2027 Slate EV Pickup Truck - First look

[CentralMass]

?si=xG0gBw6ySdy3eabs

[NNadir]

1. Ah, the big myth that electric cars are "green."

They're not, but the myth is widely believed, much to the detriment of the environment.

A paper addressing the idea that electric cars are "green."

Any celebration of the car CULTure is a celebration of the destruction of the planetary atmosphere.

[MadameButterfly]

3. The general negativity in the writing makes it hard

Last edited Sun May 25, 2025, 01:06 PM - Edit history (1)

to get past the anger and get to any real information. I gather that you like nuclear. I know something about that, and it is a longer discussion. i think your gist is we don't consider all the externalities to creating and running an electric car.

While you may have some good points, I differ that people are lying to themselves or being irresponsible. We are all trying our best to do what is right for the planet.

Try a different attitude and I'll click on the remaining links and would be happy to engage in a healthy debate and exchange of information.

[NNadir]

5. I have worked too long, and too hard, to understand issues in energy and the environment, by appeal to the primary...

Last edited Sun May 25, 2025, 11:49 AM - Edit history (3)

...scientific literature on environmental issues to respond to a request that I change my "attitude" in order to have, unfortunate as you may find it, a "debate" with someone who says, "I know something about {nuclear energy}."

To my mind there is nothing to "debate" with anyone on this topic. It's always the same superficial - excuse my language - bullshit, "nuclear waste" and "Fukushima" and "Chernobyl" as if these events on the scale of the destruction of the planetary atmosphere matter a whit.

I'm not amused. I am, frankly, disgusted.

I've been at DU now for more than 22 years, beginning in November 2002. In that period the concentration of the dangerous fossil fuel waste, carbon dioxide, has risen, as of this morning, by 57.67 ppm (exactly).

Over the years, I've probably written close to 50 posts in the series represented by this recent post:

New Weekly CO2 Concentration Record Set at the Mauna Loa Observatory, 430.86 ppm

I'm not here singing "kumbaya" about electric cars. I'm paying attention.

Out of 2,574 weekly average readings comparing the level of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide, the 3.91 ppm increase over week 20 of 2024, is the 43rd highest ever observed, this, for me, after having to listen to blah, blah, blah reactionary bullshit about making energy supplies dependent on the weather precisely when we have destabilized the weather. We have squandered trillions of dollars on solar and wind energy only to make things get worse faster.

As I often point out, in this space, by appeal to the scientific journal Lancet, about 19,000 people die every damned day from dangerous fossil fuel waste (not including deaths from extreme global heating), aka "air pollution" and I have to listen bull about so called "nuclear waste," from people who want to "debate."

Global burden of 87 risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 (Lancet Volume 396, Issue 10258, 17–23 October 2020, Pages 1223-1249).

I often ask people who want to "debate" to show that in the 70 year history of commercial nuclear power to show - only direct appeal to the primary scientific literature - that nuclear power operations have killed as many people as will die in the next eight hours from air pollution.

Fear and ignorance about nuclear energy has killed far more people than radiation from nuclear plants has.

For amusement, I once responded to one of many in a series of fairly ignorant "I'm not an antinuke" antinukes here who want to "challenge" me here, one who now happily resides on my ignore list, about how much damage to the environment was done because a tunnel collapsed at the Hanford nuclear weapons plant. The damage was not not from radiation, but from fear of radiation, since no lives were at risk from radiation, but thousands of diesel truck loads of fossil fuel generated cement was trucked in because of fear, risking lives from diesel exhaust, not to mention the probability of a trucking accident.

828 Underground Nuclear Tests, Plutonium Migration in Nevada, Dunning, Kruger, Strawmen, and Tunnels

It probably contains 25 to 30 references to the primary scientific literature. I certainly didn't write the exercise to convince an "I'm not an antinuke" antinuke of anything; these people are in a dogmatic cult of ignorance. I wrote it because in writing it, I learned even more. I'm an old man, and I'm still in the process of learning, because I give a shit about the future far more than I care about bullshit about electric cars.

