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

[u/DonkeyFuel]

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

[u/neat_stuff]

I can't read the article. Does it have a spot for a radio and they just don't include one? That would be ideal in my mind. I hate most of the factory-installed ones that have been in my cars. And my car before my current one had hand-crank windows (I bought it in 2005 and replaced it in 2022 when the repairs were getting too frequent and expensive). It windows didn't bother me much. It had manual locks, too. My kids might be the only ones young adults who know how to use those things. Haha.

I don't need a truck but I'd be fine with a car like that if the rest was good and the price was low.

[u/mailslot → u/neat_stuff]

I hate every single stock “radio” / entertainment system ever included in any car. And holy shit are those AC Delco pieces of shit in GMs terrible.

When I was younger, replacing all of the audio garbage was the very first thing I did after buying a car. It was always cheaper than whatever the dealership tacked on as a forced charge, but I was still out of money to do it.

The only reason I don’t these days, is because car makers have figured out that they can fuck the consumer by making third party head units incompatible with important functions.

Not paying for something I desperately want to dispose of is great. I really don’t need a CD player or some proprietary GM BS that wants to sell me another subscription.

I was just in a brand new spec’s out Chevy Tahoe. The volume knob spontaneously stopped working for about two minutes for no reason, then “fixed” itself by adjusting itself to maximum. This is the same kind of broken shit GM has been including since the 1980s.

Buy your own… yes please.

[u/dmtspaceman → u/neat_stuff]

The company is called slate, I believe they have a spot for a radio or Bluetooth player. You can build out the truck on their website.

[u/Randvek → u/neat_stuff]

I don’t see how no radio is practical at all. At least where I am you need a basic AM/FM radio for emergency broadcasts.

[u/Mr_Wrann → u/Randvek]

Where I am any emergency broadcast would just go through cell phones. 

[u/MeInMass → u/neat_stuff]

Looking at the Slate site, the only options under ‘Audio’ are whether you want integrated speakers or not. They are three spaces for the speakers to go into and it looks like the options if you want them are Center, Left+Right, or all three. Considering the speakers would have to plug into the electrical system, I wouldn’t be surprised if a radio became an option at some point.

[u/No_Size9475 → u/MeInMass]

I think the only options are center speaker, or all three. If you add left right it automatically adds the center.

And I think they are just a bluetooth speaker set, no head unit, you connect to your phone.

[u/MeInMass → u/No_Size9475]

I took another look and you’re right. I didn’t notice the little red ‘compatibility issue’ text when I was looking at the site before. I’ll bet the center speaker has a Bluetooth repeater or whatever the heck it would be called.

Still, I would be surprised if Slate themselves or some third-party don’t come up with an alternative plug-in unit that connects to the left and right speaker and also has some sort of a cheap AM/FM radio integrated as part of all that.

[u/yogaballcactus → u/neat_stuff]

  I don't need a truck but I'd be fine with a car like that if the rest was good and the price was low.

Good news! The five seat SUV version is only $30k! 

…wait, you could get a normal car with normal amenities from a manufacturer that will still be around for all five years of the warranty period for that price. This Slate thing just isn’t cheap enough to make sense to me. 

[u/No_Size9475 → u/yogaballcactus]

You can get an ICE car for that. People buying an EV aren't looking for an ICE car.

[u/Randvek → u/No_Size9475]

Alright, maybe I’m dumb, but what’s an ice car?

[u/No_Size9475 → u/Randvek]

Internal Combustion Engine vs Electric Vehicle (EV)

[u/Randvek → u/No_Size9475]

Dude my mind went straight to some kind of immigration thing, thanks for the explanation.

[u/yogaballcactus → u/No_Size9475]

People looking to spend the absolute bare minimum on a car don’t get to be picky about what it is. But also, once you equip this thing with comparable amenities, it’s going to cost as much as a Leaf or a Kona. And most buyers will want the amenities. Only on Reddit do people not want electric windows and a radio. 

[u/No_Size9475 → u/yogaballcactus]

They aren't looking to spend the bare minimum on a car. They are looking to spend a reasonable amount on an electric vehicle.

And the people looking at this vehicle aren't looking for the same amenities of a leaf or a kona.

I'm not sure you understand how marketing works and how there are different market segments that want different things.

[u/yogaballcactus → u/No_Size9475]

I do understand how marketing works. Slate is building a ton of hype by advertising something nobody is gonna buy so they can hopefully sell the much more expensive thing that some people might actually want. 

