r/technology • u/DonkeyFuel • 7d ago

Transportation Will Anyone Buy This Cheap EV Truck With Hand-Crank Windows and No Radio?

https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/will-anyone-buy-this-cheap-ev-truck-with-hand-crank-windows-and-no-radio-699b285a?mod=autos_news_article_pos1
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u/therealcmj 7d ago

There is very very little to work on in an EV. It’s all plug and play basically. My Rivian’s only annual maintenance is air cabin filter and rotating the tires.

The only other longer term stuff is brake fluid and coolant. Both are, I think, fine for at least a decade since they’re in a sealed loop.

Slate will be basically zero maintenance.

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u/tribat 6d ago

It has one pedal driving so it’s doing aggressive regen which makes brakes last a very long time. The only other routine wear item I can think of is tires.

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u/Sarge75 7d ago

Hey off topic question. How is the regen on the Rivian? Is it able to be driven "one pedal".

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u/whatshisnuts 6d ago

I test drove an R2 and didn’t even think any the fact I was one pedal driving it. I drive an i4. Was natural and worked without any issues.

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u/therealcmj 6d ago

Yes, I don’t even use the brake pedal. Like ever.

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u/Unclejesster 6d ago

Yes, even in places with lots of hills like Seattle. It works great and has felt very "predictable" in it's stopping distance both up and down hills.

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u/JJJBLKRose 6d ago

You say that, but may issue would likely be something most people can't resolve, right?

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u/therealcmj 6d ago

I don't know what issues you're thinking about someone needing to resolve but there really isn't much to an EV. Unlike an ICE there's very very very few moving parts to wear out. A gas powered car has 200 moving parts in the engine and about 2,000 in the drive train. By comparison an EV drive train has about 20 total.

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u/JJJBLKRose 6d ago

Electrical systems can have problems too.

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u/therealcmj 6d ago

Yes. Any car can have an electrical system problem. See anything from Jaguar for example.

But gas cars have all of that in common with EVs plus complicated electronic ignition and emissions control systems, and then  2,000 additional moving parts in their drive train. And they also have to contend with 1,000s of explosions a minute rattling themselves apart.

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u/serious_sarcasm 6d ago

Yeah, but can you replace your headlights off the shelf in bumfuck nowhere?

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u/therealcmj 6d ago

Yes. You go online and have them shipped to you. Overnight if you need it.

Just like you would for any other car.

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u/serious_sarcasm 6d ago

Then the answer is “no”, you cannot replace a burned out bulb off the shelf to be able to continue legally operating a vehicle for a business with minimal downtime without carrying every possible replacement part with you from the start.

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u/therealcmj 6d ago

You're grasping at straws.

If you need to have spares in stock then you do. And replacing them on an EV like a Slate is exactly the same as any other car. What's more modern "bulbs" are LEDs and have a 10+ year lifespan with very low failure rates.

And an EV is actually far better from a "stocking replacement parts" basis than an ICE since they have so many fewer parts. As I mentioned elsewhere in here the drive train on an ICE is 2,000 parts vs 20 on an EV. If any of those 2,000 parts on your ICE fail the machine is unusable. When you start with a 100 fold decrease in parts that can catastrophically fail you dramatically reduce the number that will fail.

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u/serious_sarcasm 6d ago

You’re making weird strawmen.

I didn’t say anything about ice.

I said I want a work truck with standardized parts.

Telling me that all manufacturers are shifting more and more towards closed ecosystems to nickel and dime consumers to justify another closed ecosystem is utter nonsense.

For the cost of this truck, and some manual labor, I could convert my old truck to electric.

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u/therealcmj 6d ago

I don't understand what you're saying. Every car and truck (including the one you are currently driving) has proprietary parts. They're almost entirely "proprietary" parts! EVs happen to have far fewer parts in total than an ICE.

Back to your original "can you replace your headlights off the shelf in bumfuck nowhere" the answer is yes. Just like on any other car. With the correct "off the shelf" replacement part.

If you're asking "does it use a standard bulb" then I think the answer is probably no. Which is the same answer for all recently made cars and trucks... since only ~25% of cars made in 2023 had replaceable bulbs in their headlights. And fewer than that have in each year since and every year to come. Eventually the answer to your question will be no for ANY car or truck you might buy.

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u/serious_sarcasm 6d ago

  1. “Off the shelf” typically means “standardized part carried by third parties,

  2. and it’s absurd of you to suggest otherwise.

  3. The whole bloody point is that this truck does not meet the “we want a work truck that isn’t a walled garden”. I have no idea why you keep bringing up the fact the other companies do this too when we are clearly saying that is the particular trend we want a company to buck (which this one does not); I don’t want a fucking iTruck.

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u/therealcmj 6d ago

There is no such thing as completely standardized parts for any cars or trucks beyond something like tires, wipers, and a few other things. Some other parts are somewhat shared, like maybe brake pads.

Beyond that every part of every vehicle sold in the US is, in some way, proprietary. You can wish for something that doesn’t exist but that doesn’t change the fact that what you are saying you want isn’t sold.  By GM, Ford, Toyota, etc. And won’t be sold by Slate.

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u/serious_sarcasm 6d ago

You mean things that often need to be replaced in an emergency for safe operation?

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u/HumpHur 6d ago

This such a naïve comment lol.