Doubt we'll see it over here and I doubt it will be $20,000 dollars - but I like the principle of this...
...start with a basic platform and spec it how you want. For me I'd keep it dead simple!
And if the underlying platform was sold to other 'coach-build' companies could see a return to some of the whacky machines that were rolled out in the 1970s!? 🤣
Beach Buggy? Moke Style Car? Even the basis for a stripped back Lotus 7 style machine.
I watched the slate launch video a few days ago.
Nice idea for a no frills car/pick up which is adaptable.
If it comes to market at the price suggested in the USA I'll be amazed. But it does have some big backers.
Would I prefer a:
But I guess the open front wheels design will be a regulation problem for the UK?
That 20k price includes government incentives and is in any case vaporware until it actually hits market. Cool idea though and decent enough range. Be interesting to see what the charge rate is given what's been coming out of China recently.
I love its looks, it's like a cheap RC car from Toys R Us.
Whether it works or not, who knows? It's easy to promise a low price before you make the thing. And US truck buying in general and the cybertruck especially prove it's really not a need driven market, it's fashion driven as much as motorbikes, so making the best thing for the actual job might be a quick way to sell no vehicles while competitors sell a farcical ****er chariot for 5 times as much.
But I guess the open front wheels design will be a regulation problem for the UK?
I would have thought the sheer uselessness of the thing would be a pretty big reason to not sell it in the UK.
As an asside. I not the slates lack of electric windows etc.
I always wondered why we can't get electric cars without all the heavy motors. You'd get loads of range extension without the unnecessary bullshit.
I would have thought the sheer uselessness of the thing would be a pretty big reason to not sell it in the UK.
A small format versatile 5 seat truck type thing could be pretty useful in quaint country villages and overcrowded big cities 🤔😉
And if its a choice between your shopping getting wet and the kids... Better get some big coats.
Orkney has had a slate pickup for a few years now…
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/fabulous/6566181/stonemason-chevrolet-orkney-charity/
I would have thought the sheer uselessness of the thing would be a pretty big reason to not sell it in the UK.
You clearly haven’t read anything about it, have you. It’s a 5-seat truck, a hatch behind the seats can be opened to allow 8-foot long items to sit in the bed, and a cover can be opted for to cover the bed, like conventional pickups can.
It’s 4-wheel drive, with about 500 bhp, and a larger option on the battery offers around 250 miles per charge.
Nothing I’ve read points to it being ‘useless’, quite the contrary. Unlike the Cybertruck, which has proven just how useless it is from the start and it just gets worse every day that passes.
The Slate truck has been touted with a price in our currency, so it’s quite possible it will be offered here.
It reminds me very much of the Mk1 Range Rover, it’s very, very simple, no screens, you have to connect a mobile phone for anything like Satnav, the windows are wind up and down, it’s taken all of its design cues from early Land- and Range Rovers, because it’s aimed directly at the business and commercial market - builders and contractors, who don’t want unnecessary frills and costs.
500bhp is not needed but requires much bigger wheels and brakes than a 100bhp vehicle ( which is way more than early landrivers). This is parasitic weight resulting in a smaller payload and decreased range
A pickup is insecure and if you fit a lid you have a tiny hard to access boot.
You clearly haven’t read anything about it, have you. It’s a 5-seat truck, a hatch behind the seats can be opened to allow 8-foot long items to sit in the bed, and a cover can be opted for to cover the bed, like conventional pickups can.
Try reading my post again, including the comment i quoted.
Then have a ponder about which of us can't read.
The 500bhp telo seems to be mostly just a byproduct of the 4wd version being dual motor, as soon as you go down that route you tend to end up with a fairly ridiculous amount of power, especially when it's an expansion of a 2wd platform that needs to have sellable performance out of one motor. Rather than someone going "yeah this truck needs 500bhp".
Doubt we'll see it over here
Even with the growth in sales of Pickups in the UK (which will no doubt take a bit of a nose dive since the recent changes in BIK) we still don't buy, or rather can't really buy, US pickups. What makes pickups popular in the US is they are governed by different - for which read lax- safety design rules to cars. This makes them cheap to engineer and build and they're then loaded up with bolt on cheapo 'luxury' niknaks making them superficially seem better value than equivalent priced cars. So if Slate's aim is to offer something pointedly low cost one step toward achieve that offering a pick up rather than a car - to sidestep the safety features that would add cost - but that may well also make them fall short, legislation /spec wise for import into the UK or Europe.
