- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
Preorders in 2027. No photos or real feature reveals.
Why is Price X + “Delivery Fee”… no if I cannot avoid the fee then that should be in the price. $28,350 + FEE ($1,595) = $29,945 this is the price. Why is it always smoke and mirrors with cars?
The US auto industry lobbied many hours and many dollars to set up protectionist laws so that startup companies and foreign competitors were at a disadvantage. These have been the laws so long it hurts.
The Slate startup is doing the same thing, unfortunately. Price was announced as $24,950 and then later the $1450 destination fee showed up in the fine print.
Ew.
Just release an EV Ranger with a diesel range extender option you can set in the bed for long hauls. Make the range extender look like any toolbox.
Is it just me or is it kind of disgustingly shaped?
It looks like it’s intentionally wrapped in a way that hides the proper shape right now, like there’s a plastic bag on the front with something inside making it stick up more. Maybe I’m wrong, but remove all that and I think it’s just generic Ford truck shaped.
Idk, it’s giving me vibes of lowered trucks from the early 00’s. Pretty dumb but somehow I enjoy it.
not the best pickup line i’ve heard
Sounds great. Can I get it without spyware?
Fuck no.
Ford seems desperate to sell now that they’ve made all of their vehicles too large and too expensive for the ordinary citizen. Money talks I guess, but I wouldn’t trust those fuckers. Now Nissan or Honda? I’ll look twice at them when car shopping.
They kinda learned that a while ago, the maverick is one of the best selling trucks on the market right now.
It’d be nice of someone told them you don’t need that big pedestrian smasher grill on an ev.
I hate how bad the visibility is in new cars. Tiny windows. Massive hoods. Huge blindspots.
They probably have a frunk up there. But they could have sacrificed a cubic foot and sloped it down for safety and efficiency.
seems likes it designed to entice would be f150 customers.
our BYD has a 360 camera which is beyond fantastic
Pickup buyers want intimidating asshole designs.
It almost looks like they have framing to obscure the true shape under the tarps
For sure they are hiding the shape. I still wouldn’t bet there’s a reasonably shaped front end under there.
I sure hope so.
Are you saying they’re hiding a gently sloping hood under there?
It’s definitely foam blocks to obscure the shape. We use them for camo all the time.
That’s my impression of the photos too.
You dont need it on ICE either.
You do if you want to evade American passenger car emission and pedestrian safety regulations since it’s a “light truck”.
Especially since the sole reason for that bullshit is skirting fuel mileage requirements.
*child murderer
I just want a kei car, or functional public transportation, or sidewalks with trees over them.
I think I’m honestly going to do with an ebike. Car prices have gotten insane lately. I no longer travel across the country for work, and it’s just me so I think I could manage regular small trips to the grocery store and back on a bike that I didn’t have to do all the work to propel.
You might also want to check out Chinese electric scooters.
Appreciate it, but I don’t think I’d be able to understand them because I don’t speak Chinese. ^^
There are importers that get every thing translated. They are also pretty simple. Basically the same thing as an electric bike with a different shape.
I was joking about not being able to understand a bike that spoke Chinese, and your response had me picturing a rickshaw with some other guy running along side to translate between me and the poor bastard pulling me around.
There are quite a few decent options for a cargo e-bike for around $1200
Yeah, I’m staying the fuck away from Ford or at least the next 5 years. They outsourced all of their design shit to AI and then had to higher engineers back.
Somebody not bezos should make small EV trucks
At some point you need to stop letting perfect be the enemy of the good. Bezos is a Slate investor, but that hardly makes a slate something that’s made by Bezos. It doesn’t seem connected to the Amazon ecosystem in any way.
It’s really easy to purity test oneself into complete irrelevance.
Anything that doesn’t have mandatory telemetry gets my approval. It’s a very low bar to clear but there really aren’t any others trying to do it.
They’re not saying to boycott it. They’re saying people at least less evil should be competing.
Human beings are capable of reading text beyond its surface-level dictionary meaning. Are you a human being?
“[Don’t] [let] perfect be the enemy of good” is such an overused and rarely useful phrase, most often little more than a blunt object used to insist that people accept tepid compromises rather than daring to demand genuine solutions.
Not that EVs are bad of course, but EVs for ‘everyone’ as opposed to mass transit isn’t a solution (although of course it is a slightly less bleak shade of shit than ICE vehicles for ‘everyone’), and doing that whilst enabling people who are already benefitting disproportionately from the status quo to benefit ever more dramatically is even less of one.
It’s really easy to compromise oneself into complete irrelevance too, and rather easier to compromise oneself into complicity.
Edit: Not to suggest that the worst of this applies to you at all, it was just the nth time of seeing that phrase used frivolously.
