With our spy shots of Ford’s Universal EV pickup hitting the market sometime next year, with an expected price of $30,000 and an expected range of 300 miles, all eyes are on Slate, which plans to announce pricing on June 24th.
Slate is having loads of media at an event leading up to that June 24th embargo, not just to capture content with the new truck, but specifically to learn the price; Slate has “hear the price” in its invitation’s subject line. This leads me to think the price is going to be good. At least, that’s wishful thinking.
All we’ve really heard for the longest time is that the price will be in the “mid 20s,” and prior to that we heard it would start around $20,000 with incentives that are no longer here due to changes in the U.S. presidential administration. Since then, Ford announced its EV truck, which in base form is undoubtedly going to be way better equipped than the Slate, which comes standard with crank windows, manual locks, manual seats, and no radio.
I love the idea of a back-to-basics truck, not just because it’s less likely to break and easier to fix oneself, but because in theory, a back-to-basics truck should be dirt cheap. At least, if you’re a legacy automaker with skills and factories and economies of scale.
And so that leads me to a question I don’t have the answer to: How cheap does a 150-mile, crank-window equipped electric two-door pickup truck have to be to be successful? It’s something a number of Slate enthusiasts are asking themselves around the internet.
I’m going to define “success” as a volume of 100,000 units annually. Is that definition based on anything other than my own personal delineator for “high volume”? Not it’s not, and the true definition of success is sustainability for the company. But let’s just roll with that number.
For me the number I’d like to see — though I don’t know if it’ll yield 100,000 sales — is $25,000. This is mostly just a gut thing, not driven just by the Slate’s lack of basic amenities, but primarily driven by the fact that it has only two doors. That, at least these days, tends to be a volume-killer. But cool and cheap is a hard combo to resist. Then again, at $25 grand you can buy a pretty well outfitted Chevy Trax…
The two-door thing is going to be tricky, and I do like the look of the Ford truck, but car purchases are often irrational, and if the Slate is the cooler vehicle of the two, and if it can undercut the Ford significantly, maybe it stands a chance. Maybe they can both succeed; I’m not entirely sure the two are vying for exactly the same customer.
What do you think?
I have to start off here by saying I want this truck to succeed! There are jobs counting on it, and I want the other automakers to start at least TRYING to offer compelling, out of the box ideas in the lower price ranges.
That being said, this is gonna be tough.
It needs to be probably no more than $22,900.
If that sounds oddly specific, it’s because it is.
It’s that magical $499 a month for 72 months, what a lot of Americans consider affordable. Most of these aren’t getting paid for in cash, they’re going to be financed.
And if they’re going to be financed, they’re not going to be competing with the $30k ford truck. They’re going to be competing with a lightly used Ridgeline/tacoma/Ranger/gladiator/Colarado/frontier.
They have to provide enough value to convince someone to buy a 150 mile 2 door electric truck over one of those.
And with that in mind, along with historical sales rates of new EVs, I’d say 50,000 units would be a great success.
I’m finding it really hard to imagine that they’re going to pull it off. Two doors mean its not a viable daily / family vehicle. Small vehicle / small bed means its probably got limited appeal for contractor / fleet markets. The race to the bottom is the one race you probably don’t want to win.
I think a lot of businesses and contractors would love a small truck. Look how many use Mavericks which may have smaller bed than the Slate. And every car company seems to have a dozen four door pickups available – but the two door market is under served. They aren’t racing to the bottom, they are specifically designing a vehicle to be at the bottom of the market.
Good thoughts to be sure, and I wish them the best of luck!
Eesh, I was only ever looking at it from a mental comparison to my daily that I paid $13k for used but hadn’t actually penciled out the payments at 20-25k.
The only draw for this is the fun factor, but I can have a lot of fun for $500 a month. At that price I’m keeping my Mazda3 and spending the payment on bikes or kayaks.
Totally get that, but keep in mind the realities of owning an older used vehicle and paying for gas all the time.
My case is probably the most extreme you could get, but here’s why I want one.
I deliver mail. My route is 50 miles a day, plus 30 more miles commuting to and from my post office. I currently use a wrangler, and it’s great! But I burn through about $140 a week in fuel. I change my oil every 2 months. I change brake pads every 3 or 4 months, and rotors twice a year. 50 miles doesn’t sound like a lot, but coming to a full stop and accelerating to 50mph and back down hundreds of times a day is just the opposite of the strengths of a gas motor.
