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.
oh its from the usa and bezos involved? well no thanks.
It looks like a scam
Of the 100 or so options available at launch, 33 percent cost under $100, 50 percent are under $250, and 80 percent are under $500.
It just looks like they’re going to nickel and dime people for every little thing. Car meets DLC.
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.
As Canadian…
American company?, nope
Owned by Bezos?, hell nah
Sounds like it’s your chance to pull an Edison (like the Canadian Edison semi trucks).
Ew Edison…
But yes, some other poster also was surprised something like this could not be started up in Canada
I know our government here is also crappy and has tried to squash related initiatives before but I should look into it more
Is your issue with the man or the company? I actually don’t know much about Edison trucks beyond that they exist.
The man… Edison was last century Jobs, best that can be said is that he had a good eye for business but basically just took other people’s work, milked them and toss them aside making a profit for himself in the process without regards to the harm he was knowingly causing
Yes I’m aware of his story. The Canadian company named themselves such because they were stealing Tesla’s (Elon musk’s company) idea for the electric semi namely because they never delivered and the guy really wanted one so figured he may as well make one himself. They seem like a pretty decent company, although very small.
I heard that Bezos left the company as an investor. I don’t blame you for disliking anything American, but Slate Auto seems alright so far…
He was never “in it”; but he put up the seed money, then participated in the main round of fund raising and placed a ton of his people in the company. So even if his is not personally involved, he has all the strings he needs to pull it where he wants it to go (which, IMO, means Slate will be enshitified to the full the moment those little trucks start selling)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/08/inside-the-ev-startup-secretly-backed-by-jeff-bezos/
What I wonder is how exactly are they going to enshittify it? It’s extremely barebones and modular in a way that anyone can design add-ons and accessories for it. I can see them doing subscriptions and the like for various add-ons but you can always just get the base model and get add-ons elsewhere.
They can betray the customer in many different ways… I am not willing to pay $25K to find out
I think my desire for a small electric pickup truck might override my caution in this case, we’ll see if I get burned. At the very least I’m not going to preorder and will wait for real critical reviews after it’s released.
that’s honestly a good approach… I’d do the same
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 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.
