Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
57:58
Car
Slate Pickup
The Slate is a brand-new electric truck designed to be as simple and cheap as possible. It doesn't even come with a radio or power windows in its base version, allowing buyers to add only the features they actually want and even convert it into an SUV later.
Company
IIHS
The IIHS is an organization funded by insurance companies that crash-tests cars to see how safe they are. Their ratings help consumers choose safer vehicles and push car companies to build safer designs.
Car
1996 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer
This is an older, truck-based SUV that Chevrolet made in the 1990s. While it was very popular and rugged, its older design lacks the advanced safety structures and crumple zones found in modern cars.
Car
2026 Chevrolet Blazer
This is the modern version of the Chevrolet Blazer, which is built like a comfortable passenger car rather than a heavy truck. It features advanced safety designs that protect passengers much better in a crash.
Term
crumple zone
This is a part of the car's body designed to crush easily during a crash. By crushing, it acts like a cushion, absorbing the force of the impact so that the people inside don't take the brunt of the hit.
Car
Volkswagen Type 2 Bus
This is the classic, beloved Volkswagen hippie bus from the 1950s and 60s. It is famous for its cute, boxy look and round headlights, though original versions were very slow and lacked modern safety features.
Car
Ford Broncos
The classic Ford Bronco is an older, boxy SUV made by Ford starting in the late 1960s. It was built to drive on rough dirt roads and trails, and it is now very popular for people to restore and collect.
Car
Porsche 911
The classic Porsche 911 is an older, famous sports car made by the German company Porsche. It is known for having its engine in the back of the car instead of the front and for its iconic rounded shape.
Car
Volkswagen Bus
The Volkswagen Bus is an older, boxy van made by the German company Volkswagen. It is famous for its friendly look, simple design, and for being used by travelers and campers in the 1960s.
Concept
EV conversion
This is the process of taking an old gas-powered car, removing its engine, and installing electric batteries and a motor to turn it into a modern electric vehicle.
Car
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle is a small, round car made by the German company Volkswagen. It is famous for its simple design and for having its engine in the back under the trunk.
Car
Dodge Charger
The Dodge Charger mentioned here is an older, powerful American two-door car from the late 1960s or early 1970s. It is known for having a very large, loud engine and a sporty design.
Car
Volvo Recharge 40
The Volvo C40 Recharge is a small, luxury electric SUV made by Volvo. It has a sporty, sloping roof design and runs entirely on battery power.
Car
Nissan Leaf
The Nissan Leaf is a small, all-electric hatchback car made by Nissan. Some older versions had a tiny solar panel on the back roof spoiler to help run small electronics inside the car.
Car
Toyota Prius
The Toyota Prius is a highly efficient hybrid car made by Toyota that uses both a gasoline engine and an electric motor. Some plug-in versions have solar panels on the roof to help charge the battery using sunlight.
Car
Toyota RAV4
The Toyota RAV4 is a popular, mid-sized family SUV made by Toyota. It is designed to be a reliable, comfortable, and fuel-efficient vehicle for everyday driving.
Car
Chevrolet Silverado EV
The Chevrolet Silverado EV is a large, all-electric pickup truck made by Chevrolet. Because it does not have a gasoline engine, it has a large storage space under the front hood where an engine normally goes.
Car
Ford F-150 Lightning
The Ford F-150 Lightning is an all-electric version of Ford's popular pickup truck. Since it does not have a gasoline engine, it has a very large, lockable storage space under the front hood.
Car
Dodge Power Wagon
The Power Wagon is a large, heavy-duty pickup truck built specifically for driving over very rough off-road terrain. It comes with special tools, like a built-in winch cable on the front bumper, to help pull itself or other vehicles out of mud and obstacles.
Car
Ford Ranger
The Ford Ranger mentioned here is an older, small pickup truck made by Ford. It was designed to be a simple, affordable vehicle for carrying light loads and doing basic work.
Car
Truck Slate Truck
This refers to the simpler, smaller pickup trucks made during the 1980s and 1990s. These trucks were built primarily for basic work and hauling, without the large size and high-tech features of modern trucks.
Term
LFP battery
This is a specific type of battery used in electric cars. It is cheaper to make, lasts a very long time, and is less likely to catch fire, but it doesn't hold quite as much energy as other electric car batteries of the same size.
Part
De Dion axle
This is a special type of rear suspension that connects the rear wheels with a solid bar, but keeps the heavy gear gears attached to the car's frame. This helps the car ride smoother over bumps while keeping the tires flat on the road.
Car
Ford Maverick
The Maverick is a popular, small pickup truck made by Ford. It is built like a comfortable SUV with a truck bed on the back, making it very easy to drive, fuel-efficient, and affordable.
Term
single cab
This is a traditional truck cabin that only has two doors and one bench seat inside, with no back seat. It is mostly used for work trucks today because families prefer trucks with back seats.
Car
Jeep Wrangler
The Jeep Wrangler is an off-road SUV made by Jeep that is designed to drive over rough terrain like rocks and mud. It is famous for having doors and a roof that you can completely take off.
Person
Rod Romain
Rod Romain is a respected engineer from the traditional car industry who used to design heavy-duty Ram trucks. He was hired by the new electric truck company, Slate, to make sure their new vehicle is engineered properly and ready for mass production.