Thats why the best selling 'car' in the US - the F150 doesn't get exported to the UK and Europe other than as 2nd hand and grey imports.
Vapourware - certainly in the UK
I think a small convertible electric pickup would do well in the UK.
The ford f150, Dodge Ram and other US pickup trucks are massive and too big for UK supermarket parking spaces. Yet the Telo and the Slate should fit as they aren't any bigger than a big Mini. Yet can carry the big sheets of plywood.
I'd buy a Slate. I like the look of the roof rack!
I'd buy a Telo. It seems versatile.
I'd consider a defunct Canoo if they are revived.
Here’s the large variety of options available:
I’d still prefer the Telo, generally a bit more adaptable, and comes as a five-seater, with a rear bed, that could easily accommodate a couple of bikes in the back mounted on proper fittings, like an attachment on the back of the roof, and matching ones on the deck, or something similar.
I like the Slate, but I do occasionally carry more than one passenger, and the Telo is a more convenient vehicle.
This is nothing more than conjecture on my part, ‘cos even if either or both become available here, there’s no way I could afford them. 🤷🏼♂️
Something like that Telo with the rear cover could be great for me. I have a Stepwagon and it's really good for day to day use and lugging bikes around, but it drinks fuel and getting one that is less than 10yrs old is pretty much a no-go in the UK due to import & registration rules.
If something like this doesn't arrive, then my next car will probably have to be something like the id Buzz or Kia PV5, but both of those are bigger than I'd like and the bed height of the Buzz with the seats down isn't great for modern long travel bikes.
500bhp is not needed but requires much bigger wheels and brakes than a 100bhp vehicle ( which is way more than early landrivers). This is parasitic weight resulting in a smaller payload and decreased range
That's not how electric motors work though. As everyone knows they develop peak torque at a near standstill, and back EMF means that at some higher RPM they will eventually develop zero torque (assuming a frictionless spherical cow in a vacuum). The end result is that in order to develop a meaningful amount of tractive effort at ~70mph you end up with silly numbers of hp at intermediate RPM's.
It doesn't need bigger wheels and brakes at all as a result because it's just acceleration, there's no increase in speed over a normal car.
That and the motors are cheap and light. You may as well have a '500hp' engine that will do 100mph as a '100hp' engine that will do 40mph.
It's the batteries that have weight. And as a function of sticking more cells in parallel to get more capacity and range, you can also get more current.
So if you want a 100hp electric car with 250mile range it'll weigh and cost pretty much the same as a 500hp electric car that'll do 250miles.
Here’s more detail about how they build it so cheaply, and photos of an actual truck. Basically no paint, and duplication of components, plus leaving out unimportant components.
Here’s more detail about how they build it so cheaply, and photos of an actual truck. Basically no paint, and duplication of components, plus leaving out unimportant components
I drive a 21year diesel Berlingo - it would feel as opulent as a Rolls Royce compared to that Slate. I love utilitarian but the world has moved on and experienced comfort.
That's just a guess. The big savings come from the duplication and simplification - I don't like the company, but Tesla demonstrated that very well with the 3 and the Y. But to keep warranty costs to a minimum simple and duplicated can't mean rubbish, whilst your Berlingo will be tat (I've owned french of the same vintage - poor quality, many warranty problems)
Rough principle sound but looses too much in the detail. Proper window winders are great but it will be filled with electrotrickery of all sorts. We need simple. Something with no engine management tech that brakes or creates the need for unit replacement not fix. Remove most of the "safety" crap. Market a modern car with all the safety stuff against something as safe as a Suzuki SJ at half the price and the cheap will outsell. That's what people want. An original RR is close but maybe an original Mini would be better. And ditch the electric motor. A 1 litre petrol will be cheaper to use, much more sustainable and actually viable with our current infrastructure and the terrible mechanism for recharging.
you are tony blair and i claim my five pounds
However the mechanism for recharging isn't terrible, it is ok for most people who own EV vehicles and it is improving for areas that don't have many...it isn't ideal for everywhere but it is far from terrible. It could do with infrastructure improvements happening much quicker than they are.
I always think of Nikola when I hear someone’s going to change the world with some ev ,what was it valued at more than Ford who actually have managed to deliver the odd car.
