Is the cost of the SUV Kit a turn-off?

[cadblu]

This is the thing that concerns me the most with Slate. Will they support aftermarket accessories, or will they try to lock you in to their accessories. They claim it's going to be open, and they'll be posting models and all that, but we're less than a year out from supposed delivery, and I have yet to see the aftermarket announce any Slate accessories.

Fully agree. I don't believe Slate has released their CAD models, or even detailed dimensions, to allow third party accessory companies to begin their design process. Slate has already stated they don't expect to realize a profit until their 2nd year of production. Meaning there are low or even negative margins in the first year. In the aerospace company I used to work, we joked that we packaged each unit with 10-$500 bills inside in the initial production run.

I'm sure the accounting folks at Slate are taking this under consideration, and revenue will be recovered in part by 'Slate certified' accessories wherein it will likely be tightly controlled and built on site, at least in the first year or so. In fact, today I see new job postings for "accessories procurement agents" by Slate on LinkedIn, and 33 have already applied.

 

[KevinRS]

Slate is asking for 3rd parties to contact them, they want 3rd party stuff available and in the maker by launch. There may be NDAs involved keeping us from hearing what companies are involved already, because Slate wants to sell them through the maker (their marketplace) and so wants to protect themselves and their partners from being beaten to market by someone selling on Temu or Aliexpress.
Slate doesn't intend to produce most of the accessories in house, only the ones like the SUV kit with airbags that have to be part of the safety testing. The floor mats and others shown on the maker may just be placeholders, while the real thing will be coming from a company you've already heard of.

 

[sodamo]

It will be interesting if Leer offers a top how they will execute it. Most Leer pickup bed tops attach to the bed leaving the cab wall and rear glass in place. Slate's top moves the rear section of the cab shell including the glass to the rear of their top, and the cab wall partition is removed for the SUV transition. I think what you are suggesting is Leer's standard application of a top over the pickup bed that would keep the Slate's original cab configuration (i.e. the rear shell and cab wall stay in place)? I'm not sure how that works with a unibody pickup design.

I have to wonder if Slate wants to protect its topper solution will it pull the "patent card" to prevent other topper manufacturers from designing their tops to accept the Slate's cab rear shell.

Had a Leer top on my Ridgeline (a unibody), worked well. I think I would prefer the Slate top for the reasons you stated, much better fit. I like the idea of being able to remove the top panel. We don‘t know if the window panel stays in place how it would open and doubt removal required. I would expect any 3rd party topper would be similar to those available other brands, a standard configuration. If Slate went the patent route, for one that replaces the rear glass, I would suspect that unit would have to offer a competitive feature.
SUV top, minus seats, rollbar, airbags but keeps midgate in place would be ideal.