only seats two yet has a bed big enough to hold a sheet of plywood. It only does 150 miles on a charge, only comes in gray, and the only way to listen to music while driving is if you bring along your phone and a Bluetooth speaker.
Instead of steel or aluminum, the Slate Truck’s body panels are molded of plastic. Or, as Slate calls them, “injection molded polypropylene composite material.” The theory is that this makes them more durable and scratch-resistant, if only because the lack of paint means they’re one color all the way through.
By eliminating paint, and thus eliminating the paint shop, Slate’s manufacturing process is massively simplified. So, too, the lack of metal body parts. “We have no paint shop, we have no stamping,”
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There is also the Telo Truck. It's advertised as being as capable as a Toyota Tacoma, but the footprint of a Mini Cooper.
It's asthetic is more akin to the small trucks in Japan, though.
Edit: it does seem like it has more tech-forward features, but it is otherwise a relatively simple truck in a very manageable size.
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No touchscreen, but you bet your ass it has a computer and a cell phone tracking you.
5ft bed and auto high beams, no thanks
Reserved
I am really excited for this as a DIYer and Maker
Can't wait for the 3D printed mods.
Aftermarket stereo market here I come, haven't had to buy one of those in a long time.
targeting a 5-Star Safety Rating from the federal government’s New Car Assessment Program.
So, zero safety features.
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What I would love to see for a pickup like this is a rentable battery slab you could drop into the bed and temporarily boost the mileage for longer trips.
I want one. The ONLY thing that would stop me is the rear-wheel drive. We get a lot of snow and rear-wheel and snow are not compatible.
Getting closer to what I want, which is a reasonably sized and priced EV truck built for actual utility. I'm ok with it leaving out all the extras that I don't need, and hopefully that means it isn't also going to be tracking people and harvesting their data.
My biggest objection to the truck itself is that it's still trying to look like an ICE truck. There's no engine in front, you could easily slide the cab forward a bit to make room for a larger bed. I would much rather have a tiny frunk and an 8 foot bed, even if it means making the whole thing slightly longer. It's shorter than a corrolla, so it's not like they couldn't add a little length to the design if necessary.
Bezos being involved is also a massive turn off, but than I'm not sure who is going to go into mass manufacturing EVs without some rich asshole funding it.
I love cab over trucks but the one thing I have experienced is the ride quality difference between an unloaded cab over and an unloaded pickup truck. The pickup wins every time due to physics. I think the other two reasons for them to pick an ICE truck look would be the limited space for covered/enclosed storage (not much of any in a cab over) and customers being used to that look. Look at the Canoo EV. That think checks all my boxes for design but is expensive and caked in features that I don’t care about.
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Oh fuck. Where buy
What's with the American obsession with pickups? Hard to find a worst design when it comes to practicality. You carry extra people way more often then huge loads. If you do need to carry big loads just get a van, at lest your cargo is protected from the weather and people. If you don't carry extra people or cargo get a smaller car. Almost no one uses pickups in Europe and everyone is still getting their job done. Where I live most old farmers just use this:
You just don’t know how to use a pickup. Besides, what do you think SUVs are for? People+Crap
They do have an option to turn it into a 2 door 5 seat SUV style setup so that's something.
I find a pickup to be quite practical in my line of work. Mine is regularly packed to the brim and I'm from Europe as well.
As long as it isn't a stupid big boat like the Americans.
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...has caught the eye of major investors, reportedly including Jeff Bezos.
Goddamnit!
Yes, please!
We need a wider range of vehicle prices on the market. I bet a lot of people would go for barebones models for cheap if they had the option.
This is a truck I’d actually feel comfortable driving. Unlike those gender affirming, semi truck adjacent, embarrassing pavement princess trucks that you see everywhere now.
This sounds like they are going to deliver a truck that everyone is going to want/need to upgrade at least something, and are depending on this post-production upsell to keep things going. Reminds me of the Apple tax of only bare minimum RAM and you can pay a premium to upgrade it to something usable. And for Slate this fits well with the "customer can service/upgrade everything outside of battery stuff" as this lowers their overhead, and then are making a deal with a chain to do the servicing as the only alternative (and depending on which chain that is, and if the one near you is run well, could make this wildly different experience).
The kei truck comparison seems apt. This seems like it's for people who need a runner for their ranch or farm, or local town handyman work.
One of my neighbors has a kei truck and I want one so bad.
Like, I love the functionality of a pickup, but they are wildly impractical for everyday use...not to mention the...implications....
Something cheap enough to be an auxiliary vehicle, that can carry 4x8 sheet goods and 12ft boards without much hassle would be awesome though.
As it is now, we have two cars (A VW Passat (sedan) and a Honda Odyssey (minivan)). The minivan can carry 4x8 goods and 12ft dimensional lumber, but it requires removing the middle row. Kind of a pain in the ass. It's rather uncommon to need both cars at the same time (but still comes in clutch, pardon the pun, when we do need it)...generally the sedan is for solo trips and the minivan is for family outings. I'd replace the Passat with a kei in a heartbeat.
Since incentives are being killed, it will probably be about $30k. Still looks like a good design