[QuadmasterXLII]

it’s a shame that they’re spending so much of their capital on manufacturer side customizability. An electric vehicle is a firmware update away from being a stick welder already; make the truck one way and ship it with a pair of jumper cables, a box of 6011, and a pallet of tube steel.

[snuxoll]

Outside of having what amounts to a couple of shells and removable seats that can be mounted to the box (and a removable rear panel from the cab to join them to create a single 'interior' when using them), the majority of their BTO options are really basic module swaps where most of the complexity comes from managing inventory of the various SKUs than anything else.

As somebody with a '99 Ford Ranger, the Slate is incredibly appealing as nearly every other manufacturer has completely abandoned the compact pickup market; although it has the same issue that the Ford Maverick and Honda Ridgeline do, it's a unibody design. If they actually launch I may end up getting one if they release some BTO options to slot a double-din mount and door-mounted speakers in to handle runs to the hardware store and towing lighter loads on paved roads, but I really wish somebody would do a compact frame-on-body pickup again for those of us that drive poorly maintained dirt roads in forested/mountainous terrain where some body damage (and thus, the cheaper repair costs associated with body-on-frame designs are nice to have) is always lurking around the corner.

[Seriously, I understand the difficulties of batteries and such with EV's and that's likely part of why the Slate is designed this way. But, for people like me who actually need a pickup to do pickup things, not haul groceries, it's frustrating when you're accustomed to being able to replace a side-panel on the box for less than your insurance deductible if something falls on it. And that's without even bringing up the obvious disadvantages when it comes to towing and payload capacity.]

[toast0]

> Seriously, I understand the difficulties of batteries and such with EV's and that's likely part of why the Slate is designed this way.

In 2000, Ford had an EV Ranger, and Chevy had an EV S-10. Neither with great range, of course. It should be easier to do with modern batteries. Attach the batteries to the frame under the bed, put the bed on top, all engineering problems solved.

[snuxoll]

I guess I should clarify, the unibody design makes it cheaper to do this in a compact design, given the extra material you would need to protect modern LiFePO4 cells from physical damage compared to the SLA batteries the EV Ranger and EV S-10 both used (which could pretty much take a bullet and not end up with a volatile reaction), as well as space efficiency with packing the cells.

The F-150 Lightning is body-on-frame, so I know it's entirely feasible, but the same reasons Ford went with a unibody for the Maverick are probably doubly relevant for something like the Slate (cost and weight). I'm going to quietly hope they succeed with this and somebody (Slate or otherwise) makes a proper compact EV pickup designed to get dirty. If not, maybe the market for EV conversion kits will further develop and I'll just yank the V6 out of my Ranger and slap an electric drivetrain in it.

[namibj]

Huh? I thought the Slate body panels are fiber reinforced Polypropylene, basically a cheaper somewhat less intense performance sibling of that ultra tough fiber reinforced nylon that power tools are made of since about that battery tool manufacturer war really took off?

Yeah, there's a frame underneath, but the panel itself shouldn't even really care about tanking a shopping card, it's main weakness is how soft the PP is to sharp objects...

[snuxoll]

Yeah, but I'm not talking about a shopping cart denting the side of the box. My family owns some forested land on butte near where I live, 8' wide dirt roads carved through the hills with very abrupt drops, pine trees and loose rock damaged by weather threatening to fall a few feet and ruin your day, and wild growth that likes to suddenly scratch your paint at best when you're heading down an oft-used path for the first time in a year. Let's not even talk about wildlife being wildlife.

Like I said, my Ranger is not a grocery carrier, the 2015 Impala I drive day-to-day handles those tasks. The pickup gets used, towing my ATV and jon boat, hauling stuff around for camping trips, carrying firewood around, and generally getting rough and dirty away from civilized society. That's why, at best, the Slate is appealing to at least handle hardware store runs or hauling my boat (trailer and the boat are easily within the 1,000 lb towing limit on it) to the lake; but it's still not a replacement for what I have. Also really need e-AWD from an EV pickup to get over (or out of) some things, the Maverick is also a flop here because it only has AWD (which an EV can get away with because of the insane torque electric motors can provide, but an ICE or hybrid pickup without 4L is going to get stuck somewhere).

Yeah, a "mid-sized" pickup would check all of those, but even relatively compact ones like my step-mothers GMC Canyon have a notably larger turning diameter, which is why I want a proper compact pickup (another area the Maverick fails miserably, 40 foot turning circle for something that small is...words fail me.)

As an aside, the other downside to unibody pickups is their towing capacity, but with a new option package added to the current model year even the Ford Maverick can match the 2 ton capacity of my Ranger (although Ford saw fit to derate mine to 1 ton because it's a 5-speed; it's fully capable of towing 4,000 lbs, albeit not very fast, if you know how not to burn up a clutch.)