These days, the news is filled with so many unimaginable horrors– “surely, this must be the thing that sets sane people over the edge!” followed by the exact same declaration less than 24 hours later- that it’s hard to find much reason for optimism. Or, dare I say, surprise. But verily I say unto thee, dear reader, that I was truly shocked the other day– to read a news article about some of those old school micro pickup trucks being made in… wait a minute. Detroit!? Let’s check out the story!
The News
It’s called Slate– and the media coverage leads with the description that it will be sold for a sub-$20,000 price point, even though that takes into account federal incentives that may well disappear because, well, some teenager who goes by the name Big Balls is running the entire federal bureaucracy. But the point is that it’s an electric pickup truck. Apart from the electric part, it’s low-tech. And it’s cheap.
Well, relatively affordable. The cost of cars has been climbing– pretty close to $50,000. Sedans, which are increasingly unpopular not marketed as much as giant SUVs and trucks that have much higher prices and profit margins, can be found cheaper. But it’s still not exactly “affordable,” which is why the idea of a $20,000 truck is remarkable.
But also unlikely, and let’s also remember that the price is probably more like $28,000 for the bare minimum (Slate doesn’t have an audio system). Let’s also remember that Tesla promised a cheaper sedan at $35,000 in the Model 3, but when it came out, for the first several years, it was difficult to actually get one for that price, with many going from the base price point of $45,000 to $50-60,000. They’re still not $35,000.
But it’s still interesting.
Why it matters
In the United States, trucks and passenger vehicles– I guess that’s a redundant way to just say “passenger vehicles” since most trucks aren’t used for anything but- have gotten progressively larger over the last 30 years, roughly since the introduction of the 1984 Jeep Cherokee, which effectively introduced the SUV as we know it. Let’s recall that the original Chevy Suburban was a station wagon before it became what GM definitively marketed as a “truck.”
As trucks have gotten bigger, they’ve barely increased in fuel economy while passenger cars have made substantial gains– CAFE is expected to hit 50mpg by 2031. Trucks have also gotten far more expensive– with a 22% increase in the past five years alone. And the fact is that it’s starting to at least show hints of impacts on consumer demand. Sort of.
A couple of the articles I’ve seen suggest that Slate is a kei truck– Japanese “kei” (light) “tora” (“truck,” from “torakku,” the Japanese-ization of the English word). It looks to me more like a slightly smaller version of what American pickups used to be as late as the 2000s, around the time that they made the last of the Ford Rangers and F-150s that weren’t the size of a small house.
Don’t get me wrong. I do love a good kei truck. And I generally think that all vehicles need to be smaller unless we start implementing mandatory speed limiters (quote me on this when I run for president on the Big Nanny State Platform, I ain’t about to change on this one and I feel very strongly about car safety). And there’s something fun about the idea of a vehicle that is all of 5′ wide and about 11′ long. (Compare to an Escalade, which is nearly 18′ long and nearly 7′ wide).
I have occasionally heard “kei truck” applied to larger vehicles that are still tiny compared to American standards– for example, the Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear, which a neighbor of mine has and which I lust after, contradicting the Eleventh Commandment of “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s vintage tiny Japanese ride.” These, too, are fantastic. They are smaller than American cars, more minimalist, and can still fit an insane amount of stuff.
Anyway, back to Slate.
Am I going to be buying one?
Probably not. Much as I would love a kei truck or a small electric pickup, my life now consists of office and classroom, so I would have less use for a truck outside of the major renovation projects on our now two houses, which I intend to procrastinate as long as humanly possible. Also, Slate is tied to Amazon alums and Jeff Bezos money, which, these days, fuck that shit. But I will definitely be waiting with bated breath to see how it turns out.
For a company to be designing small trucks in Detroit, that’s pretty remarkable. (They’re not actually going to be built in Detroit, but a state away isn’t too bad!). And in an era of everything getting larger and more unaffordable, smaller and more affordable fills a market niche, and that’s thoroughly valuable.