What is Slate competing with for YOUR money?

[ScooterAsheville]

Actual Maverick owner here. Reluctantly purchased a 2022 XLT AWD Maverick with LUX package three years ago. It's been a nice enough ride, but it's a bloated fat pig that burns gasoline and has two doors too many. I see several Mavericks every day. I rarely (very rarely) see more than one person in a Maverick. I never see one towing. I never see one where the bed has anything in the back. It's used 99.999% of the time as a one-person runabout.

Over on the Maverick forums (been there 3 years now) the BEV hating trolls are vociferously slamming the Slate. Some of their favorite Slate-hater slams...

• Slate will go bankrupt before it delivers a single truck
• Nobody on the planet wants a two door truck anyway
• Nobody on the planet wants a BEV. Everyone should buy a hybrid (the Maverick hybrid guys are amazingly arrogant)
• Nobody on the planet wants a plastic truck (after which they post a thread whining about the cheap Maverick paint that they just scratched)
• The Slate looks cheap inside (apparently they never looked at the inside of a cheap-ass Maverick).
• The Maverick has way more infotainment (after which they post a thread whining about the cheap-ass, decade-behind Sync 2.5 system)
• The Slate can't tow anything (which is funny, because 99% of Maverick owners never tow anything anyway).
• The Slate can only go 150 miles (they never even bothered to visit the Slate website before trolling).
• The Slate has no AC (ditto)
• The Slate is only 2WD (ditto)
• You can't get power windows (ditto)
• BEVs will break the power grid (odd that the operators of the national power grid all say "no problem here")

What I've learned on the Maverick site is that haters are going to hate. You can try to educate them, but they're having way too much fun hating to incorporate new information into their comfortable and satisfying world-view narrative..

Can't wait to replace my Maverick with a Slate. I'll wait for the AWD, large battery version to become available. The price and no-incentive doesn't bother me at all. To replace my AWD XLT LUX CP360 Maverick is almost $40,000. As long as I can get a Slate AWD with big battery for that much money or less, I'm a happy camper.

 

[KevinRS]

I doubt very much that the panel is 80, probably 100+ or more.
for an L2 charger you need a 30A circuit at 220v,
uses #10 wire (if distance is short, say less than 50 ft)

If this is not sufficient? Please, do not get an EV, you will be disappointed.
The payback for an EV is all about low-rate, overnight, charging

OK, I figured out where I misread at the panel, for some reason the pair of main breakers are in the middle, 100 amps each.
Still probably have to get work done though, 1-15 amp breaker supplies a GFCI outlet in a restroom, that then feeds another restroom, a back porch outlet, and 3 in garage, one of which has washer and dryer, and another a chest freezer.
While level 1 charging might be possible, and from what I've read might be best for battery longevity, the long term use of that circuit seems like a bad idea.
There is an unused 30 amp 220v dryer outlet that isn't used, possibly it could be replaced with a good commercial grade one, but the location isn't ideal, it's closer to the back of the garage, and even parking in there, it's behind the washer and dryer, and the cord would have to go the length of the truck if head in, or the width if head out, and it would cross the path in the garage. If I'm parking on the driveway, it just seems like that would be too long.

The panel is full of breakers, when the truck gets closer to launch I'll have to contact electricians and see what the options are. Probably have to change or add to the panel, and add a conduit line under the eaves across the house to the driveway/garage.

 

[Doctors Do Little]

OK, I figured out where I misread at the panel, for some reason the pair of main breakers are in the middle, 100 amps each.
Still probably have to get work done though, 1-15 amp breaker supplies a GFCI outlet in a restroom, that then feeds another restroom, a back porch outlet, and 3 in garage, one of which has washer and dryer, and another a chest freezer.
While level 1 charging might be possible, and from what I've read might be best for battery longevity, the long term use of that circuit seems like a bad idea.
There is an unused 30 amp 220v dryer outlet that isn't used, possibly it could be replaced with a good commercial grade one, but the location isn't ideal, it's closer to the back of the garage, and even parking in there, it's behind the washer and dryer, and the cord would have to go the length of the truck if head in, or the width if head out, and it would cross the path in the garage. If I'm parking on the driveway, it just seems like that would be too long.

The panel is full of breakers, when the truck gets closer to launch I'll have to contact electricians and see what the options are. Probably have to change or add to the panel, and add a conduit line under the eaves across the house to the driveway/garage.