I spent very close to 10,000 in gas, and jeep maintenance last year. The truck would pay for itself by the end of year two. I wouldn’t expect many others to have that quick of a return on investment, but there’s a very real use case here!
I hope you can get one for a reasonable price! And that it’s simple enough to keep running without OEM support, because like you said, there aren’t many out there like you in the niche that this really fills.
It’s a cool little truck and I really do want to see some running around, but I’m deeply skeptical.
I gotta test drive one first, and crawl all over it and underneath. The intention would be to move the pedals to the right and fab up brackets and a pulley to move the steering wheel to the right side as well. I’ve reached out to them, they’re missing have no idea how many rural carriers would buy one of these. Our current options are to pay 10-20 grand for a 20 plus year old Japanese import, pay 10k for a 200,000 mile rhd wrangler/15k for a 150k mile rhd wrangler, 20k for a 100k mile rhd wrangler, or 50 grand for a new one.
Jeep sells at least 10,000 RHD wranglers every year.
If they sold it in RHD with the wagon body for 25 grand, it would not be an insignificant amount of sales.
THIS, while you’re an owner operator to steal a phrase, I posted this in my own comment but I think part of the market (if it exists) for this thing are going to be some fleet buyers with very specific use cases like yours where a small electric truck makes a ton of sense and has virtually no competition
I think you’re right, $25k or somehow less is where they need to be. For me, the “better equipped” Ford will be “equipped” with “features” that I don’t want. The single cab, bare bones nature of the Slate is what really appeals to me. No screens, no massaging seats, no self driving or safety nannies, just a back to basics vehicle that one can customize to suit their needs. More of that please.
This is exactly what is appealing about the Slate. No electronics/screens to fail, no stupid lane assist that I’ll never enable, and no Future Sudden Death autopilot to lull me into a false sense of safety that’s going to ultimately fail spectacularly at the worst possible moment.
I’m the kind of person who would pay extra to avoid the stuff that needlessly complicates the vehicle.
I hope there’s enough of us to make Slate viable!
I tend to agree that I like some aspects of it being stripped down, but I don’t know that I’d pay the same amount. To me this reads as a $15k car, and that’s without even thinking too hard about the 150 mile range vs the Ford EV’s 300 mile promised range.
I was looking at UTVs the other day. Some of those sticker for over $44,000. I thought that was insane. (But the thought of air conditioning in an enclosed cab is pretty appealing, to everything but my bank account.)
The $44k UTVs have the kind of capability you’re not going to get in anything cheaper, though. It is a crazy price for a toy, but if you want to do the things that they’re capable of, that’s basically the price of entry.
Contrast that with the Slate, where it can basically just pull regular commuter car duty. And unfortunately for Slate, there are a lot of really good options new and used in the $25k price range that can do that too, but more comfortably and with more standard equipment. Even it being an EV doesn’t really get it a pass, since it’s easy to get far more range at the same price now.
There’s some agreement on this site that the current Sentra is a decent deal at $22,600, but would we really say it was a good deal at that price with no power locks or windows, no stereo, only two seats, only 150 miles of range, etc? I’d love to see that as a $15k version, but not at the regular starting price.
If their goal is 100,000 sales in a year, I would say $18,500. My guess on reality is a price of $24,500 and sales of 50,000 – 60,000. There is demand for something simple that can do chores in town, but it is going to be hyper price conscious.
My question is how much does it cost them to build one?
I want to say it’ll have to be a whole lot cheaper, but honestly if these are the only two cheap electric pickups in the market, there’s probably room for both.
(Assuming Slate can figure out how to sell vehicles to people, and that their service plan actually materializes.)
Well we had only 2 cheap small pickups, until Hyundai walked away leaving Ford.
The only difference here is that if the Slate fails they don’t have anything else in the (virtual) showroom to sell and keep the lights on so they my try and fight the good fight for a bit longer.
That Hyundai was neither cheap nor a pickup, my guy
You mean the Santa Cruz? 4 foot bed, 4 door pickup starting at just under $30k? That’s a pretty cheap pickup in today’s dollars. It doesn’t appeal to me or enough other people to stay in the market though, because ‘Murica wants its trucks big, I guess.
No, the failures of the Santa Cruz are super well-documented. Are you sure you want to make these claims, bub?
Hint….why doesn’t it appeal to you?
It doesn’t appeal to me because I don’t trust Hyundai engines with their well documented failures. I was just pointing out that the Santa Cruz, if indeed that’s what you were referring to, is both cheap and a pickup.