The electric truck company was valued at $27 billion in 2020, making it more valuable than Ford
https://www.jalopnik.com/15-failed-electric-vehicle-startups-that-never-made-it-1850510650/
Leccys easy, batteries not, I still wonder if we should be using really small batteries to get from street to main road then drop into a scalelectrix slot and tcr for the motorway 🙂
I do like composite panels thou, that’s the greatest thing about the smart cars before they became a badge on yet another Chinese EV.
They were brilliant any damage just remove and replace but tbh they would take everyday knocks and bumps much better than tin and paint which is just insanely expensive to have done.
Here’s more detail about how they build it so cheaply, and photos of an actual truck. Basically no paint, and duplication of components, plus leaving out unimportant components.
I think the bigger surprise is it's size, it's tiny. It looks like a Ford Ranger but it's not anywhere near that big. Look at the videos of people stood next to them. It's the same length, 2" narrower and 10" taller than a Ford Focus.
I drive a 21year diesel Berlingo - it would feel as opulent as a Rolls Royce compared to that Slate. I love utilitarian but the world has moved on and experienced comfort.
I really think they'd struggle to make a worse interior than the old M59 Berlingo.
Having to use a phone as the screen? Yup, I even put a bit of conduit in front of the clock to hold it (and it then connected to a Bluetooth-FM transceiver to the radio).
The instrument cluster was just a badly fitting piece of plastic, I'm more than 50% confident the same piece could have been installed either side, just swap it with the glove box. There was definitely a blank for the pedal box on the other side.
Window switches in the middle so you don't need to duplicate them on the drivers door, ditto the (single) electric mirror and manual on the drivers side.
No control on the vents, they just point as you or, if you disagree with the drivers preferred fan setting, they don't.
The cup holders were great in winter, they must have been right over the exhaust (and the only bit of the interior not covered in 2" deep of foam insulation) so they'd keep your mug hot for hours in winter.
And that's before we mention the build quality, because the drivers footwell doubling as a paddling pool wasn't an optional extra listed in the spec sheet, or the speaker cones that had fallen apart, or the peeling/chipping/worn plastic veneers, the door handles that broke and you couldn't open the door, or the door handles that were once opened on the motorway by the wind off a passing truck!
And despite all that, I'd happily buy another similar car (maybe if it didn't leak!).
They were brilliant any damage just remove and replace but tbh they would take everyday knocks and bumps much better than tin and paint which is just insanely expensive to have done.
I recall saying something similar when the new Defender / Grenadier were being launched. For off-road or commercial vehicles plastic panels just make so much more sense. You can bash the hell out of them and they still bounce back into shape with some scuffing, and if you want to add an accessory some self tapping screws will probably do it.
Well Autocar are usually pretty (aka wildly) optimistic when it comes to reporting on concepts and such.
The Slate looks cool, if you like trucks and stuff, a bit like the new Bronco at the front which the US will love. I don't know if such a slab fronted thing would a) pass pedestrian crash safety tests b) be even remotely aerodynamic enough for an EV, same story with those tonka wheels.
£20k is very cheap though, Electric windows and speakers are so generic dropping them isn't going to make much of a price saving, that said the new (from) £22k Renault 4 has a little less power at 150ps and the simular sized battery at 52kHw, it's also pretty slab fronted, but as much as the Slate, but that's a concept pic.
I'd think if it launches in the UK it'll be closer to £25k for an entry one, £30K+ for one you'd want and loads of people will buy them because it looks cool and then moan their shopping gets soaked on the way home from Tesco.
I'd think if it launches in the UK it'll be closer to £25k for an entry one, £30K+ for one you'd want and loads of people will buy them because it looks cool and then moan their shopping gets soaked on the way home from Tesco.
Hypothetically if I bought one, the key benefit would be it's modular? If you want it for trips to Tesco there's an SUV back, if you want a camper someone will no doubt make a demountable back for it. It doesn't need to be a pickup.
As a concept it's weird because it probably appeals equally to people who hate cars and just want the cheapest, most utilitarian, white goods analogy they can buy. And also 'car people' who'll want to customize it. The other 90% of the population between those points (quite likes cars, but drives a Hyundai/Ford/Peugeot/Audi/whatever rather than something really fancy) probably doesn't see any point in it at all, they're thinking 'but for £5k more I could get xyz which has electric vibrating heated wing mirrors".