Some of the electrical decisions are more subtle too, depending upon what kind of loads you maximally carry on your existing panel, cutoff, etc. My electrician has already told me that when a 2nd BIG EV is in play, that he would want to balance the loads between panels, etc.

I've found that keeping my Lightning plugged in at night and only charging from 11p-5a costs me about $40/month ($0.124/kW), whereas my ICE F150 used to cost me 3x that in petrol. Your mileage will vary, but I know I'm not putting a huge strain on a reasonably designed system that will become optimized with more and bigger loads.

If my HOA would allow it, I'd absolutely get a solar system to only collect and store electrons for EV's (and backup power)...but south facing is road facing and solar paneling is currently thought to be an eye-sore by our enlightened Architectural Review Committee....sigh, next house!

 

[AZFox]

If my HOA would allow it, I'd absolutely get a solar system to only collect and store electrons for EV's (and backup power)...but south facing is road facing and solar paneling is currently thought to be an eye-sore by our enlightened Architectural Review Committee....sigh, next house!

Where I live an HOA cannot legally prevent you from installing solar.

A brief search reveals that Georgia also has a Solar Access Law.

 

[Doctors Do Little]

Where I live an HOA cannot legally prevent you from installing solar.

A brief search reveals that Georgia also has a Solar Access Law.

All too true...they simply slow walk all variances (months, not days), that they don't understand or think are ugly. Their reticence is currently greater than my want to exercise my persistence. (These folks are insane.)

Plus...when one more kid goes to college, I hope that will trigger a "down-sizing" event that allows me to move to a NON-HOA situation...then my "real garage", aka mod-shop, will blossom out of the ground overnight. 3 more years...

 

[KevinRS]

All too true...they simply slow walk all variances (months, not days), that they don't understand or think are ugly. Their reticence is currently greater than my want to exercise my persistence. (These folks are insane.)

Plus...when one more kid goes to college, I hope that will trigger a "down-sizing" event that allows me to move to a NON-HOA situation...then my "real garage", aka mod-shop, will blossom out of the ground overnight. 3 more years...

If anything in the law or rules requires a timely response, you've got to hold them to it, keep records of everything, if their delays cost you money like with solar, excessive delays might mean monetary compensation.

 

[Doctors Do Little]

If anything in the law or rules requires a timely response, you've got to hold them to it, keep records of everything, if their delays cost you money like with solar, excessive delays might mean monetary compensation.

It’s 100% my fault…higher taxes, better schools, yada yada…3 great next door neighbors and a 1,000 other snoots with an ARC run by a gaggle of Karens…

 

[AZFox]

The Maverick has way more infotainment (after which they post a thread whining about the cheap-ass, decade-behind Sync 2.5 system)

I think the slate not coming with a radio is throwing people off.

Eric Kyper specifically says "You know, we know people are going to bring insane audio systems to this" in the Rich Rebuilds video.

I interpret that to mean they're making sure that, one way or another, we can have good audio if we want it.

Ironically he says that in the Maverick comparison part of the video.

 

[ScooterAsheville]

The funny thing for me personally is that I hate radios. I haven't turned my Maverick radio on in 32,000 miles. You could remove the center screen and I wouldn't even notice it. But I acknowledge that I am a very weird outlier in that sense.

 

[SichuanHot]

I'm still eagerly waiting for the Slate. I'll continue to drive my old BMW in the meantime.

 

[Paul Rodgers]

OK, I figured out where I misread at the panel, for some reason the pair of main breakers are in the middle, 100 amps each.
Still probably have to get work done though, 1-15 amp breaker supplies a GFCI outlet in a restroom, that then feeds another restroom, a back porch outlet, and 3 in garage, one of which has washer and dryer, and another a chest freezer.
While level 1 charging might be possible, and from what I've read might be best for battery longevity, the long term use of that circuit seems like a bad idea.
There is an unused 30 amp 220v dryer outlet that isn't used, possibly it could be replaced with a good commercial grade one, but the location isn't ideal, it's closer to the back of the garage, and even parking in there, it's behind the washer and dryer, and the cord would have to go the length of the truck if head in, or the width if head out, and it would cross the path in the garage. If I'm parking on the driveway, it just seems like that would be too long.

The panel is full of breakers, when the truck gets closer to launch I'll have to contact electricians and see what the options are. Probably have to change or add to the panel, and add a conduit line under the eaves across the house to the driveway/garage.

