The $20000 Electric Pickup
With rising costs making electric vehicles (EVs) increasingly out of reach, consumers are wondering if there will ever be an affordable alternative. Enter the $20000 Electric Pickup, a stripped-back, no-frills vehicle that promises to offer an affordable solution for those looking for a budget-friendly EV. By focusing on simplicity and eliminating unnecessary features, Slate Auto is making a bold move toward revolutionizing the EV market with this budget-conscious approach.
A Radical New Approach: The Slate Truck
But there could be a glimmer of hope in the shape of Slate Auto, a firm that’s developing an entirely different way of making cars with its Slate Truck, a no-frills, stripped-back electric vehicle. Less than $20,000 after federal incentives, the Slate Truck is due to go into production next year. While its specifications might seem low-end to the average new vehicle, the company believes this is exactly what the majority of drivers want: a return to basics.
The Slate Truck: Simplicity in Its Essence
The Slate Truck only has space for two passengers, offers a fairly limited range of 150 miles from a full charge, and comes in only one color: gray. No Bluetooth, no stereo, and no touchscreen—music exists only if you carry your phone and a Bluetooth speaker. All its frills absent, the Slate Truck took three years of development to hit the market and create quite an uproar, especially with the news that Jeff Bezos is among the large investors who have taken notice of the project.
A New Design Philosophy: Battle Scars and Minimalism
The Slate Truck is a bold departure from what you’d ever find in a car nowadays. At first glance, it might be mistaken as being lackluster, but there’s more than just meets the eye. Slate Auto’s design team drew inspiration from an unconventional source: a shark.
A Shark-Inspired Design
Slate design director Tisha Johnson explains how the appearance of the truck is that of a battle-weary shark—a shark that has been through a lot of battles but still on its feet. The truck’s design revolves around flaws, not hiding them. The plastic body panels do not have the usual dings and scrapes one would find on traditional metal bodies. This not only gives the car a unique look but also renders the car more durable and easier to maintain in the future.
A Raw, Worn-Down Aesthetic
In addition to the tough plastic case, the Slate Truck features interior upholstery made of a heathered material. The material is designed to look better over time, giving the interior a natural, worn look. This design approach is on purpose unfinished around the edges, with the goal of building a vehicle that does not try to hide its imperfections or be ashamed of them.
The DIY Revolution: Embracing Personalization
The Slate Truck is not a bare-bones vehicle; it’s a canvas for paint. Maybe the most appealing thing about the truck is that it’s highly customizable. Unlike the majority of automobiles, which offer limited color schemes and options, the Slate Truck is designed to be a clean slate for the owner.
Vinyl-Wrap Customization
Slate Auto is taking advantage of the growing vinyl-wrapping trend for cars. The bare body of the truck and minimal trim also make it easy for anyone—even beginners—to have their own vinyl wraps installed. This provides the truck with an added degree of flexibility, in that owners can easily alter the appearance of the truck as often as they want. Whatever style you’re in the mood for, whether its making a big splash with contrasting patterns or taking it easy with a sleek, solid color scheme, the Slate Truck can match any look.
DIY Customization Kits
In addition to the ability of changing the exterior, Slate Auto has come with other choices of customizing. For example, the owners have the option of turning the truck into an SUV through a rear seat kit installation. This installation is easy to do at home and comes with additional rollover crash protection besides rear seats that feature seat belts. The company maintains that the retrofit will meet federal crash test requirements, as safe as any other car on the road.
Simplicity in Manufacturing: A Cost-Effective Approach
The minimalism of the Slate Truck’s aesthetic isn’t just a part of the final product—it’s also a core part of how they make it. It is expensive and hard to do automobiles, but Slate Auto made every attempt to be frugal by streamlining manufacturing. One of the biggest cost-cutting measures is the absence of a paint shop.
Streamlined Manufacturing Process
Painting cars is expensive and time-consuming, and it’s likely the most environmentally unfriendly aspect of car manufacturing. By not painting, Slate Auto is avoiding this costly process in manufacturing. Without the paint department, the factory can focus on putting together plastic body panels and other less expensive activities.
Plastic Over Metal: Cost Reduction
Slate’s plastic rather than metal also reduces the complexity of manufacture. Older auto factories require pricey, large-scale stamping machinery to form metal body components. With plastic, Slate Auto will be able to manufacture the truck in a lower-cost, more compact factory. This simplifies the entire process of manufacture and reduces its dependency on costly machines.
A Fundamental Change in EV Manufacture
What’s even more amazing about the Slate Truck is how simple it is in options. Rather than offering a variety of various trims, colors, and options, Slate has decided to offer only one version of the truck, in one color, with no additional options when buying. This significantly reduces production complexity and allows the company to keep costs low.
No Infotainment, No Problem: The Slate Truck’s Digital Detox
Maybe the most egregious thing about the Slate Truck is that it doesn’t have a traditional infotainment system. With today’s cars, you’ve got touchscreens, and they’re the central hub for everything from navigation to entertainment. But the Slate Truck completely avoids that trend. It doesn’t have a touchscreen, it doesn’t have a radio, and it doesn’t have Bluetooth. Your only sources of entertainment are whatever you can carry with you—your phone and a Bluetooth speaker, maybe.
Simplicity Over Complexity
As hyperbolic as this sounds, Slate Auto made the vehicle as simple as they could, something that they think will make the vehicle more trustworthy. Snyder asserts one of the main reasons for the vehicle’s lack of infotainment is to eliminate one of the main sources of warranty claims: buggy tech systems. In the typical automobile, up to 70% of repeat warranty claims are attributed to infotainment problems, but by cutting out such systems from the car, Slate wants to create a more stable and sound automobile.
DIY Maintenance and Upgrades: A New Way to Care for Your Car
Slate Auto would also like to make car ownership easier by taking a do-it-yourself approach. Car manufacturers used to make it hard for customers to fix and maintain their cars themselves. But Slate is breaking that trend with a “right to repair” approach. If customers want to repair themselves, they’ll be given do-it-yourself videos and a hotline to call for help to guide them through it.
Easy Battery Upgrade
This DIY attitude extends to upgrades as well. While the truck has a base range of 150 miles, Slate Auto will offer an extended-range battery that will increase the truck’s range from 240 miles. The owner can install this upgrade himself at home, giving him more control over his car’s performance.
A New Approach to Car Sales: Direct to Consumer
Following in Tesla’s footsteps, Slate Auto will sell its vehicles directly to customers without using traditional dealerships. This model allows Slate to maintain control over the customer experience and reduce costs. Instead of an enormous dealership chain, Slate is set to launch several pickup centers based on preorder information. For home delivery, Slate also offers it for a special fee.
The Big Question: Will Consumers Embrace the Slate Truck?
The Slate Truck represents a radical break from the appearance and production of automobiles. It avoids the high-technology, high-price automobile trend in favor of a less-expensive, more stripped-down alternative. But success hinges on whether or not the consumer population is ready for such a bare-bones, no-options approach to car ownership. While the Slate Truck is one vision of how a modern automobile can be reimagined, whether there’s enough demand for such a radical new kind of car remains to be seen.
As the EV market continues to grow and evolve, Slate Auto is positioning itself as a bold new player. Whether it will succeed in revolutionizing the auto industry remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: the Slate Truck is unlike anything we’ve seen before.