What will take for Slate to Succeed?

[danielt1263]

Apparently 80k units sold... That feels like a tall order unless they get a whole bunch of fleet sales...

But they will make money on every vehicle sold...

 

[fuzzyweis]

I feel like they'll get a good amount of fleet sales, about 30k Mavericks were sold to fleets, that's almost half what Slate would need. I feel like the blank Slate is made for fleets with none of the stuff they don't want, and maybe they'll even give fleets a discount like regular automakers do.

Most fleets also do their own wraps and decals so they don't even have to provide that, just ship them off right out the factory door. Then in a few years those Slates hit the used market and people buy the accessories so the revenue stream keeps flowing to Slate.

 

[mikell]

If they build and sell 3000 in the next 24 months I'll be surprised.

 

[Adam W]

If they build and sell 3000 in the next 24 months I'll be surprised.

What? They had 10,000 people put down a $300 non refundable deposit to pre-order in the first four hours. They've been on course, meeting nearly every promise made over a year ago. They have the right mix of talent, passion, and experience on the board.

I think Slate is already succeeding.

 

[EV Trek]

None have actually been sold yet.

 

[GrizzlysGhost]

If they build and sell 3000 in the next 24 months I'll be surprised.

Over 10,000 pre-orders in the first few hours yesterday. Prepare to be surprised I guess?

 

[Dorbiman]

I don't think it's unrealistic to assume that not 100% of the $300 reservations will convert to full purchases later this year. We also don't know what their initial plant capacity is, or what the build rate and scale to in the first year past SOP.

I think Slate is gonna kick ass, but I also don't want to pretend like their success is guaranteed this early in the game

 

[kvermeer]

Over 10,000 pre-orders in the first few hours yesterday. Prepare to be surprised I guess?

I didn't realize the reservation count had ticked up to 180k.

But 10,000 out of that total set of reservations in only the first couple hours is incredible! I previously estimated that 10-15% of reservations would convert between now and December, getting 5.5% to convert before breakfast is amazing!

 

[tubes]

Conversions are not success. Look, I want Slate to succeed. I am not a naysayer. But, I am concerned that they are still rolling out early prototypes for "influencer" drives where the dash has a big pad over it and there's a big red "emergency OFF" button.

Courtesy "Auto Focus'" drive with Chris Barman.

 

[GrizzlysGhost]

Conversions are not success. Look, I want Slate to succeed. I am not a naysayer. But, I am concerned that they are still rolling out early prototypes for "influencer" drives where the dash has a big pad over it and there's a big red "emergency OFF" button.

Courtesy "Auto Focus'" drive with Chris Barman.

And I'm not a Simp, but here's my take. This event was held in LA I believe. Probably the closest vehicles they have to production are in Indiana (since that's where they are building them). I figure most of these near-production models are earmarked for important work (i.e. crash tests, durability tests, proof of concept, actual meaningful work). The Slates they are using here are very early pre-production models that have kill switches because the electronics/body/etc are very early, untried, and more prone to failure. These vehicles really no longer serve much use as test models for the purpose of gathering actual data since the near-production models in Warsaw are so much better for that.
Using these old models are no surprise to me, and I'm rather glad we aren't having the argument "why are they using the newest models; those should be in the crash trials, great more delays so they can show off to influencers blah blah" 😂
That's my take anyway, but as my father used to remind me, "I don't know shit from shinola" so there's that.

 

[EV Trek]

And I'm not a Simp, but here's my take. This event was held in LA I believe. Probably the closest vehicles they have to production are in Indiana (since that's where they are building them). I figure most of these near-production models are earmarked for important work (i.e. crash tests, durability tests, proof of concept, actual meaningful work). The Slates they are using here are very early pre-production models that have kill switches because the electronics/body/etc are very early, untried, and more prone to failure. These vehicles really no longer serve much use as test models for the purpose of gathering actual data since the near-production models in Warsaw are so much better for that.
Using these old models are no surprise to me, and I'm rather glad we aren't having the argument "why are they using the newest models; those should be in the crash trials, great more delays so they can show off to influencers blah blah" 😂
That's my take anyway, but as my father used to remind me, "I don't know shit from shinola" so there's that.

The ones they had inside people were looking at in the videos were all near production models. One comment was from a Slate Employee said they were all built in the Warsaw Plant in the last few days. I noticed like on the Blank Slate under the price the front bumper was different from the demo models we had seen before. The corners were a different shape and had air passages in them to direct the airflow like my Equinox EV has.

 

[Adam W]

Just spitballing here:
Another reason for the state of the drivable units: there may be a limitation on the specific trucks they can put on public roads, and especially with non-employee drivers. I know manufacturers have strict record keeping requirements for logging manufacturer plates and vehicle serial numbers, so they probably can't just pick any truck off the line and take it for a spin yet.

 

[Shrink36s]

The covering of the dash seemed more camo than “this is an old testing prototype.” Like, just in case the footage leaked. Maybe I’m naive.

 

[LevelHeaded]

If they build and sell 3000 in the next 24 months I'll be surprised.

!RemindMe 1 year