That unused 30A dryer circuit is your gold-mine!
Just get 50ft or so of #10 cable, run it to wherever you park the truck, put a 4x4 treated pole in the ground and mount an RV outlet on it. Where the dryer outlet is, wire it up inside the box and put a plain cover on it.
Remember to write a label on the cover, so you know what it is
something like "30A outside RV"

If its outside you probably want direct-burial cable.

Now, your EVSE ( the widget that you plug into the truck) mounts on the same pole, plugs right in and you are good to go.

Did this for my daughters Tesla-Model3, been running for years, no problem.
Just dont try for more than 30A and its all pretty straightforward.

 

[KevinRS]

That unused 30A dryer circuit is your gold-mine!
Just get 50ft or so of #10 cable, run it to wherever you park the truck, put a 4x4 treated pole in the ground and mount an RV outlet on it. Where the dryer outlet is, wire it up inside the box and put a plain cover on it.
Remember to write a label on the cover, so you know what it is
something like "30A outside RV"

If its outside you probably want direct-burial cable.

Now, your EVSE ( the widget that you plug into the truck) mounts on the same pole, plugs right in and you are good to go.

Did this for my daughters Tesla-Model3, been running for years, no problem.
Just dont try for more than 30A and its all pretty straightforward.

Likely will have to park in the driveway, I'd have to go from that outlet either up and over the door into the house, or below the door, going most of the length of the finished garage, around a corner and out the garage door. How long is the EVSE cable normally going to be? Charging being at the rear of the drivers side, probably don't want to have a tripping hazard while charging, so probably have to put that post where the back of the truck will be.
But that is sounding like it will be a viable option. Now got to research exactly what 10/3 cable is right for this, and if it's going to need some conduit or something

 

[Paul Rodgers]

Likely will have to park in the driveway, I'd have to go from that outlet either up and over the door into the house, or below the door, going most of the length of the finished garage, around a corner and out the garage door. How long is the EVSE cable normally going to be? Charging being at the rear of the drivers side, probably don't want to have a tripping hazard while charging, so probably have to put that post where the back of the truck will be.
But that is sounding like it will be a viable option. Now got to research exactly what 10/3 cable is right for this, and if it's going to need some conduit or something

The idea is go underground. In our case dryer outlet is against an outside wall, so just ran cable down the wall in a conduit, throught the wall, then buried it 8" deep in a little trench in the dirt outside, all the way to the post. Direct-burial cable does not need a conduit.

Tho sounds to me like you should put the outside RV box on the wall right by the garage door, then just back up to it when parking. Most EVSE cables will be 15 - 20 ft.
But yes, trip hazard, U have a flower-pot-hook, keeps the cable 3ft off the ground for the 10ft to the car.

 

[ryun]

For me it's competing against my current F150 Lightning, a desire to learn how to tow a camper, and cart my infant son around.

My wife's EV6 can technically tow 2300 pounds if memory serves which is a pretty decent size camper. And my son is gonna grow out of his car seat eventually.

So if things go a certain way and a bench seat gets made I would definitely go with a Slate. So we'll see. I'm rooting for it though. Maverick is OK I guess but I'm EV all the way at this point.

 

[KevinRS]

The idea is go underground. In our case dryer outlet is against an outside wall, so just ran cable down the wall in a conduit, throught the wall, then buried it 8" deep in a little trench in the dirt outside, all the way to the post. Direct-burial cable does not need a conduit.

Tho sounds to me like you should put the outside RV box on the wall right by the garage door, then just back up to it when parking. Most EVSE cables will be 15 - 20 ft.
But yes, trip hazard, U have a flower-pot-hook, keeps the cable 3ft off the ground for the 10ft to the car.

Yeah, everything is arranged for minimal convenience for this use. Dryer on inside wall, 3/4 of the way back in the garage, past the door, could possibly go down from the outlet, along the wall, under the door, garage floor is like 4 inches lower than the door, to the front wall, and probably through that wall at charger height direct to the wall mounted charger. Backing in puts the driver's side away from that corner of the garage, but the charge cable should reach.

In that situation, the cable wouldn't even be going underground, still thinking it might be best to have it in conduit or something inside the garage instead of just stapled to the wall. Garage is a potential wet area, so probably still need the UF-B wire I'm finding when I search, which the price points at both big chain hardware stores don't make sense. 50 ft roll costs more than 100 ft, of apparently identical wire, at both stores.