Munro Live: Beta Factory Hoist Review of Slate Battery, Motor, Suspension, Underbody, Frunk, Body, Electrical System, Software, Safety & More

[SlatePossible2028]

Reply:

Rich Rebuilds input is about as Valuble to the auto industry as supercar blondie lol.

A youtuber i follow who does pretty big deep dives on scams and tech issues among other things recently made a video about how he was approached by a Chinese agency to do some paid for propaganda - and hes not even in the car sphere.

Sadly the state of things nowadays

 

[Garbone]

About the video.

Beta Soft top? 34:57

 

[Letas]

as I understand it the battery cells are USA, and the modules will be assembled in Indiana.
I'll have to go research the actual cells, and where those !@#$ minerals come from

Could we start a lithium mine in the middle of NYC? might improve the area quite a bit.

Look up the McDermitt Caldera. Will be firing up soon, mining Li in USA

 

[AKrietzer]

About the video.

Beta Soft top? 34:57

I noticed all the surface on the black slate up on the lift was wrinkly. I have never seen the wrap in person, and possibly when it is first installed, it looks like a tarp. I guess you heat it to work out the wrinkles? This could be what you are seeing as a soft top.

This is the best picture I could save showing wrinkles on the fenders.

 

[Garbone]

GM has a good handle on the domestic Li supply, for GM.. It is hard to try to find a good investment in Li domestically. I went on a personal research binge couple of years ago and came up dry as to dropping some penny stock money. Most of the Li mines on the startup side looked sketch at the time.

 

[Garbone]

I had a GrizzlE charger before moving to Emporia. The GrizzlE was flat black and my install sat outside in direct Florida sun for about 5 hours a day. It would get smoking hot to the touch just sitting there.. I decide why not try to wrap it and bought a roll of Gloss White wrap on Amazon. It actually did a good job but the experience of just doing a little box leads me to think, ya, I will pay a shop to wrap my vehicles. Just like window tint the pros make it look easy but myself, I make it look sad.....

 

[Letas]

GM has a good handle on the domestic Li supply, for GM.. It is hard to try to find a good investment in Li domestically. I went on a personal research binge couple of years ago and came up dry as to dropping some penny stock money. Most of the Li mines on the startup side looked sketch at the time.

Is GM (Ultium) sourcing any lithium domestically? I know they’re investing in Thacker pass, but no lithium is coming out of that yet

 

[Garbone]

Is GM (Ultium) sourcing any lithium domestically? I know they’re investing in Thacker pass, but no lithium is coming out of that yet

Always looking for a place to throw a few $100 bills on a startup. No idea on the state of Thacker.

 

[AZFox]

Looks like the article points to Rod Copes as employee number one, and they frame it as "Our chairman at the time". [...]

https://sherwood.news/tech/slate-au...lls-us-how-exactly-its-making-a-usd25-000-ev/

Here's that part of the article:

​

[...] How do we get back down into that space of the affordable vehicle? Miles Arnone iterated it with Jeff Wilke, the chairman [of Re:Build Manufacturing], and they decided, “Hey, we think this has merit. Go and see if it could be done.” So Re:Build hired a few people, myself included. I’m employee number two.​

​

Our chairman at the time, Rod Copes, was employee number one, and we hired a very small team of people just to understand: could we build a form factor that could be an affordable vehicle for everyday Americans? At the end of 2022, we were able to show that it’s possible to do that and have a viable business case. Then we moved forward to raise money. It was at that point that Jeff Bezos invested in the company that became Slate.​

 

[PACMAN]

In the video, I noticed drive axles going to both rear wheels. This makes it a bit more capable in low-traction situations. Is this typical of modern RWD vehicles? In “traditional” pickups, when you’re in RWD, only one of the two is the drive wheel.

 

[PACMAN]

Also, the engineer made kid of a big deal about the motor being mounted to the “frame” rather than the axle. (Less unsprung weight.) Are some EVs built the other way around?

 

[Luxrage]

In the video, I noticed drive axles going to both rear wheels. This makes it a bit more capable in low-traction situations. Is this typical of modern RWD vehicles? In “traditional” pickups, when you’re in RWD, only one of the two is the drive wheel.

Yeah, all RWD and AWD vehicles have drive axels to both wheels, however it comes down to the differential for sending power to one wheel or the other, or both. I'm assuming most modern cars use open differentials in the rear wheels unless it's a sports car or off-roader. I'm sure the differential is built into that drive unit as it looks like the axels just come out both ends. (Edit: Yes it is, from the other thread talking about the motor, it has the differential listed as part of the 3-in-1 package)

Assuming Slates will be one wheel peel machines with that EV torque. A locking differential option would be nice.

Edit: Researching this post made me realize I barely know how diffs work. Very helpful video on that.

 

[brian10x]

Yeah, all RWD and AWD vehicles have drive axels to both wheels, however it comes down to the differential for sending power to one wheel or the other, or both. I'm assuming most modern cars use open differentials in the rear wheels unless it's a sports car or off-roader. I'm sure the differential is built into that drive unit as it looks like the axels just come out both ends. (Edit: Yes it is, from the other thread talking about the motor, it has the differential listed as part of the 3-in-1 package)

Assuming Slates will be one wheel peel machines with that EV torque. A locking differential option would be nice.

Edit: Researching this post made me realize I barely know how diffs work. Very helpful video on that.

AXLE.
Forum spelling NAZI on duty.

 

[Dorbiman]

Also, the engineer made kid of a big deal about the motor being mounted to the “frame” rather than the axle. (Less unsprung weight.) Are some EVs built the other way around?

Yes, sometimes the motor is built into the differential. It's known as an e-axle

 

[AZFox]

In the video, I noticed drive axles going to both rear wheels. This makes it a bit more capable in low-traction situations. Is this typical of modern RWD vehicles? In “traditional” pickups, when you’re in RWD, only one of the two is the drive wheel.

Both wheels are driven. This 22M-view video explains how that works, and why the Center Section of a traditional live axle is called a "differential":