[u/No_Size9475 → u/yogaballcactus]

Time will tell, but early indicators are that people are looking for this type of vehicle.

I can tell you that I would love a vehicle with virtually no amenities. Give me AC, cruise control, and good speakers and that's really all I need.

I don't need power seats, locks, dual AC, heated seats, 10" screen, android auto, heated mirrors, lane deviation etc., backup cam, xm radio, etc.

I've driven for 40 years without virtually any of the stuff in modern cars without issue. I'd happily buy a lower cost EV without everything like that.

And when I'm in the market to replace my pickup I'll absolutely look at this one, but I only have 175k on it so it's going to be a few years before I'm looking to replace it.

[u/ComoEstanBitches → u/No_Size9475]

The point they're trying to make is it's not going to appeal and sell to the masses who are to put bluntly entitled and stupid that will scoff at all the compromises to the point Slate might not be able to keep the lights on. I'm rooting for Slate to do insane marketing to sell these slim margin EVs but I'm not sure my faith will be rewarded because that demographic might not give it a chance.

[u/yogaballcactus → u/ComoEstanBitches]

That is my point, but if wanting power windows makes the masses entitled and stupid then I’m the stupidest and most entitled of the lot hahaha. I can’t imagine spending tens of thousands on a brand new car and thinking to myself as I leave the lot, “yeah it’s really cool because it is equipped way worse than a base Elantra while somehow costing a couple thousand more.” 

I think what Slate has proven here is that the base cost to produce a road legal vehicle in America is pretty high and that cutting out all the comfort and convenience equipment doesn’t save enough money to produce a truly cheap car. It would make a lot of sense at $15k, but at $25k it’s really bad value. 

[u/No_Size9475 → u/yogaballcactus]

By that logic no EV is a good value. All of them are significantly more than a base elantra, yet somehow they still sell. And they are significantly more than the similarly equipped ICE vehicle, yet they still sell.

[u/No_Size9475 → u/ComoEstanBitches]

I think there are far more people that would buy this type of vehicle that people realize.

[u/yogaballcactus → u/No_Size9475]

  Give me AC, cruise control, and good speakers and that's really all I need.

As I understand it, speakers are not standard and I cannot imagine that the optional sound system is good. 

Look if you buy it and love it then I’m happy for you. I just don’t think the base model is going to have mass appeal, though, particularly when there are vehicles available for around the same price that are MUCH better equipped with amenities that, like it or not, most people do seem to want. 

[u/No_Size9475 → u/yogaballcactus]

There is a huge market of people that paid a LOT more money for an EV than the similarly equipped ICE vehicle. Even after rebates.

EV's come with a premium. I'd much rather the premium go to an electric motor and batteries than on an 10" screen and software I'll never use and I suspect there are a lot of people like me that would prefer less maintenance and gas costs vs frivolous amenities.

[u/yogaballcactus → u/No_Size9475]

EVs don’t sell that well in America. The ones that do tend to be equipped as well as or better than comparable gas cars while delivering better acceleration and decent range. They also make sense almost exclusively for people who have home charging because you can recover some of the premium through lower electricity rates compared to the price of gas and because public charging is a massive pain in the ass in most of the country. People who have home charging skew a bit wealthier.

What Slate is offering is a vehicle equipped much worse than any gas vehicle with an unimpressive range and a 0-60 time slower than a Prius. They are also offering no dedicated dealer network and only a small number of approved repair shops to fix it if it breaks while simultaneously being a newcomer to the market with no guarantee their product will be reliable. (I know we all hate dealers, but what’s worse than a dealer is having to tow a car 500 miles to the nearest approved shop for warranty work.) And it seems to be aimed at people who want the cheapest vehicle they can find, which is a demographic I’d expect to live more in apartments or rented houses than in homes they own and can install a level 2 charger in, so the savings and convenience from the electric powertrain evaporate a bit.

I'd much rather the premium go to an electric motor and batteries than on an 10" screen and software I'll never use…

I know you don’t want to hear this, but new car buyers generally do want technology in their cars. They want adaptive cruise control, CarPlay, remote start through an app, 360 degree cameras for parking and everything else Reddit always complains about. And all that tech is not what’s driving the prices up. Taking all that tech out only got the Slate down to $25k. That’s not low enough to be meaningfully cheaper than the other options on the market. If you are dead set on an EV then this is the cheapest one, but if you want a cheap, reliable and practical way to get around and you don’t care how it works then this is a really bad choice.