Aardvark Daily

Please visit the sponsor!

Slate delivers their EV

Okay, they're not actually delivering yet but they are taking pre-orders.

Let's hope they're a little more accurate in their timeframes at the pre-order stage than Elon Musk was when he took quarter of a billion dollars in pre-order deposits for the Tesla Roadster 2 and promised production would start in 2020.

I still find it so hard to believe that people have thrown billions of dollars into the SpaceX IPO, in the wake of Elon's trail of broken promises and failures to deliver.

Slate, however, seem to be far more conservative in what they're offering and could well shake up the bottom end of the EV market -- at least in the USA where Chinese EVs are effectively banned.

Coming in at a smidgen under US$25K, the Slate is a very low-cost entry into the world of EVs but its price might not be its biggest selling point.

The thing that has fascinated me (and many others) about this vehicle is the design concept and implementation.

By using easily replaceable plastic (polypropolene) composite body panels, the Slate becomes almost like a Lego car. The company is claiming it can be converted, by the owner, from a pickup into a SUV or a wagon with little more than a few hand-tools.

This Bolt-on, bolt-off configurability means that one vehicle can serve multiple purposes -- perhaps being a work vehicle during the week and a jeep-like open-topped beach-cruiser on the weekends or a family SUV for taking the kids to Saturday sports events.

Another great aspect is the minimalism of the interior.

Instead of being accosted by a bewildering array of screens, bings, bongs and flashing lights, a Slate owner has just one small display behind the steering wheel to show speed and state of charge. It doesn't even have a radio!

Why pay for stuff you don't want or perhaps don't need? That seems to be the company's motto.

However, if you want extras you can just "bolt them on". There's a place to mount your phone so that you'll have satnav and other features. There's also a place to stick a bluetooth speaker if you want music.

This is the kind of vehicle I would *love* and is probably the closest thing to my 1994 Toyota ute that I've seen coming out of the EV world.

Just like Henry Ford's Model T, the slate comes in just one colour -- slate grey.

However, the potential for customisation is enormous. Being plastic, the body panels are not particulary suited to being repainted but that's just fine -- vinyl wrapping is cheaper by far and these days produces a superior result.

Imagine, you can buy some spare body panels and then, a few minutes with some hand-tools and you'll be able to switch between a conservatively coloured utility vehicle and a crazy neon-coloured "fun machine" -- if you so choose.

Then there's the bits you can make yourself. Apparently the company will be offering a range of STL files so you can 3D print your own accessories such as new tail-light grills etc. That's if US laws don't prohibit the personal ownership and use of 3D printers (subject for another column).

I suspect that the 3rd-party parts market for these will be enormous. It won't be long before every man and his small manufacturing business starts churning out different shaped body panels, customisation kits, conversion kits and all manner of other things that will allow users to really transform their Slate far beyond even the wildest dreams of its designers.

Sadly, I doubt we'll see the Slate here in New Zealand, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it's left-hand drive and I suspect the factory will be far too busy servicing the domestic market to even consider gearing up for a run of RHD models.

Secondly, it's competitively priced in the USA but if we do just the dollar conversion it's a hefty NZS44,000 here and that's far more than the cheapest Chinese EV to be had around here. I suspect many Kiwis would look at the features and performance of a cheap Chinese EV and smile, while giving the Slate a wide berth.

Still, it's a great concept -- and I wonder how long it will be before the Chinese copy it.

Can you imagine how much Cheaper the Chinese could create a vehicle with the same features (or lack thereof)? If a Sino-Slate-knock-off were to arrive on our shores at under $30K I think it would sell like hotcakes. Do you think this is a possiblity?

Carpe Diem folks!

Please visit the sponsor!

Here is a PERMANENT link to this column

Rank This Aardvark Page

Change Font