The market is ripe for the equivalent of a wileys jeep ev. Cheap to buy, repair and capable with no frills.
this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2026
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Make the software foss too and i'm in
Slate.. though who knows if it will ever materialize in the real world.
Isn't Slate a unibody design?
No idea, does it matter?
Yes, because unibody designs will all have this problem, where it's extremely expensive to repair damage to the frame.
Body-on-frame is generally better for repairability because you don't have this problem - you can just remove the damaged panel and replace it.
In both slate and rivian's case (I think), they seem to use a hybrid of both. So, it's probably around the same expense as repairing a Rivian in regard to labor (and possibly materials).
The point is that Slate might not resolve this problem either.
Cool idea.
Dacia Spring (but that's probably not exported to the US which I guess you're from)
Canada, so no. :(
The price is nice. I doubt it is easy to repair.
I got into a fender bender with my Buick and they totalled it because the fender was worth half as much as the car. They're doing something very wrong in car design.
Wrong for who?
Slate' service partner blurb at least has some sound bites related to ease of repair. But aren't they also a 'our car only has 3 parts' company?
Slate is the car for me.
No radio. No screens. A gas pedal, brakes, steering wheel, and manual windows.
Is it still a gas pedal when the truck is electric :P
technically, it's an accelerator, but I've taken to calling it the "go pedal"
Yea, just like the save icon is still a floppy disk.
That's a Buick thing. Was it a CTS? I've seen two year old CTS total from small accidents because there were no parts available for it.
Envision. The car was worth like $18k but with labor the fender was about $7.5k and since that's over 40% of the value, it automatically totaled. I argued to no avail and almost kept it but the damage title wasn't worth it.
TL:DR: Poor scale and awareness due to being a niche brand, overly large aluminum body panels requiring either massive replacements or complicated welding, small shops guessing that it must be even more exotic and expensive than the CEO claims, and insurers shrugging and moving on because the volumes aren't hitting their financials hard enough for them to care.
welding aluminum requires TIG. It's harder and more specialized.
welding mild steel body panels are simple with equipment any body shop will have.
Hell any home 120v wire welder can do mild steel. It is the cutting and shaping part that is hard.
No, that's easy as well. It's the not breaking to pieces and looking like shit part that is hard.
A GMC Hummer EV taillight costs an eye-watering $6,100 to replace, plus labor. The idea of having to replace one of Audi’s new adaptive Matrix LED headlight setups is something most people probably don’t want to stomach.
Audi made these adaptive light strips to fix the artificial problem of newer headlights being too bright compared to older ones.
By "artificial problem" you mean the problem that they created... Right?
... Right?
Meanwhile, only 30 years ago when we had sealed-beams in standardized shapes, you could replace a headlight for like $10. And the lens was actually glass instead of plastic prone to yellowing and abrasion.
Yeah and if you hit someone that glass shatters and stabs them. The plastic is shatter resistant.
Just hammer it out bro
Hit the front with a hair dryer for a minute, then use a mallet from the inside
Just drive it as is. When other road warriors see your battle scars, they'll know not to mess with you.