… imagine if this was the Cybertruck instead of the fever dream Elon approved?
Carrying capacity of a Toyota Tacoma on a Mini-Cooper footprint with 500 HP, 350-mile range, and 4 sec 0-60 time.
intercst
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I only buy cars from companies that have sold over a million vehicles, preferably well over a million. Otherwise, it is too much of a risk that they go BK and then can’t provide any of the necessary services for their former vehicles.
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I agree. But something like the TELO could well be a million seller.
intercst
I find I only need my F150 a few times a year, to tow our travel trailer to nearby campouts… No more hauling lumber, rocks, gravel, etc…A little electric doesn’t fit.. And I don’t see the need for a 500Hp mini truck… Accident waiting to happen!
I like it. Glad to see a couple of alternatives ( Slate is another ) to the giant American trucks that probably range in price from $45k to $80k. The American brands are not consumer driven, imo. So it is really good that they are going to see some competition for the purchasing dollars of the American consumer.
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Yep
Though the Telo will be a bit pricey compared to the Slate. $40k vs $25k
Slate price advantage is mitigated by its limited range 150 miles [a 250 mile range will be available though not at $25k] vs Telo’s 350 mile range.
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How is the Slate sooo cheap?
Because it is a bare bones pickup.
https://insideevs.com/features/758468/slate-ev-truck-cheap-20000/
The Slate truck arrives late next year with no radio, no speakers, no touchscreen, no fancy automated-driving features, hand-crank windows and a single color: gray. Stripping out everything that’s not strictly necessary for transportation and safety helped the company produce the everyman EV that’s historically eluded America’s car market.
Such a pickup appeals to me. I’m not sure about the USian public.
Slate=a 1960’s VW beetle.
There are other, less obvious ways that Slate slashed the cost of manufacturing and development by doing things differently. It opted to make the truck’s exterior out of molded plastic, which Barman said saves costs on multiple fronts. First off, injection molding is cheaper than the conventional method of stamping sheets of metal into body panels.
Second, since the plastic is colored gray all the way through, it doesn’t need to be painted. That eliminates the roughly $350 million up-front investment required for a paint shop and a “very finicky and expensive operation,” she said. Instead, Slate will sell customers vinyl wrap kits in any color.
By omitting an infotainment system, Slate doesn’t need you to pay for it, sure. But it also doesn’t need to spend time and money developing the software that goes into it.
And by having its factory spit out a single, uniform variant that buyers can trick out later on, the company aims to cut a lot of complexity out of its manufacturing process. I
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