Image via Slate
Doug DeMuro, who’s famous for his weird reviews of cars posted to YouTube, has voiced his reasons why he believes the Slate truck will ultimately fail. The man has been well-known for speaking out on a number of issues, but you can decide for yourself if he has a good track record in making predictions.
Something else might knock the Slate truck off.
Sitting on his podcast, called This Car Pod!, he listed off the reasons why he believes the Jeff Bezos-backed automotive startup will fail rapidly. While we appreciate where he’s coming from, he could also be dead wrong.
The first reason why he believes Slate will fail is the truck only has two doors. As he points out, trucks and SUVs with two doors don’t sell these days.
He also picks apart the lack of accessories, especially for the price. After all, the base truck has no touchscreen, sound system, or even power windows. Plus, the thing has only about 150 miles of range and it’s slow.
As DeMuro points out, the base price is on par with the Ford Maverick. He doesn’t believe the federal EV tax credit will still be around, so that means getting one effectively for under $20,000 won’t be happening.
Granted, DeMuro is making a lot of assumptions about where the market will be in December 2026 when this truck finally launches. Slate is making assumptions, too. With things changing rapidly in the world, the market is very much a moving target.
We remember back when plenty of doomsday prophets like DeMuro said Tesla would never really get off the ground back when the Model S was new. Many of them updated the naysaying when the Model X launched. Now they’re cheering on protestors at Tesla stores, still calling for the American automaker’s demise.
Why some in the industry seem to not want to see fresh companies come in and shake things up is beyond us. We get tired of the same dynamics and think some competition would bring out the best in existing automakers, or help them die off so consumers are left with companies that want to innovate and win their business.
To give DeMuro credit, he loved the Tesla Model 3 when it first came out. But he hated the Cybertruck and said it would fail. Is he right about Slate?
Images via Slate
