I think it's perfect! I've fantasized about getting an old Nissan Hardbody, stuffing the bed with batteries and putting 2 overvoted forklift motors under the hood.

This is basically a reliable, commercially viable version of that concept.

Jerry rigs everything did just that with an old army humvee. https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0vZL9uwyfOFezIOiBjkdW3...

Looks like is designed as a custom platform. The sort of things the kiddies will go mad over and build all sorts of custom rides. Bring it on!

Price comes with a depressing caveat.

    at a starting price of less than $20,000, 
    assuming federal clean vehicle tax credits continue to exist.

That just means 27500 MSRP, still very low compared to the 70k-80k existing US options.

I'm the weirdo who still likes crank handles. They are actually faster at opening/closing windows. And one less set of electronics to fail.

Americans complain about the lack of affordable cars, but can't be bothered to buy anything with less than 4 doors and AWD and 20 inch wheels. So good luck to these guys.

> I'm the weirdo who still likes crank handles. They are actually faster at opening/closing windows.

Absolutely. Only one vehicle here has electric windows but that car was given to us. The other 6 vehicles are hand crank.

Says no screens, but I'm interested in the absence of surveillance as well. If there's no telemetry/forced-apps I'd be interested.

I've asked before but still not sure how much information is given to a charger when you plug in an EV?

I'm very curious how they are managing "no screens". I thought all vehicles in the U.S. were required to have rear-view cameras for safety. I'm curious how they are getting around that.

Edit: I now see that the article speculates that maybe there's a screen in the rear-view window for this. But I can't find anything concrete.

My understanding is that the regulations require a certain amount of rear visibility, either directly in the mirror or via a rear-view camera. But the former likely wouldn't be possible with the bed in the way.

I feel ya but sabotaging telemetry still feels possible. De-screening a car seems solidly out of reach.

C’mon you can’t be building ev’s in 2025 with less than 300 miles of range

There is a nonprofit near me that has some trucks they use for hauling trash, weeds, and some misc equipment on occasion (they do habitat restoration). They rarely go more than 20 miles in a day. This would fit their needs perfectly, assuming they could cheaply charge it. They probably could figure something out, they already have a van with an RV style charger hooked up.

I want a cheap ev with less than 150 miles of range for city use. With traffic here I'm literally never driving more than 100 miles a day, and virtually never driving more than 50 miles a day. I can charge at home, I don't care if it takes 12 hours.

But I'd want that car to be under $15k. That car doesn't exist, at least not in the US, so I'm still on an old ICE.

My current car is worth at most $5k, and I spend maybe $500/yr on gas.

> Will younger generations actually plunk down $20,000 or more to own a Slate vehicle that won't go into production until the fourth quarter of 2026

Not worth devoting any brain cycles to this thing if it’s that far out still given how fast the situation in the US is changing.

Have you seen the used Tesla market lately?

Yeah, but have you seen the Tesla repair parts prices?

Buying a used car presupposes the ability to service it.

This particular truck pictured appears to have a footprint about the size of a Toyota Camry, but with far greater rear visibility due to the additional headroom and no rear seat.

It's much more common to park a truck backed in than a car, in order to load the bed e.g. from a loading ramp or dock. The backup camera is great for lining the bed right up to where you are rolling on the cargo.

You _can_ do it without a camera, but the camera saves a ton of time.

Yes. A parking camera / screen is a straight up improvement compared to relying on windows and skill.

People who complain about screens are usually not complaining about that but rather about common functionality that used to be a single physical button now is buried deep inside a buggy menu system.

> Yes. A parking camera / screen is a straight up improvement compared to relying on windows and skill.

Car screens and I don't get on. At all. For backing up, what works for me is a full check first and directly viewing while backing up, augmenting with mirrors.

Eyes-on is me being as safe as I can possibly be.

Yeah no that's how parents used to run over their own kids

There's a niche here given the prevalance of smart phones.

The last tow truck I took a ride on (modern, tilt tray, full lifts, etc) was operated by the driver who happily and easily juggled two phones ... he had one in a cradle, the other hand held, used the cradle one to look up routes, bid for jobs, and general map operations.

At lights or when refueling he was talking on the free phone while cross referencing via text and map searches on the cradle phone.

Additionally the truck console had screens for reversing, etc.

Point being .. we live in a world where it reasonable to have physical control, screen free, relative "dumb" vehicle that still has a diagnostics bus and rear cameras and distance sensors that can accessed via the drivers phone or tablet.

With cable | wifi and auth or some kind the operators smart device can upload music to the cars sound system and the vehicle can return infomation and visuals from sensors .. perhaps.

Article mentions backup cam is required now. Still, can't think of a reason I'd back into a space in a parking lot. Don't think I ever have. If I needed to for some reason, I'd lower the tailgate.

>Still, can't think of a reason I'd back into a space in a parking lot

I back into spaces almost exclusively. reason: I see that I can do it when I arrive, and realize that exiting forward will be a breeze regardless of the future conditions (you are backing into an empty space, and forwarding into a space with other moving cars that are out of your control).

it's one forward lap and one backward lap, same difference, in addition to which I find steerability/maneuverability is much better with the "steering" wheels in the back, because after you get the forward aligned to enter the slot, you can simply steer away after that.

You're ignoring differences in the size of the space and the ability of most drivers to back-up vs going-forward into a small space.

>90% of the people who back in take much longer to back-in than they'd take to back-out because it takes them more time to back up with any accuracy.

Head-in to the spot is just as fast as head-out into the lane because most people don't have any trouble going forward.

The result is that back-in is a net time loss.

The majority of pickups I see in Denver and NoCo parking spots are backed in. This behavior seemed to come on very suddenly, maybe 3 years ago. I rarely saw it, and then suddenly, 3 out of 4 pickups are backed in. Puzzled me until I realized that a rearview camera with the green/yellow/red markings on the image made all the difference.

I kind of like it, but re-use is the way to go, Problem is you get Tax credits for buying new EV but just a shit tonne of regulations and no money to convert your old truck; that was New Zealand five years ago. I really hope other countries have it easier as most older gas trucks are easy to convert to EV's at the end of their lives by a decent amateur.

I have a 1990 Hilux pickup working just fine as my daily driver, but it cost about US$20K to convert and with only 100KM range it is only effective as a second vehicle. Good news though is with a couple of future battery swaps it will only get better and should outlive me.