Slate is a good niche, its range is fine for the purpose its supposed to fill
Imagine a fleet of them for a lawncare business paired with a 30-42" standup electric mower rig
Cost of operations would be dittly squat, could be further buffered with solar and replacememt parts dirt cheap. Roi would be extremely quick and then it’d be pure profits
People are already doing that with used Teslas pulling trailers (yeah its funny to see, but the people doing it have shown their numbers and its pretty nuts)
Whats not fine about the Slate is no awd version. On an EV it’s a minimal endeavor to make that work so there’s really no excuse
Having experienced awd I will never personally own another vehicle without it if I have a choice. Especially a truck. My driving conditions are way too harsh to not have it
Awd/4x4 is an integral option for those of us who need it. Its not a gimmick, its not a nice to have. Its an it better have one or the other, or its not an option
It’s the difference between getting up your drive in bad weather and parking at the end of a 3 mile long dirt road drive and walking home from there, in the dark at the end of a long day, through woodlands in which wild animals are not infrequent visitors, and presumably on top of all of that in markedly bad weather events
A truck, and especially an EV that must be plugged in to charge so you can drive the +70 miles to the nearest town if needed after driving that far to get home doesn’t live up to its name or need if it doesn’t get you to home or from 999/1,000 times you needed it to
The long range model’s EPA range is 240mi, so 120mi while towing, more like 100mi considering that you absolutely cannot run an EV 100 to 0, and that’s best case scenario. That maximum 100mi is not enough for a day of landscaping.
A Bobcat ZS4000 Stand-On Mower 48″ is a 64" long mower for example, so it should juuuust fit in there, but to be safe I mentioned smaller, though personally if I were to do something like this I’d want a greenworks electric, costs half as much as the truck
For sure, you’d see a range drop, but it shouldn’t be anywhere near as severe as pulling a trailer
A small standon, a ramp to get it on and off the truck, a rack with a trimmer, edger, hedger, blower, pruner, mini chainsaw, maybe a delta powerbank or gas generator to recharge the tools as you drive about or they’re in standby
I’d expect a drop in range about 25-30% with that but not as severe as a pull behind trailer
~130-150 miles of range is doable if you plan the route and cluster clients, which any Semi-competent business owner who could afford a fleet of these would be capable of doing or paying someone to manage the routes
Every other EV has a 50% range penalty while towing. This won’t be any different. The ~85 kilowatt hour battery in the state truck is the same-ish capacity as the model Y, but has 2/3 less range total than the model Y. Sadly, there’s no way that it’s more efficient than the model Y.
That said, for sure using the bed to haul tools would be more efficient, but now you’re talking about using gas tools because there’s not enough capacity in the truck to charge them up between jobs. They needed to make this thing the “model 3/Y, but a truck”, but they failed even at that.
Surpass Tesla in software?
Most of us want less software not more
That’s why everyone is so hyped about Slate. Less of this garbage is a paid feature these days.
No one is hyped about Slate. Europe has better EVs for less already.
file Slate along with:
Canoo
Bollinger
Aptera
Nikola
Telo
and another dozen bullshit US EV companies.
What? No fart button on the tablet?
The slate software is in no way going to be the industry standard. Car manufacturers are all looking to create parasitic software for their cars.
Slate is DOA based solely on how terrible the range will be.
Slate is a good niche, its range is fine for the purpose its supposed to fill
Imagine a fleet of them for a lawncare business paired with a 30-42" standup electric mower rig
Cost of operations would be dittly squat, could be further buffered with solar and replacememt parts dirt cheap. Roi would be extremely quick and then it’d be pure profits
People are already doing that with used Teslas pulling trailers (yeah its funny to see, but the people doing it have shown their numbers and its pretty nuts)
Whats not fine about the Slate is no awd version. On an EV it’s a minimal endeavor to make that work so there’s really no excuse
Having experienced awd I will never personally own another vehicle without it if I have a choice. Especially a truck. My driving conditions are way too harsh to not have it
AWD is only a thing in stupid vehicle designs where they put all the weight up front, and the drive wheels at the back.
An EV truck has proper weight distribution, AWD would offer no advantage, just add weight and cost more.
Awd/4x4 is an integral option for those of us who need it. Its not a gimmick, its not a nice to have. Its an it better have one or the other, or its not an option
It’s the difference between getting up your drive in bad weather and parking at the end of a 3 mile long dirt road drive and walking home from there, in the dark at the end of a long day, through woodlands in which wild animals are not infrequent visitors, and presumably on top of all of that in markedly bad weather events
A truck, and especially an EV that must be plugged in to charge so you can drive the +70 miles to the nearest town if needed after driving that far to get home doesn’t live up to its name or need if it doesn’t get you to home or from 999/1,000 times you needed it to
The long range model’s EPA range is 240mi, so 120mi while towing, more like 100mi considering that you absolutely cannot run an EV 100 to 0, and that’s best case scenario. That maximum 100mi is not enough for a day of landscaping.
Not talking about towing
Talking about a bedspace only, 1-2 man crew setup
A Bobcat ZS4000 Stand-On Mower 48″ is a 64" long mower for example, so it should juuuust fit in there, but to be safe I mentioned smaller, though personally if I were to do something like this I’d want a greenworks electric, costs half as much as the truck
For sure, you’d see a range drop, but it shouldn’t be anywhere near as severe as pulling a trailer
A small standon, a ramp to get it on and off the truck, a rack with a trimmer, edger, hedger, blower, pruner, mini chainsaw, maybe a delta powerbank or gas generator to recharge the tools as you drive about or they’re in standby
I’d expect a drop in range about 25-30% with that but not as severe as a pull behind trailer
~130-150 miles of range is doable if you plan the route and cluster clients, which any Semi-competent business owner who could afford a fleet of these would be capable of doing or paying someone to manage the routes
So tow a small trailer behind a Prius
Every other EV has a 50% range penalty while towing. This won’t be any different. The ~85 kilowatt hour battery in the state truck is the same-ish capacity as the model Y, but has 2/3 less range total than the model Y. Sadly, there’s no way that it’s more efficient than the model Y.
That said, for sure using the bed to haul tools would be more efficient, but now you’re talking about using gas tools because there’s not enough capacity in the truck to charge them up between jobs. They needed to make this thing the “model 3/Y, but a truck”, but they failed even at that.