Last night, a new company called Slate Auto unveiled its first product, a spartan with a two -seat electric truck with a limit of 150 miles and possibility. There is no paint, no engagement info -infotining screen, nor is there any stereo or even radio. This is no more than your average 12 -year -old child, and when it arrives in 2026, it can be sold in less than $ 20,000 (including privileges).
If of course. They arrived. We do not have to enter the path to the future of Slate’s future success – including the World Trade War and the Presidential Administration openly enmity with the EV – because instead of more powerful, large -scale trucks and SUVs are interested in the growing madness.
If you have eyes and live in the United States in 2025, you may have felt this problem. Our roads are full of the boats of these rotating land. In 2024, sales of SUV and pickup trucks reached a new height, which is 75 % of the total registration of vehicles. A decade ago, these two classes were in half of the market. Today, they represent three of every four new vehicles sold in the United States.
These vehicles are bigger and heavy than their predecessors. In 2023, 31 % of new cars in the United States weighed £ 5,000 (2.27 tonnes), compared to 22 % in 2018. By a recent investigation Economist. And with the shift in electric vehicles, many of them became heavy. The Ford F-150 electricity weighs about 6,500 pounds, which is about 60 % heavier than its gas.
And since they have been expanded, on average, on average and wider than the past decades, they have become even more deadly for pedestrians and other weak road users. The shape of a vehicle, especially the hood, also plays an important role in determining whether pedestrians can avoid targeting. According to the Highway Safety Insurance Institute, more than 40 inches (about 3. 3.3 feet) and more than 65 degrees of height of the height of the height of the deaths are 44 % more likely to cause deaths.
Meanwhile, pedestrians have been removed in recent years. According to NHTSA reports, between 2013 and 2022, pedestrians increased by 57 % to 4,779 to 7,522. In 2022, 88 % of pedestrians died in single -car accidents.
Screenshot: Slate Auto
The slate truck is practically lower than other trucks on the road. It contains 69.3 inches long, 174.6 inches long, and 70.6 inches wide (including mirror), which has a whale base 108.9 inches. Compare this to Ford Moric of 2024-most of the compact trucks no longer make automakers-which is 68.7 inches long, 199.7 inches long, and 83.5 inches wide, with 121.1 inch wheel base. Even in the slate there is a Nifty Visvezer Its website He compared his truck with Maurock as well as Chi Silvarado EV and – happily – 1985 Toyota SR 5 pickup.
The slate truck may come into a small package, but As if Stuffy Partner Tim Stevens noted in his newsletterIt is still designed to like all the truck luggage truck owners. Its cargo area measures 50 to 60 inches, and can load 1,433 pounds of pay and take 1,000 pounds out of whatever you have received. Most truck owners have convinced themselves that they need more, which is why 2025 GMC Sira offers a maximum capacity of up to 13,300 pounds. But when the average air stream trailer weighs around 3,000-5,000 pounds, it is unclear what the owners should do with what the added strength increases.
The slate technology is also freshness. Instead of a large central touch screen, the company includes a dash mount for a smartphone or tablet. The slate offers its app, but whatever you need to know is available on a small gauge cluster screen behind the steering wheel.
Slate truck is practically lower than other trucks on the road
Research shows that the change toward the touch -screen -based infections system has greatly increased the driver’s disturbances, With the AAA study To conclude that drivers using touch screens were engaged in more than 40 seconds for more than 40 seconds for completing tasks such as programming navigation or sending text messages. Even for only two seconds, removing your eyes from the road doubles the risk of accident.
Of course, for design, this monastic view helps slate to keep its costs down, which in turn allows the company to sell at rock prices. When the average new car buyer in the United States, is paying 49,740, who According to Kelly Blue Book All the time is close to the height, then a low cost, the idea of bare bones, the microw truck in which the All -Electric Power Train (think about low maintenance costs, pollution) suddenly begin to look much better than you think.
To ensure, the slate faces a sharp war. In 2025, all general warnings about launching a new car company in the United States apply. Customers can reject Lou Fi’s view or twist their nose on the idea of all the customs. Who wants to do all this work? The Trump administration can kill the Federal EV tax credit, after which the slate truck will be attracted to a more familiar area of about $ 28,000.
But if it is a hit, and people start to claim to be more affordable, small, right -shaped vehicles, then perhaps a world that does not end with a huge, maximum, elimination of the environment, killing machines.
