how many 2 door pickups of any kind are sold each year?

[Dorbiman]

The goalposts move continuously....

it's almost like it's a multifaceted and complex issue with no single root cause

 

[AZFox]

it's almost like it's a multifaceted and complex issue with no single root cause

...or perhaps a single root cause (the Purpose Of a System Is What It Does) with multiple facets and, as @Letas points out, a convenient CAFE scapegoat.

 

[Dorbiman]

Totally. CAFE gets pointed at because it’s easy to see as “the problem,” but it’s really just one piece of a bigger puzzle. Automakers are balancing safety rules, global regulations, production costs, and consumer demand. The fines look small per car, but scale quickly, and long term R&D and efficiency investments usually make more sense than just paying penalties.

 

[skidoofast]

It is an interesting paradigm. When I try to work it out in my head, I always land on the idea that "if there was a big enough market for it, someone would be selling them!".

It's not like its a new thing- manual cars, or 2 door pickups. They've existed for decades, but are going away. Surely if the market was as big as the internet claims, one company would capture it. They want to make money, right?

I think we agree that the 2 door pickup is a smaller market, I also believe it is held down because of cost vs return

different stamps for the steel, different jigs for the frame, different interior panels, another set of program for every process, possibly another line which means more factory space, and a ton of other logistical needs

and another line to take up production and resources from other vehicles

also there is the factor that if they did produce a smaller 2 door vehicle would that pull sales from another vehicle in your lineup that is already being produced and cost the consumer more money and making you more profit? why chop off your own arm?

that's where Slate could have an advantage they are not currently producing anything so they would pull sales from other manufacturers, they wont be pulling their own resources from something else to make this work, their numbers produced per year will be larger than the Maverick (119,000 per year) but their modularity basically makes it multiple models so the segment for 1 vehicle is much larger

time will tell, I also believe that Slate will need to expand its lineup fairly early on which opens up all the above problems to them as well