It’s not really cheap, compared to the Mav, and it’s big failing (I mean, there are multiple, I guess) is that it wasn’t even marketed as a pickup
I do chuckle a little at how much “pickup” cred the Slate seems to have here. It’s only a 5 foot bed with 1000(!) lb projected towing capacity.
I view it as a little commuter that happens to have an open box at the back. It’s nowhere near as capable as the Santa Cruz or Maverick.
I think the base model short range needs to be around 23k or so the long range base around 25k and optioned long range needs to top out at a max of 35k but that is pushing it as used Lightnings are getting to that price and that is way more options and just an overall better truck.
It feels like both Scout and Slate aren’t going to happen at this point.
I want to be wrong about that…and hopefully I will be.
Well the Slate is planned by the end of this year so assuming we might see some but how many? As this article is asking price is really going to depend. As for the Scout seeing how VW is doing yeah outlook does not look great.
Slate has posted videos of their factory that appear to be of the validation of the installed assembly line, claiming that it is ready to run. They are announcing actual pricing in just about 2 weeks at which time reservation holders are supposed to be able to place their orders. So I’m pretty certain the Slate will see the light of day and maybe in Q4 2026 as they are currently saying.
Well that’s good!
I think the number is $20k based on Ford’s $30k price for the Ranchero or whatever they call it.
Why because it is 2/3 of the truck the Ford will be.
The Slate can serve as a commuter pod and light duty pickup, while the Ford can also serve as the second family car and drop the kids off at soccer/dance whatever. 2/3 the Utility.
The Slate is only going to have a 150mi range, while I expect the Ford to be well into the 200’s. 2/3 the range.
The Slate has a basic cabin with climate control and not much else. The most basic Ford will almost certainly come with a reasonable infotainment system and power windows as well as other things that are either optional or not available on the Slate. 2/3 (or less) of what today’s consumers expect in a new vehicle.
The Slate will come in battleship grey that I’m betting isn’t going to be shiny. So again “new car” is only 2/3 of “shiny new car” and not only will the Ford be shiny and stay that way I’m betting it will be available in more than one color for the same price and a premium color or two which will be cheaper than having your Slate wrapped and of course more durable too.
From what I’ve read elsewhere the plant is being set up with a 150k per year capacity and they cut off the $50 reservations at 180k. Based on the number of reservations I don’t see them selling more than 25-30k in their first full year of production based on likely conversion rates and the number of people who are going to play the wait and see game, both to see how the initial production performs in the real world and to see how much better of a value the Ford will be.
Yeh the just wrap it so you can pick your color thing was silly on Teslas and even sillier here given the price. At least in my area I am under the impression a decent wrap easily pushes $2K+ which is a lot extra on a budget car. And let’s hope it’s not actually matte/luster finish paint that’s not a durable low maintenance finish-somewhat ironically.
My son’s friend had a Model 3 he had wrapped and I think the bill was near $3500 and that was 3-4 years ago. According to the internet Tesla will do a 3 for $4500.
Not sure exactly what material they are using but I suspect it will eventually get chalky or fade, the only question is how long that will take.
Of course they are offering a DIY precut kit, but I don’t know how many people will be willing to give it a try and I’m sure it won’t work out well for many of them. Hopefully you’ll be able to buy the individual pieces, both for those who mess up but also for collision repair.
Yeh I’ve wondered about the longevity of wraps too. Given how many bad DIY tint jobs I’ve seen people try to do (and did a mediocre job with myself) I don’t see that looking good
After going to their website I do see you can have the wrap factory applied, we’ll have to check back next week to see the cost. They do show some very wild options and have partial wraps as well. I do like the “The Retro” stripe kit.
Hitting the market sooner rather than later and with a quality product will make a much bigger difference than a few grand in price.
Polarizing design aside, the Cybertruck seemed like an exciting new, different vehicle when announced. Then they got beat to market by the legacy automakers AND the market for a larger electric truck is far more limited than they thought it would be. If the market for a small electric truck is smaller than the hype and Ford gets the lions share before the Slate hits major production, that’ll probably be that. Because another oft stated fact on this site is that making cars is hard.
$15,000 Base out the door no options. $20,000 for base battery and few basics. $25,000 for range extender and few basics. Up everything by $3,000 for the SUV version.
This seems right to me. I’d seriously consider going for one at $18k with the SUV option that I can take off as desired.
