Ask just about anybody, and they’ll tell you that new cars are too expensive. In the wake of tariffs shaking the auto industry and with the Trump administration pledging to kill the federal EV incentive, that situation isn’t looking to get better soon, especially for anyone wanting something battery-powered. Changing that overly spendy status quo is going to take something radical, and it’s hard to get more radical than what Slate Auto has planned.
Meet the Slate Truck, a sub-$20,000 (after federal incentives) electric vehicle that enters production next year. It only seats two yet has a bed big enough to hold a sheet of plywood. It only does 150 miles on a charge, only comes in gray, and the only way to listen to music while driving is if you bring along your phone and a Bluetooth speaker. It is the bare minimum of what a modern car can be, and yet it’s taken three years of development to get to this point.
But this is more than bargain-basement motoring. Slate is presenting its truck as minimalist design with DIY purpose, an attempt to not just go cheap but to create a new category of vehicle with a huge focus on personalization. That design also enables a low-cost approach to manufacturing that has caught the eye of major investors, reportedly including Jeff Bezos. It’s been engineered and will be manufactured in America, but is this extreme simplification too much for American consumers?
No paint because you’re injection molding body panels? Sounds good.
No stamping? How are you getting away with that? Are they just outsourcing the stamping for frame parts? There’s no way this thing doesn’t require stamped frame components.
Tbh, this feels like vaporware. I’ll believe it when I see them actually being delivered.
I think the non-stamping is the body panels. They would still have to have a stamped metal frame to meet the S rating wouldn’t they?
They make it sound like not having stamping is helping them by not requiring expensive machines and a factory with a high ceiling. I’m betting they’re outsourcing the stamping. I’m also betting that they won’t ever deliver a truck.
My first thought as well. Feeding on the anti-Tesla hype to gain some clout and probably funding.
Are truck chassis usually stamped? I had assumed they were made from cast components.
Frame rails are usually stamped. Although low volume sometimes will brake press them.
Hmm. Well, plastic can have a pretty good strength to weight ratio, if taking up more volume in the process. If sheet metal can do it maybe they went all-plastic.
If they’re including fibres too, that can famously exceed metal’s rigidity depending on how precisely it’s done.
At the cost of the mold to do something like that (and the machine to even run it), I’m reasonably sure that stamped or brake pressed frame rails make more sense cost wise. I’m not sure that volume will ever drive the cost of that low enough to be worth it within the life of a mold like that. Like, I can picture the design to make it a basic two plate mold (I think, I’m more used to parts that top out a bit over a foot in the largest dimension), but then the gate size and shot volume I’m picturing to fill the thing is just bonkers, although apparently there are a few machines in the world that could theoretically do it if I’m reading their specs right from a quick search.
Unless your thinking a carbon fiber layup, which is feasible, but I believe metal becomes more cost effective again at that point.