Ford EV Announcement Aug 11 - livestream registration link

[Adam W]

Happy to have more affordable EV options in the market, but with 4 doors and ~200 inches, this one isn't for me. But I think it will keep pressure on Slate to keep their price as low as possible.

 

[Dorbiman]

Happy to have more affordable EV options in the market, but with 4 doors and ~200 inches, this one isn't for me. But I think it will keep pressure on Slate to keep their price as low as possible.

My thoughts exactly. Hopefully Slate sees more competition in their segment and offers the Slate Truck at a competitive price.

 

[ScooterAsheville]

On the wiring harness... I'd love to see 48V, but you can do a smaller harness at 12V. They key improvement in the wiring harness is not the voltage, but the controller architecture. They're doing the Rivian and Tesla thing and going to zonal architectures. That means instead of 60 domain controllers, each containing software written and owned by a supplier, they are going to 4 to 7 multi-domain controllers, hopefully with software written and owned by Ford.

Think of a domain controller as a seat module. It has the electronics to control the seat. And another domain controller for the windows. And another for the locks. And on and on. As opposed to a zonal controller, which controls everything in a quadrant of the vehicle. So one controller does seats, windows, locks, and a dozen other things. Proper zonal architecture, together with smart system-engineering, lends itself to taking a lot of wires out of the vehicle. Ergo a simpler and shorter wiring harness.

I can tell you as a Maverick owner that a modern OTA zonal electrical architecture with OEM software is something I wish I had. Wish the Slate had it, but I understand they couldn't afford it. My Maverick had to go through 4 driveway updates. It took Ford months to negotiate with the suppliers about who was at fault, who would fix, what the fix was, and who would pay. Then a tech had to come to my driveway and spend an hour flashing the controllers in question. As opposed to Rivian or Tesla, where you wake up in the AM and have a message saying "Hey, we just fixed your rear view camera software while you slept".

What 48V brings to the party is lighter wires, not shorter wiring harnesses. The cost for 48V is that it's not yet the standard. So it can cost more, and you have a smaller supplier base to select from. Hopefully 48V will find it's way into the fleet. But it's gotta pass the cost-benefit calculation first.