$21k and buyer gets to pick a few options.
I’ve been saying from the get-go that it’s gonna be a hard sell for a single cab truck. That market has largely evaporated.
I have no interest in a 2 door truck, so the pricing for the tops will sway things drastically for me.
The top kits add rear seats w/airbags. I don’t think they will be cheap.
I expect you’ll be able to order the tops w/o the back seat, but even then I don’t think they will be cheap.
I’m gonna go out on a limb: 2 door sales of the Slate will just not hit 100,000 units a year at any five digit price. I realize the brief says you can convert this to a 4 door, so for my forecasting purposes, I will say that you have to remove the 4 door units. I just think the market has moved past 2 door 2 seaters being viable volume products.
I don’t know about converting to a 4 door. You can add rear seats, but access is still through the front doors.
Right, even worse.
Especially when you look at how short the front doors are. I had a 2 door civic for a while that the kids were fine with climbing into the back of, but this one is going to be really tight for rear seat access.
If they price this at $15k or less businesses will be falling over themselves to buy these, every campus security truck, matinence vehicles, parts/sample runners, city vehicles. Unless the range is too low for the job these would be the best use case for many jobs.
There is definitely market as a fleet vehicle, but having been there in the past… I’d probably quit if my employer made me drive around in a vehicle without even an FM radio.
There has been zero talk of a 4 door thing.
EV lower cost to manufacture, fewer parts.
At $19,995 Slate is successful.
I don’t know – fewer parts certainly, but expensive heavy batteries, along with expensive high efficiency tires and to a smaller extent heavier suspension. How many carmakers besides Tesla are making money on EVs rather than losing money on them right now? Have any others at least broken even yet?
Has Tesla made money? Just considering the costs of manufacturing vehicles versus the income from sales of those vehicles, do they run a profit?
I feel like they have been in the black mainly from selling carbon credits and stock market stupidity.
Yes, Tesla is profitable. Note that they sold ~1.6 million units last year, which places them in the top twenty auto manufacturers worldwide, just ahead of Mazda and behind Mercedes.
Which tends to be more than offset by the cost of the battery.
With this range and the stripped-down-everything nature of it, I wouldn’t even consider it if it starts over $20k. Without the rebate, I cannot imagine this thing being successful.
Under $24k and that’s after you add the power window kit kluge ( by JC Whitney?) and the double din radio and speakers, plus it needs to come standard with the larger battery. Even then you’re still lacking power mirrors and blind side monitoring and alerts.
I got my $50 back after I realized that SLATEs mission to make it simple instead made it dumb. I don’t care for a ton of tech, but dammit power windows are cheaper than rollups now! Power mirrors, power door locks, basic safety tech isn’t complicated and I consider that the base line, even in the simplest vehicles.
Im fine with the plain grey plastic. I wouldn’t waste my money on wrapping it every few years and don’t give a crap about all the little trinkets and doodads that you can stick on it to personalize the truck.
I hope they find success, but it’s going to be a value play to attract basic ev buyers since the ford EV, bolt, leaf and upcoming Kia/hyundais are much nicer equipped entry level EVs.
I get nostalgic like everyone here about cranking windows up and down in cars from my youth.
Then I also get annoyed when I drive my wife’s car for a bit and switch back to mine and suddenly have to hold the window switch to get the passenger window to roll all the way down or get any window to go up.
I don’t think the nostalgia sticks when you’ve paid new car money for the thing.
That’s the (several-)million-dollar question I suppose. I think it’s hard to compare the Ford, because right now all we know is the basic form (small 4-door pickup) and rough price point (“around $30k” IIRC, which leaves them room to go over). With Slate we know what we’re getting but not how much it’ll cost, and the Ford isn’t quite that far along yet. (Will it have “more”? Almost assuredly, yes. Will it be anything I want or care about? Who knows.) Personally, what I really want is something with a square back, and when it comes to Slate that means “I need to see what the accessories cost too”. But considering that Ford hasn’t shown anything but the truck (and that only barely) yet, right now for me Slate is competing less with Ford and more with keeping my current daily driver.
Shrug emoji dot jpeg. We’ll find out in a week or so.
I wouldn’t be surprised if half or more of these end up being unloaded as a fleet vehicle for a corporate run around car. Price wise, I think these need to sell closer to 20k to be competitive, any more and the price bump to something else better equipped will be worth taking.
If the company tanks, they can become the in-town commercial equivalent of the Fisker Ocean.
