🔋 The Extended Battery Decision (Poll: Which battery option suits you best?)

[AZFox]

Again, no one at slate actually said the $27,499 number.

Categorically false, however

Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired --Jonathan Swift in 1721​

 

[KevinRS]

Categorically false, however

Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired --Jonathan Swift in 1721​

You can say it's false, but every time someone tries to point out an example, it's not a quote, it's a calculation based off of "below 20k after incentive"

 

[AZFox]

it's not a quote, it's a calculation based off of "below 20k after incentive"

 

[Neil Nelson]

You can say it's false, but every time someone tries to point out an example, it's not a quote, it's a calculation based off of "below 20k after incentive"

And it is a very easy calculation. "Below 20k after incentive" means below $27,500 without incentive. If Slate wanted to sell their vehicle farther below $20k, they would have said that.

 

[AZFox]

Ability to correct yourself leads to wisdom.
It's simple. Notice i didn't say "easy".

 

[Thutchis]

I live in Rural NE Oregon. Extended range works better for me. An 60-90 round-trip drive to larger cities is a pretty regular occurance.

 

[AZFox]

I appreciate all the knowledge that's been contributed in the thread. Advice from current EV owners, especially, is valuable to us EV n00bz.

I reserved Slot #2 for a summary of some sort. Ideally it'll be a single place someone can the information they need for making a decision they won't regret / will be happy about.

Not sure what to put there yet. So far I've scanned the thread and put some mostly-paraphrased notes in a text file. Is there any point of view missing?

@GaRailroader: Extended reduces the rate of accumulating cycles (Battery Longevity)
@Adam W: I'll still have my ICE car for those times when I need the range.
@Dorbiman: Expect the extra weight to have a negligible effect on range.
@cadblu: [T]he population who gets the standard range battery will deeply regret their decision. The $4.K you 'saved' on delivery day will long be forgotten in the future. (@Garbone disagrees with this.)
@GaRailroader: Avoid Standard if you plan on road-tripping.
@KevinRS: The best option for occasional long trips would probably be just rent an ICE vehicle, or fly.
@Trace26: Cost and weight are the biggest factors.
@RetiredOnPaper: Newbees will spend more time at Buckie's then they expect.
@HTXSlate: Long range if the price is under 4k
@atx_ev: The vast majority of people drive around 35 miles/day. Obviously if you drive more you need the bigger pack. Otherwise invest the money and let it grow.
@Mac-Tyson: Thinks standard range is suitable and it will make the Truck more fun to drive.
@AZFox: Traveling at highway speeds reduces range significantly (could be 30%(!) less range).
@JoeUser: First time EV buyers put 'long range ' at the top of their shopping list. Second time EV buyers do not.
@cvollers: Resale for extended vs. standard most likely will favor extended.
@AZFox: Resale value for options tends to be low. A 2021 Mustang Mach-E Extended option has depreciated by ~90% ($5,000->now $500 as of August 2025).
@KevinRS: With home charging you're "topping off the tank" every night. How far do you drive in a day and what is the farthest you will regularly be driving?

 

[atx_ev]

resale value is a bad reason

4K put into the market will double in value about every 7 years. There is no circumstances where the battery recoups that.

my wife has 60 miles on her PHEV, we are still using L1 charging and a tank of gas has lasted 2500 miles and was only halfway done.

With L2 charging I think we would have used no gas. I havent bothered with the L2 charging because I dont want the gas to sit in her car for 9 months.

 

[Daemoch]

Ive got a buddy with a hybrid Volt that says he goes through 3 tanks a year, and that only because the car tells him the gas is getting old and it auto-switches to it to use it up. Dunno if that helps anyone, but there ya go.

 

[FunkyFinch57]

And there are some benefits going Standard provides

• Higher payload capacity
• Extra distance per kWh
• Faster acceleration
• Shorter braking distance
• Less wear on tires and suspension
• Better handling

I’m curious, regarding the additional wear to tires and suspension, is this a documented phenomenon with other EVs? Are long-range variants known to have noticeably more wear?

I recognize the physics dictates that these points are true, but I’m curious if it has any noticeable impact on cost of ownership.

 

[SLATEchad]

Again, no one at slate actually said the $27,499 number. Lots of writers and influencers did the math of under 20k after 7.5k incentives, but that under 20k has a lot more room under it than that one dollar.

Exactly. And there have been multiple instances of direct from Slate statements that they will try to get the price down as close to the original $20k price, along with statements throwing out the $25k number. Just annoying these broken records recycling the $27.5k number. Yes, it’s possible that ends up being base price, but really if Slate wants to succeed, I think that’s on the high end… though that depends a lot on what the rest of the market is doing at time of release.

 

[AZFox]

Exactly. And there have been multiple instances of direct from Slate statements that they will try to get the price down as close to the original $20k price, along with statements throwing out the $25k number.

If you want to troll that topic, please do it in a different thread.

This thread is about which battery option to choose.

 

[AZFox]

[Edit: Calculation error spotted by @Driven5. Now re-calculated here.]

So I crunched some numbers....

The standard battery has a capacity of 52.7 kWh and the extended battery has a capacity of 84.3 kWh. The ranges are 150 miles and 240 miles respectively.

240 miles on 84.2 kWh is 2.85 miles per kWh.
150 miles on 52.7 kWh is 3.2 miles per kWh.

3.2 divided by 2.85 is 1.1228

So is this correct?

A Truck with the Standard battery is more energy-efficient because it goes 12% farther on the same amount of energy compared to a Truck with the Extended battery.​

Cost-of-ownership and all, can anybody translate this to energy cost for, lets say, 50,000 miles (the distance you might go before wanting to trade in your barely-broken-in Truck for a newer, spiffier Truck with New Cool Hotness)?

 

[AKrietzer]

So I crunched some numbers....

The standard battery has a capacity of 52.7 kWh and the extended battery has a capacity of 84.3 kWh. The ranges are 150 miles and 240 miles respectively.

240 miles on 84.2 kWh is 2.85 miles per kWh.
150 miles on 52.7 kWh is 3.2 miles per kWh.

3.2 divided by 2.85 is 1.1228

So is this correct?

A Truck with the Standard battery is more energy-efficient because it goes 12% farther on the same amount of energy compared to a Truck with the Extended battery.​

Cost-of-ownership and all, can anybody translate this to energy cost for, lets say, 50,000 miles (the distance you might go before wanting to trade in your barely-broken-in Truck for a newer, spiffier Truck with New Cool Hotness)?

Besides a little extra weight, why would the larger battery be less efficient? 12% seems like it is a larger difference than just to haul a little more weight. Is there a noticable difference if you have a passenger?

BTW, have they said the difference in the weight of the two batteries?

 

[Dorbiman]

There have been tests that show that weight alone has almost no effect on efficiency or range. I’d be surprised if there was much difference at all in efficiency between the two battery sizes