Slate announces Tesla supercharger access + 4,000 service / repair shops RepairPal partnership!

[Dorbiman]

Possibly, but then why make it public. It makes no sense and is a lose-lose situation. The way I see it there really is no negotiation leverage on Slate's part because of the tight schedule and production tooling is set (or should be set). If SK On says pound sand on a price reduction, sit looks bad on her. If she then has to switch suppliers to lower the Truck MSRP, she delays the schedule it looks bad on her. If it's just a BS tactic and seen as such, she it looks bad on her. If I'm Slate's other suppliers, I take a different posture with dealing with the company.

I think it's not as big of a deal as it seems. My take on it was that Slate is looking to secure more battery capacity from other suppliers, now that other OEMs have backed off a bit. Many OEMs do this today with batteries. The ID.4 had both LG Chem and SK. The Mach E used both NMC and LFP batteries during the same model year. It looks like Slate is looking to do the same; redundant supply. I don't see them doing a 100% pivot away from SK, I see them trying to get more capacity secured.

 

[Dorbiman]

I am referring to this quote, “What we’ve done is we’ve stepped back and surveyed multiple battery suppliers, and what we’re seeing is there are others in the industry that are pulling back as well on their EV launch plans—so it’s opening up capacity,” Barman said. “So we’re going out and seeing…taking survey on what’s there, and see what we can do to look at pricing.” I read that as trying to find a lower-cost battery (cell) supplier. Again, why the need to make such things public, if only to try and instill in us prospective customers Slate is trying to reduce its parts costs to achieve a low MSRP in reaction to the lost EV tax credit at the consumer tier. They should be trying to reduce parts costs regardless of current US tax policy. My opinion of course.

I don't assume that they would pass savings on the consumer. Again, I don't think it matters that this is public, and I don't think SK On cares at all either, if Slate continues to buy the batteries per their contract. But like you said, just my opinion.