Slate contingency/exit plan

[AZFox]

Here's to hoping your preservation club remains irrelevant for a long time!

FTFY

 

[AZFox]

I think by a decade from now an industry around replacement EV batteries will develop and, as a fully qualified rando prognosticating on a forum, I'll also predict that there will be replacement batteries that are better than the originals.

 

[alegory575]

If the company goes under, you’re basically looking at an "orphan" vehicle. While 3D printing handles the plastic bits and trim, you’ll be hunting junkyards or eBay for specialized items like the main traction battery or the drive unit controllers. The RepairPal partnership is great for labor, but it doesn’t guarantee a supply chain for proprietary hardware if the factory in Indiana stops humming.

 

[RetiredOnPaper]

The simplicity makes the idea of maintaining it long term way easier, especially if a lot of the parts (I'm thinking of things like wheel bearings, ball joints etc) are off the shelf components used in other vehicles. The motor is from outside company that supplies other manufacturers, so it should be serviceable even without slate. The battery pack being large and rectangular means stuffing new modules in should be easier to figure out.
Even if slate sold like 100 units and then folded, and no one could crack the software, a dedicated weirdo could stuff the drivetrain from another vehicle in.

Exactly.

 

[Johnny5]

Orphans. I’ve been part of the Pacific Gold Rush Ramblers (Northern California chapter of the AMC Rambler Club), and I’ve had friends in groups dedicated to Packards, Vanguard CitiCars, GEM cars, HMV Freeways, and other niche transportation fetishes. I'm pretty darned confident Slate has more than enough fanbase to keep our little trucks in the wind for a long, long time. What makes Slates' a better choice in the larger scheme, is us. Just look at the posts on this forum, almost all them have to do with making it better, faster smoother and more efficient, and they aren't even in production yet. If there's fools who can road trip lawnmower powered, trikes built in a shed, in the 70's I think we got this.