Simplicity!

[E90400K]

Yes, I know those cheap ICEs exist, but I am in the market for a simple affordable 2 door pickup truck.
The Slate gets bonus points because it will be easy for me to reconfigure it as I wish.

Understood, so am I, but the sustainability of Slate is dependent upon the market acceptance of the Slate's idea to more than us here on the forum.

 

[Imhotep]

Yeah. So, is the 9-peice-part door a 1-part assembly or in the 600-part count? And compared to say a Ranger, with a 20-piece part count door assembly...?

I would say it depends on how (if?) it arrives from the supplier. Everything pre-assembled counts as one. That’s how it works at the factory I work at, but I will not claim to be an expert in the automotive industry.

 

[Sparkie]

Understood, so am I, but the sustainability of Slate is dependent upon the market acceptance of the Slate's idea to more than us here on the forum.

Yup.
I balance my minor concerns regarding Slate's long term sales and production over a naive hope in 3 possibilities:

1. Slate's fleet sales will overshadow individual sales to consumers like me
2. Some non-EV auto maker will purchase Slate as a new division to their existing ICE portfolio (a company like Mazda)
3. That a simplified EV pickup DIY niche market can somehow continue despite low volume -- similar to how we still have motorcycle makers surviving today.

I wonder what I will think of myself when I re-read my post 3 years from now.

 

[cadblu]

It all looked great on paper. But now "production hell" is upon them. I'm cheering for Slate to triumph, because who wouldn't? But I'm cheering with the same confidence as NY Jets fans.

Folks, it really doesn’t matter much if it’s 600 parts or 6000…. If key suppliers don‘t deliver the ONE crippling part on time, production will come to a screeching halt. Yes, I’ve lived through production hell, and yes, you can only build short with so many workarounds until …the SHTF stage.

I wonder if Chris, Erik, and Tisha are preparing to sleep on the shop floor as Elon routinely did in the early factory startup days.

 

[KevinRS]

From how it's been talked about in the interviews, it may be less 600 assemblies than 600 part numbers.
The left and right tail lights: the same part numbers, it's symmetrical and just flipped over. The door armrest, same part both sides, and also same part on the console option.
Round headlights, same on both sides.
I'm sure they are counting a wheel bearing as one part, and not counting each bearing in it, that's not something that is reasonably going to be disassembled and an individual bearing swapped out.
The instrument panel was designed down from 27 parts to 7, so they obviously aren't counting every diode and resistor. Take apart a dashboard on most cars, and you have dozens to maybe a hundred parts. Slate looks to maybe have around 1 dozen parts total, not counting those 7 in the electronic instrument panel, maybe 2 dozen if you count all the buttons and controls, and multiple are duplicates.