Check out telo - i really like them (wish it were more affordable, but still, if i were to buy a new vehicle, itd be that one once available and vetted)
Telo and Canoo really went back to the drawing board and designed trucks around the skateboard design of an EV. No frunk, front seat as far forward as possible, relatively aerodynamic design. Carbros absolutely hated them and derided them to no end but the only real objection was that they looked so much different from the designs they are accustomed to to, that is, designs tailored to the specific problem of accommodating a large engine block. At some point we’re going to have to leave these designs in the past, it’s just a matter of time.
Meanwhile, the past:

Edit: the more I think about it, bringing back the Econoline brand specifically as an electric “cabover” pickup and/or van would be extremely cool.
(It wouldn’t really be a cabover because the thing the cab is over is the engine and an EV doesn’t have that, but you know what I mean.)
Gimme one of those except the cab is over a spacious frunk instead of an engine. Maybe make the frunk a big drawer that can slide out. That’d kick ass and look good doing it.
There’s no room for a frunk; that’s where your legs go. The engine in those things is under the seats and possibly behind the front axle.
[On a related note, that’s why I kinda want a Toyota Previa. With a little modification (only because not all options were offered at the same time/trim level, so you have to swap), you could truthfully tell people you have a mid-engine, supercharged, AWD, manual-transmission vehicle… and then roll up in a minivan!]
I came across this bad boy the other day while looking at kei trucks. It’s an automatic but the right hand drive would add another level in your scenario.
Oh, right, in that case give it a storage tunnel deal. Drawers on each side would be epic, eliminating the need for a leaky inaccessible bed box.
I was thinking the bench seat would just flip up or something like that, but your idea is better. Clearly, I’m not thinking modern enough, LOL!
Hadn’t heard of those before. I like the Canoo design immediately, Telo less so but if they ever made a 2 door with a longer bed I’d probably be into it.


I truly appreciate that a company is doing something radically unique and I understand taste is subjective.
That being said: hell no. The Canoo looks like a ski lift gondola with wheels.
The point of the telo is that it doesn’t need a longer bed. The rear seat folds down and you open a hatch and now you have a 8ft bed in a vehicle the size of a Mini Cooper
Neither will see the light of day. Canoo is already bust and I give Telo 5% chance.
If telo actually launches a product I’ll eat my hat.
Are you even wearing a hat, sir?
My ruse has been foiled!
You dont think a front that will launch a vehicle into a roll isn’t a great idea?
Yeah I’m worried it’s the Apterra truck
Won’t find any of these under $40k at any dealer
Oh look, Ford is making another shit UV with a pretend bed, so innovative.
Will start at $30k with the mandatory fees, before the dealers “value add” it another $15k.
My 2006 Ranger is the last Ford I will ever own.
“The public doesn’t want EVs” -Ford after fucking up again
One thing I will say is I wager they will have a midgate option, which could promote the bed to vaguely serious compared to a Maverick, in some situations. They have a few times mentioned surfboard in the bed, and double downed in their sort of reveal trailer, where they clearly show it laying down with tailgate up.
May be a decent compromise in a truck market obsessed with crew cabs.
Why won’t they make a basic body on frame truck with a 6’ bed? I want it.
Seems like a very good product to me.
Fuck no. Imagine purchasing an American Car in 2026(2027)
As an American, I can imagine. But I’m still making 2003 money so I’m not buying anything this year.
Why would you? The quality is shit and you’d pay far more than what you’d get.
Great another monster sized truck that needs to do a 3 point turn to get on to my street because they can’t corner worth a shit. Even Maverick - which might be the smallest pick up I can get in the US right now is the size of a large to mid sized pick up.
Man I’d love to have an EV truck that is the size of one of the old Toyota pick-ups from the 90s. Make me a truck that I can see over the roof of and I am sold.
I put money down on a Slate. It was the closest to what I wanted; a simple, no bs, light duty truck that’s electric.
Their site puts it at just a little bigger than 1980’s Toyota pick-up.
Same. Seeing this new Ford Montstosity just makes me appreciate the Slate more.
The upcoming Slate truck appears to be the closest thing to that ideal.
Yea I my eye on the Slate, I’ll wait to see the rollout on that one.
This is nothing close to a “monster size truck”, it’s actually quite small. Its smaller than a Maverick even. And while you can argue its not quite as small as the compact pickups of yore, there’s absolutely no universe where it’s “monster sized”.
A Maverick is almost exactly the same size as a mid-'90s Ranger, which is a compact pickup. The only difference is that it’s got more cab and less bed.
(Source: I parked my Ranger next to a Maverick once.)
The only difference is that it’s got more cab and less bed.
That is literally the problem.
The only difference is that it’s got more cab and less bed.
The only difference is that it’s got more hat and less cattle.
I remember driving my dad’s mid 90’s extended cab ranger and it felt huge. I have a core memory of trying to do a U-turn on a mildly busy street in it and how stressful that was for teenage me.
I should clarify: a Maverick is roughly the same length as my regular-cab, short-bed Ranger.
Looks like a ford maverick EV edition to me.