They actually could work well on college campus’. They are basically like the golf carts they drive around a lot for the maintenance crews, but are road legally all over as well to go between buildings.
it will need to have 250 miles of range at the $25-28k mark to be competitive IMO, because of how bare bones it is as a package. That’s price competitive with the Chevy Bolt, and I think the Slate will be a niche product still at that price.
I think it’s doomed to be a low-sales oddity in its current (proposed) form, unless it’s really cheap. Even then, the 150 mile range (EPA) is more likely to be 110-125, and the silly “look how cheap I am” things like manual windows and locks will not help sales nearly as much as they help interest on the internet. Get it in under $25K, with some truly cheap options (windows, etc), and they’ll sell a modest number. Over $30K, it’s over before it gets started.
I believe a 2 door crank window vehicle is doomed to failure no matter its price.
Far too many people online have talked themselves into believing there’s robust demand for a vehicle engineered not just to *be* cheap but to *appear* cheap. The former is survivable in the US, the latter is not.
Look at the Tata Nano—that idea didn’t even work in India.
One of my primary data points for this take.
Yeah, it’s basic human nature. People don’t want to look broke and cheap, it conveys low status among peers and greatly compresses the possible dating pool, taking out much of the more desirable options. Others just have their own inner pride they need to satisfy. People can rage against it all they like, but that’s how most people are and the few saying they’ll buy it are not enough even before accepting the reality that most of those saying they’ll buy it won’t.
That’s before addressing the real problems of a lack of practicality for most people. OK, maybe a lot of people don’t have kids to take up back seats, but they have dogs, they have friends, they have other family, they have hobbies, maybe even Costco memberships and they don’t want to throw everything in the bed where it will be in the elements.
Some of the missing features are just asinine.
I can *almost* understand the crank windows being sold as a “elevated tactile experience”, or something like that.
But not even a radio? That’s just performative hair-shirt masochism. When I saw that they suggested a Bluetooth speaker as an “alternative” to a stereo, I knew the truck would have no chance as a personal vehicle.
Eh, depends on the mindset. Whenever I drive my dad’s Comanche (which has a working radio) I… leave it off and turn on the Bluetooth speaker I brought so I can listen to the music I want. I pay for ad-free music and I’m not about to go back to all the damn ads on the radio. I don’t even use the FM stations in my current car; just Bluetooth audio from my phone. I’d hazard a guess many people already use their phones for navigation and enterntainment, with the car just providing the interface and speakers. Or all the times I’ve seen people driving with earbuds in and not even using their car for music.
As to crank windows, I don’t do drive thrus at all and pretty much the only time I open my windows is to deal with the stupid gate code (you can just push it open anyway so what’s the point?) for my friend’s neighborhood once a month to play D&D. There were maybe two weeks so far this year that it wasn’t too humid or too rainy to drive with the windows down.
It would be a second vehicle for me and it’s pretty close to perfect for what I want out of a second vehicle: nothing fancy to break or worry about damaging. Don’t have to care if my boots are a muddy mess. Don’t have to care if I scratch it. Don’t have to tear a door or dash apart if a speaker blows. No stupid lane keep assist that I immediately turn off in every modern vehicle. It only has two seats? Great! I can’t be asked to transport multiple people because my primary car is “in for maintenance.”
Sounds kinda like you just need a Pontiac Vibe. Mine has electric windows, but otherwise it is a beater just as you’re describing. And the Toyota 1zz engine will be driven by cockroaches (that remember to check the oil) once we’ve all succumbed to climate change. Roughly $2500 on marketplace near me.
I’d prefer a truck bed, but generally yes, I miss having a beater. I spent last weekend emptying my storage unit, and then spent two hours cleaning out the interior of my car after.
There are free EV chargers at work and I do actually want an EV for the days I just want an appliance to drive, so a Slate pretty much covers all the bases.
yep, I do the same with the speaker setup!
As someone with a ’60s project car, who uses a bluetooth speaker instead of a radio, it’s really not as bad as you think. Do I think it’s a good product idea for new vehicles? I’m not sure; I’m certainly not convinced it’ll be the reason for failure.
But back to the bluetooth speaker as a radio… it has saved me from having to make custom speaker boxes to cram under the seats and then try to hide wiring (or I could cut up the doors and install the ugly things there). And it sounds good enough to me; I can easily upgrade it if I’d like too. Overall, it’s good enough that I don’t think I’m ever going to install a real radio.
