Destination and Documentation Fees

[AZFox]

TL;DR: The question is:
What should we expect Destination (a.k.a Delivery) and Documentation fees to be? If you expect other mandatory fees, what are they?


I'm asking about this because I got curious what my out-the-door price for a Slate Truck might be, and there's a big Question Mark where some of the fees go.

The total "Out-The-Door" cost of a new Slate will include

* Price of the vehicle
* Sales Tax
* Destination (a.k.a. Delivery) Fee
* Documentation Fee
* Title and Registration Fee
* Junk Fees (Prep Fee or whatever)
* EV-Specific Fee (some places)

Wow, what a buzzkill that list is!

I started to make a "delivery and document fees" poll, but delivery charges presumably will be location-specific, so that idea fizzled.

What should we expect?

 

[Neil Nelson]

Sales Tax for the Utah area varies but is roughly 7%. Delivery should be less than $1,000. Title and Registration will be around $100. Everything else is negligible if they happen at all.

I forgot to mention paperwork when you are financing the Slate. The charges and interest when financing will be considerable.

Another item to mention is automobile insurance.

 

[Luxrage]

Another item to mention is automobile insurance.

I'm interested in how insurance will be, it's carving out a new category for compact EV pickups.

 

[Neil Nelson]

Since my vehicles are paid for, the only insurance I need is for accidents with other drivers.

 

[AZFox]

I found title and registration by searching multiple places. The best result (YMMV) was from a Brave search for:
Arizona new vehicle license and registration cost for 27500

MSRP + Sales Tax + License & Registration + ? = OTD

Sales tax here is 9.1%, so for $27,500 it's

$27,500 + $2,502.50 + $480.50 + ? = OTD
or
$30,483 + ? = OTD

 

[KevinRS]

Sales tax and registration fees depend on the state.
Documentation fee is charged by a dealer to process the paperwork, some states limit it, so it might vary. Hopefully with no dealers and only 2 base models with different batteries, slate will have the paperwork automated and not charge much for this.
Destination fee covers delivery to a dealership normally, slate might charge this, and might charge a delivery fee on top of this if they are delivering to your curb if their pickup locations aren't close.
Hopefully slate is going to skip all the other possible fees dealerships tack on.

Hopefully insurance won't be much of an issue, but the first buyers might have to have their insurance companies physically look at the truck if it's not in their system so they can build out what the potential repair costs would be.

 

[sodamo]

My recent Hawaii purchase:

Taxes 4.712%		4.712%
DMV Reg /Title		$225.68
Doc Fees		$529.00
Other Fees		$25.00

Will be interesting to see how Slate handles various States.
Maybe Tesla approach provides insight?

 

[Neil Nelson]

I doubt Slate will handle the various states. That will be up to the people in the states who buy Slates.

 

[Luxrage]

I'm looking at 6.25% and probably $300 in reg fees based on my county. No vanity or custom plates.

 

[KevinRS]

I doubt Slate will handle the various states. That will be up to the people in the states who buy Slates.

How do tesla and others deal with it?
Most states are going to require Slate to collect sales tax if they have sales tax.
Looking up how Rivian does it, it looks like they do handle title and registration as part of the digital experience.

 

[1yeliab_sufur1]

I found title and registration by searching multiple places. The best result (YMMV) was from a Brave search for:
Arizona new vehicle license and registration cost for 27500

MSRP + Sales Tax + License & Registration + ? = OTD

Sales tax here is 9.1%, so for $27,500 it's

$27,500 + $2,502.50 + $480.50 + ? = OTD
or
$30,483 + ? = OTD

Yah that’s about right unless you get a custom license plate that’s 25 extra

 

[Roy]

I’m not worried so much about taxes, title and insurance as I am about the reality of how they will get my truck from the factory to me. The normal model is based on the assumption that you live near a dealer. Slate is not creating a traditional dealer network. So transport from the assembly line, in the Midwest, to Montana, in winter, is my concern. Yes, obviously it will come by an auto carrier, however the reality of moving wheeled vehicles is not that simple a straightforward a proposition.

 

[GoinPostall]

The registration alone isn't too bad here in CA, but all the other taxes and fees are kinda stupid! I think my county is lower tax, and I'm in an incorporated are too. This is assuming the Slate will be able to be registered as an Automobile. If it's considered a truck, it will have to be registered as Commercial, which will raise the fees. Unfortunately, the CA DMV website doesn't want to show me what the fees would be. The screenshot is assuming $27,500 sale price. All in all, it'd be about what I originally paid for my 2020 Civic(due to dealership add on BS).

 

[Neil Nelson]

How do tesla and others deal with it?
Most states are going to require Slate to collect sales tax if they have sales tax.
Looking up how Rivian does it, it looks like they do handle title and registration as part of the digital experience.

I can see that Rivian is accepting customer information to buy a Rivian. What I was concerned with was the ability of Slate to verify an applicant's information and take the step to enforce the loan when necessary. Slate would need to keep a database of the customer's payments and have personnel to manage those kinds of sales. To make that kind of sale over the Internet requires Slate to confirm the data provided by the customer using an Internet search and by calling the customer's employer after that phone number or email address had been independently verified.

 

[AZFox]

Some people who want an SUV Kit may benefit from buying it separately.

By buying the kit after-the-fact, or otherwise separately, the SUV Kit won't be part of the MSRP that's used to calculate Vehicle License Tax (or whatever else is based on MSRP where you live).