There is a new name in the American Electric cars marketAnd it makes things tremble where it matters most: the price. Startup Slate arrived with the slate truck of $ 25,000, a minimalist and unadorned electric vehicle built for personalization and use of the real world. Forget the premium gadgets – This truck offers hand windows, a barebon dashboard and a modular platform so adaptable that you can even transform it into a SUV with a DIY accessory kit.
The Michigan Startup EV has been operating in secret for a few years now, attracting funding from Amazon Chef Jeff Bezos and many other rich investors. (Amazon de Bezos has also played a decisive role in launching Rivian with a first investment of $ 700 million in the car manufacturer then wasted.) In a world where most EV startups are launching with Costly flagship models Before extending to cheaper additions, the ascending approach of Slate, at low cost to launch its brand, is new, and taking into account the current uncertainty around Inflation, prices And the increase in the cost of goods, perhaps appropriate.
Stay simple: a new slate truck could be the most expensive of next year
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Just a little guy
The slate truck is surprisingly small. Only 174.6 inches from the bumper to the bumper with a wheelbase of 108.9 inch, the small EV is a complete 21 inch shorter than the Hyundai Santa Cruz and 25 inches shorter than Ford’s MaverickCurrently the smallest vans that you can buy in the United States. Of course, these are four-door cabin microphones with rear seats, while the state pick-up is a two-seater with a single tank (at least in its standard configuration).
Despite its smallest stature, the slate 4 -foot standard bed is roughly on the parent with the 4.5 feet of Ford and the 4 feet of Hyundai. In addition, the EV has a 7 -foot cubic “fruit” storage space under the hood. With up to 1,433 pounds of payload, the small truck is in the stadium of the other compact microphones and should make it a decent runabout for races that involve a small transport. However, its towing capacity of 1,000 pounds is much lower than its competitors supplied by combustion.
Minimal, customizable
The small size is part of how Slate plans to maintain the price of the truck “less than $ 20,000 after federal incentives”, but the minimum approach to the brand of features, bells and whistles is the essentials of the way it maintains low costs. To start, the EV seems to be available in a single color – flat gray – and customers are encouraged to wrap the slate truck in the color or the livery tickles their fantasy. The 17 -inch base steel wheels fill the truck’s wheel arches and the body panels include exposed equipment.
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The Spartan interior uses your phone for infotainment and your muscle power to fail the windows by hand.
Inside, rather than massive touch screens found in most modern cars, the slate truck has a group of basic digital instruments and universal phone support with USB power. The idea is that most drivers will use their phones for navigation, calls and the media anyway, so why waste money on the big screen? Drivers who prefer a larger screen for navigation can choose to install a dedicated tablet.
It is not completely low technology. The slate truck will offer driving aid and safety characteristics such as active emergency braking and collision warning forward when it is launched, but zooming in the photos, I also spy out hand windows. This is how the slate is dedicated to bare bones, basic transport and keeping the cost of its low electric truck. The newborn car manufacturer says that it will offer more than 100 accessories, packages and options to the point of purchase (or as after-sales accesses) to allow owners to personalize their slate truck to meet their needs or their style.
DIY SUV Kit
The most interesting accessory may be a SUV kit which allows owners to transform the two-seater collection into a five-seat SUV. Arriving flat like IKEA furniture, the SUV kit can be installed in a slate service center, by a trusted mechanic or in your driveway as a DIY project, adding the rear occupant, airbags and, of course, rear seats.
I wonder how quickly the conversion can be carried out. If it is fast, be able to switch between the two configurations according to the needs of the week – a van for weekend lessons work and an SUV for hitting the city with the family – seems very intriguing.
Modest performance
The modest size collection will be equipped with an equally modest electric powertrain, sports numbers that are not super impressive on paper, but which should be more than sufficient for the basic needs of many drivers.
A 150 kilowatt engine (201 horsepower) twists the rear wheels with a 195 pound-feet torque. The estimated sprint of 8 seconds from 0 to 60 MPH of the truck and the top speed of 90 MPH means that it will not be a neck counape, but should provide decent performance for travel and races.
The EV will be powered by a standard battery of 52.7 kilowatt hours which can last up to 150 miles between the refills. Slate will also offer a battery of 84.3 kWh accessories which targets 240 miles of range. The designation by the mark of the largest battery as an accessory “seems to imply that it can be exchanged or upgrade after purchase, which is a very interesting proposal, if it is true.
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The slate truck makes a lot of sacrifices to reach its low price. Even so, I am very tempted to place a deposit of $ 50 on one.
When it’s time to recharge, users will connect to the slate truck NACS load port For approximately five hours with a level 2 level charger of 11 kW. In a Tesla compressor (or another DC fast charging station via an adapter), the EV will be able to juice quickly from 20% to 80% in full “less than 30 minutes”. It works to add about 90 to 140 miles in half an hour, which is not the fastest EV in the world, but I don’t think that Slate expects that most takers travel in its background in its spartan pick-up.
The cheapest EV in America
Slate says that it will build the slate truck here in the United States in a reindustrial factory probably near Indianapolis, Indiana. The prize has not been finalized, but the automaker expects the price to start somewhere in the $ 25,000 stadium before $ 7,500 in federal tax incentives, which makes them most New EV affordable in Americaso true. Direct sales to consumers open online today on Slate. Auto with a reimbursable deposit of $ 50.
