Literally born from a clean slate

An American start-up backed by Amazon will launch a bare-bones $US27,000 electric pick-up truck in 2027. It is called the Blank Slate.

News first broke last month and now further images are to hand. Slate.auto believes “people deserve to have a car that they can afford”.

They add that the concepts of desirability and affordability should be “inseparable”. Blank Slate will go heavy on personalisation options.

Tisha Johnson, director of Design said that the response to the Slate Truck’s unveiling last month was overwhelming. It reflects the public’s desire for an affordable yet still attractive pick-up. 

Johnson said that the Slate project appealed specifically to her desire to have a “meaningful impact for society and on people’s lives”. It also gave her an opportunity to fulfil a career ambition. “It was concerning to me that I hadn’t delivered affordable mobility, an affordable car, to people.”

Indeed, the Slate Truck is tipped to be one of the most affordable pick-ups – electric or otherwise. It goes on sale in the US with a targeted start price of $US27,000, before incentives.

That makes it roughly the same amount as an entry-level petrol-engined Ford Maverick. It’s about half the price of the Ford F-150 Lightning, the least expensive electric pick-up in America. 

To achieve this it has a bare-bones cabin featuring manual seats, no stereo as standard and a device mount in place of a touchscreen. 

“People know what they want in their own tech that they’re carrying with them. Let them nest their phone or a tablet, if they want to, and then just get back to the act of driving.”

It’s an approach similar to that taken by the Dacia Spring and Citroën ë-C3.

“We are probably the least influenced by the directionality of industry players,” she said. 

There’s a huge array of personalisation options for the pick-up. They range from vibrant liveries and chunky cladding to different wheel designs and even the choice of body style. There are kits available that turn the vehicle into a compact SUV or a fastback crossover.

Johnson said the aim was that “the person looking at it can overlay some interesting possibilities”. 

“First and foremost, we want people to love the car.”

Slate can build just one basic model line at its factory in Indiana, which keeps tooling and supply chain costs in check.

Will Slate go global? Not initially, according to Johnson. It is “focused on an American truck that we can deliver in the US”.