Featured Slate is getting LFP batteries.

but the maverick doesn't have
Slate is getting LFP batteries

 

The Slate Truck’s real base price has finally been revealed

"the freight charge has been set at $1,450, which is the lowest destination fee of any pickup on sale in the U.S. Combined with the $24,950 starting price, and the least you'll pay for a new Slate truck is $26,400."

"Ford is working on a more practical four-door electric pickup that will cost under $30,000, while in the red corner, newcomer REO Industries says it will sell a small gas-powered truck called the Runabout, targeting a base MSRP of just $21,500 - no EV incentives necessary.
Even after these debut, Slate's small electric truck won't have any direct rivals, but success depends on how many of the hordes of internet fans celebrating this truck's creation put their money where their mouths are and follow through on a purchase."

 

Ford lies, I saw their lips move

 

I'm no fan of the FOMOCO but their Maverick is pretty popular, and....unlike the SLATE you can actually buy one instead of reading about them. Their closest competitor (a Hyundai something-or-other) is shaded by them 3:1.
Toyota is even eyeing building one because America has always loved the fact that you do not need some lumbering, large tyred, V8 mastodon to do most suburban truck things.
The REASON that there isn't a $20,000 2027 Dodge D50 on offer is a collision between the Climate Industrial Complex and corporate knowledge that if you built a $20,000 Dodge D50 with a normie power train nobody would buy the $40,000 alternatives.

I actually owe the Blue Oval company a bit of an apology.
I thought two things about them:
1. They had lib backside stank on their lips.
2. The Mav was making a small truck "harder than it had to be."

As it turns out?
OF COURSE they were prostituting themselves to the CIC - but it was EPA rules that made them make the Maverick the way that they did and they pretty much split the wickets between pandering to wokie politics and building the truck as a reliable hybrid capable of hitting the low 40's in MPG.
Besides.....I don't know if you could have gotten them in 2022, but they sell a normal-people version of the truck with the "me-too" turbocharged, direct-injection four-cylinder engine that all newer vehicles are using these days.
In this regard Ford doesn't suffer any more or less than all of the other OEMs suffering under the yoke of CAFE.

 

perhaps someone intent on derailing this thread should start one about low cost pickups available and potentially coming

 

If the for-real production Slate EV pickup truck uses a 65-kWh kilowatt-hour LFP battery pack, it might lend itself quite nicely to use for a home backup power plant since LPF batteries are often used in that role anyway......

 

My solar roof system has a 13.5 kWh battery but I normally keep the charge level at the low limit, ~5%. It does handle brief power glitches with one exception. An apparently close lightning strike later required a whole system, cold power reset as things got catty wompus with solar battery energy not coming in. (Fecal matter happens!)

More recent EVs are coming with built-in grid-to-load capabilities. A "nice to have," not something key to my requirements. The whole "emergency backup" world looks to me to be a tar baby ... to be avoided.

Bob Wilson

 

Perhaps “grid-to-load” should not be avoided as much as “there be dragons here!” The nearby lightning strike that temporarily glitched my ‘designed for it’ solar roof system makes me cautious.

Using the EV traction battery in a home emergency buffer mode has transfer switch integration challenges as both the EV and transfer switch come from independent sources working to different requirements. The owner becomes the final integration and test engineer … in the dark when the smoke leaks out.

At a minimum, I would have a substantial ‘anti spike’ filter between the car and home grid. These are often ‘one shot’ devices so the owner should have an easy to swap option for the MOV part. But then I’m a belt and suspenders engineer.

Bob Wilson

ps. What’ca think @ETC(SS)?

 

ABTs figure prominently in Big Bell's backup power strategery and they're the second biggest cause of a generator no-start condition.
Faulty sensors in the prime mover and genset are the largest reason for a genny no-stary failure.
Central offices, RT sites, cell towers, etc...all have big honkin' batteries that keep the office up until primary power is restored -or- a generator kicks in...BUT they HAVE to have bus transfers which are usually indoors, and they're also hardened against lightning damage by their design.

Residential power backups are different.
For them?
IMHO, ABT's adds complexity for convenience - and FOR ME that juice isn't worth the squeeze.
As Elon might say, the best part is NO part.

BEVs acting as a home UPS are surrounded by a sort of a faraday cage and sitting on tyres, which is why they're not USUALLY damaged by lightning - UNTILL and unless you plug them into an electrical panel....which is grid connected (or not) starting at the utility power meter(s).
One imagines that in a post-storm scenario (weather, solar, geo-political) you ain't strapped to the grid - or at least YOU SHOULD NOT BE. If, on the other hand, you're plugging your car into your house right before a squall line moves through your area so that you don't have an interruption then you may be risking more than just your home appliances being damaged by lightning during that storm.

KISS principle applies.
(Keep It Simple, Stupid!)

 

What I call a home transfer switch:

ABT (Automatic Bus Transfer) power circuit​

A similar function that prevents back feeding emergency generator power into the power lines.

Bob Wilson

 

.....So does a $40 interlock.

KISS....

 

My late, homebound, non-technical wife needed an automated system especially the last years I was still working. Back then, I would just back the 2003 Prius to the kitchen door, start the 1.1 kW inverter mounted in the trunk, and run a 3-plug contractor cord into the kitchen.

Other extensions would power critical lights and either a small bedroom window A/C or the gas furnace electric power. We camped out at home. My Prius-based, emergency generator got 52 MPG, seated five, and burned 2 gallons per day during the 4 day 6 hour tornado induced power outage in 2011.

The inverter cost $90, under $50 in wire plus hardware, and a day or so to engineer and mount it on a fold out panel in the trunk. Driving down the road, the cabin had a house plug and switch for laptop power.

Bob Wilson

 

..great example of making what you have work to do what you needed... innovative thinking and good old Yankee know how...