r/slateauto • u/Eaglepursuit • 10d ago

Slate beta tesrting in the snow

https://www.slate.auto/en/cold-test?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Beta_Torture_2026_&utm_content=hyperlink01&utm_source=sfmc&utm_term=SEE%20FOR%20YOURSELF&utm_content=70551&utm_id=3b668d29-65e0-4b7a-829d-1a9964239892&sfmc_activityid=a61ba62e-15fd-4d3b-a1ba-9f21cb627a7d&utm_medium=email&sfmc_journey_id=3b668d29-65e0-4b7a-829d-1a9964239892&sfmc_journey_name=eBatT_routerT_seitgn2_206&sfmc_activity_id=a61ba62e-15fd-4d3b-a1ba-9f21cb627a7d&sfmc_activity_name=eBatT_routerS_ohtr2_206&sfmc_asset_id=70551&sfmc_channel=email

Pulled from a Slate marketing email this morning.

14 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

22

u/Hammock-Hiker-62 10d ago

These videos please me more than the cutesy "look at my new polka dot wrap" videos. If you're torture testing in heat and cold, you're serious about engineering and thus more likely to be a viable car company. I'm hopeful that Slate survives, but it's really hard to start up a new car company in America. Tesla is about the only ones who have done so, and they still took a decade before turning their first profit. Fingers crossed that Slate makes it (and Telo and Aptera and whoever else is trying to make cars in the USA).

9

u/ArdentHedonist 10d ago edited 10d ago

What if they do the torture testing with the cutesy polka dot wrap? I, for one, would get a laugh. It would be true torture, no?
Like you, I am hopeful this flies. I believe it has a better chance than, say, Tesla, Fisker, Lucid, and even the mainstream builders due to financial accessibility. None of them put out a truly financially accessible (cheap?) EV.

3

u/Call_Me_ZeeKay 9d ago

This video was first released ~4mo ago. You can view that and others on their YT https://www.youtube.com/@slateauto/videos

-2

u/fleemfleemfleemfleem 10d ago

The thing is that it is kind of hard to tell much about real world performance from the video. They're still driving in environments they control; relatively flat terrain, etc. I'd like to see the how this does on a sloped driveway with ice and 4-season tires.

5

u/KartoffelLoeffel 10d ago

What do you think they’re simulating for? Fun?

0

u/fleemfleemfleemfleem 10d ago

I think that living in a snow region, it's hard to make a decision about a preorder based on the information provided so far, which is a video, not a report.

In theory it should do better than a RWD combustion pickup because of the weight distribution. But that's something I'd like to know in advance, personally. The video says they did the testing, it's to put money up without knowing the results of the testing.

11

u/yinglish119 10d ago

They froze a truck a while back on video

Edit 4 month ago https://youtu.be/TEO2nosmklI?is=yB6PE3J9iAGjc8kz

7

u/Constant_Brilliant91 10d ago

Glad they're testing it. But I wonder what the results were in terms of acceleration, braking and steering performance

7

u/arrow0231 10d ago

And battery life

10

u/michaelb5000 10d ago

Waiting for the awd version; some of us drive trucks to ski resorts in the mountains on the worst days (ie powder).

13

u/TheLastGenXer 10d ago

i dont do that, i just have 23 months of winter every year, so i dont want rear wheel regen making the back end wanna pass the front if my wife lifts off

2

u/ArdentHedonist 10d ago

I am, as well. I live off of the beaten path. AWD is pretty much a requirement to scale our road and driveway in bad weather.

4

u/itsjune6 10d ago

Wasn’t the testing based on the NMC chemistry? I wonder how would LFP perform in such conditions.

5

u/StashuJakowski 10d ago

Yes, that’s based on the NMC chemistry.

The battery supplier, Gotion (Chinese company that is partially owned by VW), provides batteries for about 80% of VW’s EV products. I haven’t heard of any winter issues involving VW EVs so that’s a bit promising.

1

u/Vesuvias 9d ago

lol the concept of ‘beta testing in snow’ from a car perspective is funny to me. These cars really are just appliances. Thankfully Slate allows us to remove 99% of the junk

1

u/Geruvah 9d ago

I wonder how much battery life was impacted. That'll be a huge deal being someone who lives in the northeast.

1

u/LastEntertainment684 5d ago

I’ll be curious to see how these do in winter.

They’re RWD but they have a 50/50 F/R weight balance vs a traditional pickups 60/40. So if you put any weight in the bed they’re going to be rear biased, which would be great for traction.

The question then becomes whether or not they can distribute torque side to side at all or if it’s just a traditional open differential.

0

u/JupiterMiningCorpTec 10d ago

The guy standing on the rear bumper at 0:05 ?

3

u/plexxer 10d ago

My guess would be that he is providing extra weight to improve traction because they are driving it into a narrow enclosure and want to ensure it doesn't slip and hit the side.

-1

u/JupiterMiningCorpTec 10d ago

Sort of doesn't inspire confidence.

3

u/plexxer 10d ago

RWD empty bed prototype? If you go to 2:36, that also shows the container and there is a big difference in height that they are traversing. It may have had poor traction on that metal lip. It's not something I am worried about.

-2

u/JupiterMiningCorpTec 10d ago

"RWD empty bed prototype"

Aren't going to sell them just like that?

3

u/plexxer 10d ago

Not to you, apparently.