Article: "Slate Auto’s Sophomore Album Problem: What Comes Next?" -- what do you think?

[Luxrage]

The Smart ForTwo was able to pass US safety ratings with its tiny front crumple-zone. I remember reading they made the space-frame around the driver an ultra-rigid safety cage like a NASCAR vehicle.

yeah, whatever the Telo does with 14 inches, the slate has multiple feet that can crush down to under a foot in a serious crash before the cabin is touched, and the plastic lined frunk and it's contents won't be an issue unless you filled it with concrete blocks or something.

Fill your frunk full of beer/soda cans and ice and it'll double as one of those highway water barrels.

 

[evtruth]

The writer opines “What will they actually do next? I don't know. But figure they'll call it Slate Sedan or Slate Crossover or Slate Lunar Lander. And it will definitely, without question, be Slate gray.”

I think it would be absolutely GENIUS of Slate to start offering an EV retrofit kit. It would be PERFECT for SO many vehicles. Include the battery, motors, and all required electronics and they'd sell like hotcakes.

People are paying $25K+ for wrecked Tesla swap kits! Companies doing conversions are charging $50K+ on top of the donor car because they have to find parts, engineer a bunch of stuff, find electronics, etc. If Slate would offer a turnkey kit for $10K-$15K that includes everything... The market for EV swaps will absolutely take off and they will OWN it.

 

[Doctors Do Little]

I think it would be absolutely GENIUS of Slate to start offering an EV retrofit kit. It would be PERFECT for SO many vehicles. Include the battery, motors, and all required electronics and they'd sell like hotcakes.

People are paying $25K+ for wrecked Tesla swap kits! Companies doing conversions are charging $50K+ on top of the donor car because they have to find parts, engineer a bunch of stuff, find electronics, etc. If Slate would offer a turnkey kit for $10K-$15K that includes everything... The market for EV swaps will absolutely take off and they will OWN it.

That is definitely an idea that sparks the imagination. There are a lot of small frame vehicles that would potentially fit.

 

[E90400K]

I guess thinking about it, engine compartments have gotten tighter, if the Telo does have 14 inches of space from inside the bumper to the "firewall" that may help, but even with modern ICE vehicles, there is space between the bumper and radiator, radiator and engine, etc that adds up, and each bit hitting the next absorbs energy, some parts may deflect downward, etc. The concern would be in an accident that pushes a bumper 2 feet or more into the engine compartment, what happens to a Telo?
Hood height is a concern with most trucks now, less so with the Slate, main issue with Telo seems to be they seem to plan to keep production low for a while: low enough that it may be years before most of us see them on the road.

My brother was a early adopter of the 1984 Pontiac mid-engine Fiero. Long story short, he fell asleep at the wheel late one night and put the Fiero headfirst into a tree. Good engineering from GM, they built the Fiero with a magnesium beam at the base of the windshield as part of the front compartment wall (i.e. firewall). His Fiero took the tree all the way through the front end until it stopped at that magnesium beam. He walked away with a gash on his forehead from hitting the rearview mirror.

Hopefully Telos adopts a similar design.