You may find this as arrogant as I find a request that I change my "attitude" in order to "debate" a random person who says they know "something" about nuclear energy. There's nothing to "debate." I don't know "something;" I know a vast amount, having worked at to understand the topic, on my own time, with no professional interest other than encouraging my son as he works on a Ph.D in nuclear engineering, on this topic, for roughly 40 years, ever since the Chernobyl reactor blew up. Again, you may find it arrogant, but I have never, not once, found anyone at DU, who knows as much as I do about nuclear energy.

Again, there's nothing to "debate." Nuclear energy saves lives.

Prevented Mortality and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Historical and Projected Nuclear Power (Pushker A. Kharecha* and James E. Hansen Environ. Sci. Technol., 2013, 47 (9), pp 4889–4895)

It follows that questioning nuclear power kills people, again, about 19,000 people per day.

It does not need to be free of risk to be vastly superior to all other forms of primary energy. It only needs to be vastly superior to all other forms of primary energy, which it is.

This is Memorial Day Weekend. I will not only think on the military dead, in my memorials. I will reflect on the roughly 160,000,000 million people who died from air pollution just in the period I've been writing here, because people who think they know something about nuclear energy and want to "debate" it, while not giving a rat's ass about deaths from fossil fuels, think that the value of nuclear energy is debatable. Selective attention, frankly, disgusts me.

I respectfully or disrespectfully decline to "debate." Facts are not debatable, and my "attitude" is not subject to change for the benefit of anyone here or elsewhere.

Have a pleasant Memorial Day weekend.

[MadameButterfly]

8. Excuse me for not bragging in my earlier post about how much I actually do know about nuclear energy

My father was a nuclear engineer. He received one of the earliest graduate degrees in Nuclear Energy from MIT. I was raised learning about the issue, in detail, from someone who knew his stuff and was a leader in the field. I do not come into this issue with a prejudice against it, and any concerns I have were come by with careful research.

We are here on DU in part to debate issues. I enjoy debate, including with people who disagree with me. When I do I use one of the basic rules of logic: it is not an argument to say "I know more than you do about it, so I'm right." I understand that I must use my knowledge to make my case. I consider superior knowledge on an issue an advantage, not an argument. I also treat the people I am debating, or discussing, with respect. I certainly don't get mad at them over some completely different person I conversed with at some point in the past.

You don't have to change your attitude, but if your goal is to interact or influence, I wonder if you'll get the results you want this way.

[hunter]

6. Contractors like my brother are going to need trucks.

And I like my 25 year old pickup truck, the second truck I've owned, even though it's not a strict necessity and I haven't done any major construction for twenty years. I like being able to carry a sheet of plywood home from the lumber yard. I like being that friend or family member who has a truck.

At a deeper level, most of the construction work my brother does isn't a necessity. He derives most of his income servicing the vanities of very affluent people, remodeling their kitchens and bathrooms and such, which seems a shame when so many people are homeless or living in dilapidated and dangerous buildings. In a better world he'd be doing more Habitat for Humanity sorts of work.

Owning an electric truck might impress some of the affluent people who hire my brother.

The excesses of our affluent "consumer" economy have a huge environmental footprint. These electric trucks will mostly be part of those excesses, purchased by people like me who don't really need a truck for work. I just like having a truck.

I'm probably never going to buy a new vehicle again. I did that once when I was young and foolish just because I thought that's what people like me were supposed to do, monthly payments and all. When my wife started graduates school and we were no longer a two income family those monthly car payments were painful.

Since then the cars I've bought are salvage. I'm a pretty good mechanic and own most of the tools I need to keep them running. My wife has bought four cars since we've been married. She looks for vehicles with about 50,000 miles on them and she's very keen to minimize her environmental footprint. Her last two cars have been hybrids which, according to the chart in your link, have the lowest overall environmental footprint.

[byronius]

2. I like it. I think it'll sell.

Green or not, it’s better than a Chevy Belchmobile. Price is right too.

[MadameButterfly]

4. I think it's brilliant

I'll be looking into it. i have solar panels on my roof, I think it will be green enough for me. Yes, we can't rely on slave labor from Chinese run lithium mines in Africa. Wish the US had been on top of that and of course Trump won't address it. Battery tech is evolving, would evolve better with some government incentives.

[OilemFirchen]

7. I plunked down my fifty buck deposit about a month ago.

If the finished product is essentially the same as the prototype, it's literally the perfect truck for me - no crew cab, a healthy bed and a dearth of gimmicks.