For the last few weeks, we’ve been running a sidebar survey about whether Electrek readers believed the announcement of Ford’s upcoming, all-electric $30,000 Fathom pickup would sink Bezos-backed startup Slate Auto before it even got to set sail. After nearly 2,700 responses, here’s what you told us.

In case you missed the survey, the question read, “Now that we know the Ford Fathom electric truck will be just a few thousand dollars more than the bare-bones Slate, is the writing already on the wall? In other words: did Ford’s Fathom just kill the Slate before it arrived?”

Here’s what the responses were, by the numbers, before we get into the nuance – and, believe me when I tell you that there was a lot of nuance!

The majority of responders were non-committal, choosing either the, “Maybe – but every penny counts for some buyers, and a few thousand dollars is a LOT of pennies!” or the, “Too soon to say – neither truck is even out, yet!” options. Those were the sensible people.

Despite finding themselves in the minority, however, the more presumptive, dramatic, opinionated, and interesting people had a lot to say – including one commenter going by NickD, who seemed to be pretty confident that the Ford’s biggest assumed advantage (its nationwide dealer network) would ultimately be more of a handicap than an asset.

Ford’s dealer network will be all too happy to sabotage the Fathom through ridiculous markups and terrible sales experience. Slate has an opening to exploit for that reason alone.

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