Delivery timing?

[Jason Miller]

Anyone know how to see when they will actually receive their new slate vehicle?

 

[ScooterAsheville]

If Slate is like other OEMs, they'll offer a delivery tracker web page. You'll order, see your scheduled production date, see the truck come off the line, see the scheduled pickup and delivery dates.

Since Slate is releasing pricing in June, I'm guessing they'll open the order books same time or a month or so later? And I'd hope you'd be able to track everything within a few weeks of placing your order? OEMs typically run production in batches, and they plan months ahead.

That's all pure guessing based on what other OEMs do. You might send the question to Slate support? They're very good at answering questions like that. And you could let us know what they say.

 

[Jason Miller]

Thank you I will reply with the results once I get the answer.

 

[The Weatherman]

The only hint so far has been a comment from the CEO that they will start deliveries on a regional bases. They have not disclosed what the regions are or what it is based on.

The bottomline is that our reservation position will not play the primary factor in when we might see our order open up. 🙁

 

[KevinRS]

I have to think that that was part of the plan from the start, read the terms when you put down your $50 reservation. But also that it's not as bad as some make it sound. They can't sequentially send out 1 order at a time, in reservation order, that would cost too much. But I doubt they will fill thousands of orders in region 1 before moving to region 2.
Partly it is going to depend on the logistics of us actually picking up the trucks, what kind of setup they have at those locations, and how many there are, but they are going to have a minimum they would ship to a regional hub of a train car load, and ship out full loads, and they would ship from there to whatever the fulfillment location is a car carrier at a time. They may start with regions that have lots of early reservations, and make sure everything goes smoothly, before opening up other regions.
On tracking, and seeing when your truck comes off the line, with only 2 variations, they might not get that detailed as giving you a vin when it comes off the line.

 

[The Weatherman]

Everything you say makes perfect sense.

But it will still feel like everyone is cutting line, if you were there first. 🙁

Just human nature.

 

[Doctors Do Little]

Everything you say makes perfect sense.

But it will still feel like everyone is cutting line, if you were there first. 🙁

Just human nature.

maybe there will be a secondary market for reservation slots? Perhaps I trade down from 1st week to 50th week in exchange for cash and future draft considerations?

 

[KevinRS]

What they may do is some time this summer or fall, maybe after the test drive opportunities get going, start sending emails offering for people to convert to orders. Maybe they send the first 10k reservation holders the email, all at once, but that's just a random round number, maybe they send it to the first day's reservations, but maybe they keep the first batch small to test the system and get an idea on conversion rate. That would let you start the paperwork on financing through the bank they are using if needed, and put a real deposit down, at the point that you are putting the full deposit down, they kind of have to have a timeline for you of approximately when you'd get your delivery.
They may do this in kind of large batches, making exactly when you put your reservation in moot. Those who reserved a week in would still have to wait, they got 100k reservations in the first weeks, and another 50k by September. There may be a significant percentage who don't convert, that's what's happened with other launches, but then those others were at higher price points. It's hard to anticipate what the rate will be. The economy and so how much money people have available, gas prices and more may vary significantly by then. If they are getting production ramped up relatively quickly and conversion is similar to others, they may get through the 150k and more relatively quickly. If gas prices are high, and people still have the money to buy the truck, it may take longer.

 

[Kopsis]

My guess (hopefully I'm wrong) is that when you placed your reservation will have little to do with where you end up in the production queue. I think there will be a pre-order period (probably about a month long) where orders are open to all reservation holders. After that they'll open orders to everyone. Your spot in the production queue will depend only on your region and when you place your actual order.

Maybe they'll stage the pre-order period in blocks (say 50k reservations) to limit load on the systems so early reservation holders may have some advantage, but I doubt you'll have much time (maybe a week) to pull the trigger if you want to secure that advantage. I would be extremely surprised if someone holding a "first 10,000" reservation slot could wait until Q4 to order and still secure one of the first trucks off the line (especially given the zero-commitment nature of the reservations).

 

[AZFox]

From the FAQ:

"$50 (fully refundable) holds your spot in line"

 

[KevinRS]

From the FAQ:

"$50 (fully refundable) holds your spot in line"

I see that meaning they might not get to aggressive in offering conversion, meaning they won't be offering conversion to additional people once they have trucks allocated with deposits and contracts more than a couple of months out. If they were too aggressive, the hour 1 reserver who waits a month or 2 would find a year plus wait.

 

[AZFox]

They could handle postponements (at least) two ways.

1. If you opt to postpone you go to the end of the line.
2. If you opt to postpone you keep your priority status.

IMHO #1 wold be pretty rude and #2 makes more sense.

 

[KevinRS]

Priority status would mean you get to chose from the next available delivery dates, people who have already paid for and locked in a date wouldn't get bumped.
Postponing wouldn't put you waiting behind those who just put down their $50, but it would put you behind those who have put down a $3000 deposit.

 

[AZFox]

Postponing wouldn't put you waiting behind those who just put down their $50, but it would put you behind those who have put down a $3000 deposit.

That's what I meant by #2 on my list.

Once your turn in the reservation queue comes up you have ability to enter the deposit queue at your convenience, if that makes sense.

 

[KevinRS]

That's what I meant by #2 on my list.

Once your turn in the reservation queue comes up you have ability to enter the deposit queue at your convenience, if that makes sense.

That's basically what Chris Barman implied as to how it would work in one of the videos. The caveat to be aware of would be that if they open up for enough people to enter deposits, you might not have a very fast turnaround.