I’ve done the Bluetooth speaker thing myself. It’s okay for an old car that you only drive occasionally, or you don’t want to cut up the interior for speakers.
That said, “It’s really not as bad as you think” is hardly a ringing endorsement, especially in a new vehicle.
The Bluetooth speaker is a second loose object cluttering up the dash of an already cramped regular-cab truck. A second USB charging cable. You have to turn it on separately from the vehicle every time you get in, and make sure it connected to your phone. It’s just so much faffing about for an experience that is otherwise seamless in every other vehicle. Never mind that you actually need quite a powerful portable speaker to match the power & sound quality of even a mediocre 40w head unit and 5-6” door speakers.
I agree with all your complaints, except “cluttering up the dash”. Have you seen their execution of the bluetooth speaker? It’s actually fantastic. I absolutely would not call it “cluttered” at all. It’s a nice mount on the lower section of the dash in the middle.
And if the price is right, I think “not as bad as you think” will be an endorsement. For a $25k truck with a warranty, I’d be pretty darn forgiving.
It’s as if their market research was looking only at automotive blog comment sections and assuming those people were actually serious about buying these purposely miserable shitboxes brand new.
These people won’t care if it’s $25K or $10K new, they are inherently wired to “wait until it’s a better deal used”.
There is no way that the cost of skipping a radio or window regulators saves enough in BOM cost to make up for the lost sales from people who say “I can get a real vehicle for $30 more a month” and just head to the Ford dealer.
This is why I maintain the Slate truck is a commercial vehicle first, personal vehicle second.
It’s the only play that makes any sense, and there likely is a small hole in the market for a bottom-dollar fleet truck.
I think the “people’s car” marketing is just a way to generate hype for the 4+ seater SUV conversion. If they can sell a few to hipsters and car nerds, why not?
Surely someone who works at Slate has used Google and are aware that a two-door truck is at BEST vying for 3-5% of truck sales?
The SUV version will sell worse than the pickup. Clambering over the front seat through a narrow front door opening is an even worse experience than cranking down windows by hand.
I think too many people are looking back fondly on the old shitbox civic they drove in high school and comparing that experience to this when
1. this will cost real new car money, not shitbox civic money and
2. there are plenty of shitbox civics out there and the reason we don’t drive them now is we can afford some of the creature comforts and happily pay for them.
$25,000 sounds right for the base model. But the real question is how expensive the options are–the custom wraps, the SUV roofs, the colored wheel covers, etc.–since those are a big part of the Slate’s appeal. If you’re looking at an additional $10,000 to get a four-seater Slate in the color you like, the Ford Universal EV truck is going to look like a better deal.
I love the idea of the Slate – simple and repairable. But if I can get a far better equipped EV truck with twice the range for $5k more, I’ll buy the Ford all day long. I think Slate is going to struggle at this price point.
As someone with $50 down this is something I ask myself every day.
I like the right to repair stance of making repair data openly available and the lack of privacy invasion since it doesn’t have an infotainment system to track you (recently rented a Corolla that had a disclaimer sticker saying they track you which is slightly unsettling).
It looks cool, but there is no way to take the wife and the dog anywhere at the same time without springing for an SUV kit which I think is what will really push the price too high to be a “fuck it, we ball” purchase.
But like most enthusiasts I probably won’t put my money where my mouth is. I have a paid off car that has been 100% reliable and has little resale value and at the end of the day I don’t like to spend any money I don’t need to.
Dogs ride in the beds of trucks all the time, or at least they used to.
Hell no. Dog is part of the family and he gets treated as such. There was literally a clause in the adoption agreement that he would never ride in the bed of a pickup.
If the Ford is coming at $30K, and really does come in at that number, then I think anything over $27K will make the Slate extremely difficult to sell. I think their strongest selling point, simplicity, is as strong a selling point as I wish it were. I’m the exact customer Slate is being designed for. I consider convenience to be a luxury, so manual stuff is just fine with me, even preferable.
But I’m not convinced the average American is willing to accept that compromise. I believe American lifestyles have been made so easy in general that stepping back to what would have been considered comfortable 40 years ago is not something most are willing to accept.
I am for $20K out the door and not $20K aspirational but in reality $25K. If one can get a decent crossover with power everything for $25K then the slate needs to be way cheaper to overcome the perceived EV hassles and lack of plushness.
Sadly cars are like college in that people think higher price is always better.