Probably going to mean putting down a real deposit, making more of a commitment to buy. Doing the digital paperwork for financing, etc. Might involve some kind of date range for delivery. Once people made that much commitment, Slate will be able to plan out where and when to actually deliver how many trucks.
Who said December for test drives?
Ask local shops you do work with around you to sign up. Everyone is dead right now, almost no shop is going to deny a program that gets more people scheduled and in their doors.
Most companies take like 5 years minimum to make profit, some decades (lot's of tech companies are this way). To see an auto manufacturer have the ability to realistically turn profit in just a few years WITHOUT selling your data and making you subscribe to their services (or even have financing/leases) is insane. I hope this get's talked about more when/if it does happen that fast, because that truly is industry changing at a a HUGE benefit to the consumer.
My honest and slightly hopeful guess is "production" (off the assembly line) units will be available early Fall, and in reviewers hands, along with demo units for test drives, and media rounds. Then by say December, November if we are lucky, units are ready for customers.
It varies by OEM, but with the Ford Maverick, they take orders around mid-July for production in mid Nov and deliveries late Dec. At least that's how I seem to recall it has worked most years.
Whoa there! Revenue <> profit. You can have billions in revenue and still lose billions. Companies do this as far back as memory goes. If I can channel "Boogie Nights", you've got your overhead costs, your operating costs, your material costs, your warranty costs, etc.
I would assume a bigger down payment (bigger than the $50 reservation... maybe $100 up to a couple thousand) + paperwork + formal cancellation/refund policy. Hopefully even kits and accessories, too. That would give them solid info on what kits to make and accessories to focus on. They likely won't want much unused kit/accessory stock, especially when they start shipping completed Blank Slates.
Agree, I think they need something of a quantitative handle on initial accessory demand, especially the big stuff. Contract order with deposit.
I was told that they will start doing ride/drive events in june/july for fleets. the trucks that they will have for those should be very close to a production truck, so we will get a great idea of what we should expect.
I'm hoping for about the same pricing as you list above. They are smart folks. I could see them getting really aggressive on price of blank slate, but it's tough when you don't have real world data yet. e.g. Avg contribution margin on accessories. Note that Barman said that they would reach profitability in '27 if they hit forecasts. That would be a run rate of 35-40K of units/qtr. Many assumptions in there, but if true, is pretty remarkable.
