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.

 

[amazing3]

This proposed Ford EV pickup is still a four-door crew cab. I’m waiting for that traditional or old style truck with a two door cab and one row of seats. The media keeps saying that the public doesn’t want a two door truck anymore. I think that the public has been convinced by marketing that they don’t want that style truck anymore. They do this to get the public to spend more money. The crew cab is more expensive than a two door. The public must also consider the comfort of those rare rear your seat passengers with better sound systems and more plush interiors. That adds more to the sticker. Going back in history, marketing convinced the public that they should be driving more expensive minivans not station wagons. Later, they should be driving more expensive and lower gas mileage SUVs not soccer Mom minivans. Now, they should be driving tall full-size crew cab pickups not soccer Mom SUVs.. I want to pickup to be used as a no-frills cargo hauler not the latest version of a soccer mom vehicle.

 

[ScooterAsheville]

The media are lemmings. They run in a mob at the narrative of the week. The following week the narrative changes, and all the media lemmings run together in a different direction. As true in auto as anything else.

The reason people stopped buying two door pickups is probably because nothing of any quality was being offered. Ford's Ranger, of which I owned three (two doors), was on a thirty-year-old platform when they discontinued it. Ford told all the media that the Ranger owners would buy F150s. Didn't happen. Then they said they'd all buy midsize Rangers when that came out. Didn't happen. Then, after a decade of lost sales, they finally released a Maverick and got old Ranger owners to bite. Except no two door.

I guess we'll find out the truth when the Slate hits the road. Maybe the product planners are right - nobody wants a two door truck. Or maybe they're wrong. I think Billy Joel did a song about that...

 

[Susan]

Maybe the media think that the public doesn't want 2 door trucks anymore because they're really hard to find. You can't buy something that nobody's willing to make.

I for one am thrilled that Slate is a small 2 door truck. Around the same size as my old Outback, but with more usable space.

Cool Billy Joel song, btw. 😎

 

[Doctors Do Little]

The media are lemmings. They run in a mob at the narrative of the week. The following week the narrative changes, and all the media lemmings run together in a different direction. As true in auto as anything else.

The reason people stopped buying two door pickups is probably because nothing of any quality was being offered. Ford's Ranger, of which I owned three (two doors), was on a thirty-year-old platform when they discontinued it. Ford told all the media that the Ranger owners would buy F150s. Didn't happen. Then they said they'd all buy midsize Rangers when that came out. Didn't happen. Then, after a decade of lost sales, they finally released a Maverick and got old Ranger owners to bite. Except no two door.

I guess we'll find out the truth when the Slate hits the road. Maybe the product planners are right - nobody wants a two door truck. Or maybe they're wrong. I think Billy Joel did a song about that...

Guess you’re in the “going to retrofit an 8 track player in my Slate to fully enjoy Billy Joel” group then?

 

[AZFox]

The media keeps saying that the public doesn’t want a two door truck anymore. I think that the public has been convinced by marketing that they don’t want that style truck anymore. They do this to get the public to spend more money.

DING DING DING!

We're overtly and covertly convinced by marketing to spend more money on all sorts of things we don't actually need. This has been happening for a long time.

Here's a clip from Century of the Self, an award-winning 2002 BBC documentary about the rise of psychoanalysis as a powerful means of persuasion for both governments and corporations. Sigmund Freud's nephew Edward Bernays literally wrote the book on Propaganda. (He later renamed "Propaganda" to "Public Relations" because of wartime propaganda's negative connotations). 4m 40s clip👇. This happened in 1929.