Car
Dodge Ram
The Dodge Ram is a large, powerful pickup truck designed for heavy-duty work. It is built to pull very heavy trailers and carry large loads in its cargo bed.
Place
Warsaw, Indiana
This is the city in Indiana where the new Slate electric trucks will be built in a newly updated factory.
Car
Ford Expedition
The Ford Expedition is a very large SUV made by Ford. It has three rows of seats to carry many passengers and is built to tow heavy trailers.
LIVE
The 4x4 enthusiast is in the chat, Andre.
We can start our podcast.
He can start this thing.
Thank you for your support, by the way.
Yes.
If you guys want to watch this podcast live, by the way, and ask questions in real time,
patreon.com slash tflcar is a place to do it.
That's right.
And Tommy, this is a car podcast, correct?
That's right.
But we are talking about a car, a truck, and a coupe that are all the same thing.
Wow.
And, okay, so, and Roman is traveling right now, right?
So he couldn't be for this episode.
He's in Florida, but he just got the low down on potentially the hottest new vehicle of
the year, the Slate.
The Slate pickup.
The Slate pickup.
That's right.
Yes.
Now this is an innovative new vehicle priced at under $25,000.
Yes.
Because that has no radio, no power windows, I mean, it's basically a skateboard with
a bed.
With a body on top of it, basically.
It's got mirrors though.
It's got mirrors.
It's got mirrors.
But it's really controversial because a lot of people are really like negative about
it.
A lot of people are positive about it, right?
It's creating a lot of controversy.
People are not sure how well it's going to sell.
So we want to talk about it.
We want to build our own, right?
That's right.
So in today's podcast, we're having a discussion, will this thing actually work and will it
sell?
Yeah.
Now let's talk a little bit about the company.
It is a startup.
Yes.
Right?
So this is not owned by the Volkswagen group like Scout is.
This is kind of a ground up company with some major money behind them.
Yes.
But before we continue with Slate, can we hit a couple of news items that also happened
before we build a truck of our dreams?
Yes.
What are some of the new things that went on this week, Andre?
Well, you know what?
I was online and I saw something from IIHS, which is basically a private organization
for highway safety, but it's really an insurance institute.
So it's funded by the insurance companies, right?
And they crash cars, which we like to watch because everybody loves watching a crash.
Yes.
And one of the things that they've done now a couple of times is they've taken an old
car and a new car and they've put them head to head in this epic showdown to see if things
were really built like they used to be.
Yes.
So they crashed a 1996 S10 based Blaser, Chevy Blaser versus a brand new one, 2026 Blaser.
But Tommy, look at the old blue Blaser.
It was perfect.
Andre's more upset about them ruining a really nice S10 Blaser.
It is a beautiful Blaser.
Do you think they had to find that or do you think they had it like laying around the
office?
I don't know how they sourced it.
Yeah.
I mean, it's beautiful.
But unfortunately, it didn't fare so well.
No, the dummy's head actually fell off.
That's not good.
He was decapitated by the airbag.
But this was a demonstration to show how far safety technology has come since IIHS started
30 years ago.
So should we read the blurb?
Yeah.
So they've done this before, right?
They've done like a 50s car versus like an early 2000s car.
And just to demonstrate how much better newer vehicles are at safety.
And this is 30 years of progress.
So it's an overlap.
So it's not head on.
It's kind of the half the car on the right and half the car on the left, right?
Yeah.
So it's a moderate offset, they call it.
That's right.
Here's where their findings found.
The driver of the new Blaser would have likely walked away with bumps and bruises.
OK.
The occupant compartment of the 2026 model remained intact, all but one of the injury
measurements taken from the driver dummy showed minimal injury risk.
OK.
In contrast, the impact crushed the occupant compartment of the 1996, pushing the dashboard
and steering column into the dummy's lap.
The fully inflated airbag, which you were saying was kind of surprising, it went off.
Yeah, because if this is a 30 year old car, some airbags have life spans, life expectancy
for the for the components itself, but the airbag did go off.
Yeah.
And what they said is a fully inflated airbag hit the dummy in the chimp, snapping its head
back and toward the window.
Oh no.
This caused the nodding joint of the dummy's upper neck to break and the head was detached
from the body.
That is not good.
They then go on to say, although this isn't likely to happen to a human driver, it illustrates
the extreme forces the dummy absorbed.
The Institute's engineers use specific metrics collected by instrument inside the dummy rather
than visible damage to estimate injury risk.
Those indicators show that the crash almost certainly would have caused serious injuries
to the driver's head, neck and both legs.
Yeah.
And I think it also demonstrates just the strength of the metal structure of the vehicle
because the new vehicle was mostly in the passenger cabin was mostly intact.
You could probably open the door on the new vehicle.
On the old vehicle.
The door fell off.
The door basically almost fell off, but also the A-pillar was like bent in half basically.
It completely, the new structures are stronger and also the crumpled zones are probably better
designed for sure than ever before.
No.
I mean, I think it's interesting, definitely a little bit of a sadness to ruin a very nice
blue blazer.
I think we agree on that, right?
Definitely.
Yeah, we agree on that.
But I think that it is very telling that, you know, people say they aren't built like
they used to.
In some cases, that's a good thing, right?
Yes.
When the dummy's head falls off in an overlap crash test, yes.
And the other dummy could essentially walk away if a dummy could walk.
If dummies could walk.
Yeah, exactly.
I know where I would rather be.
Now a lot of comments were saying that they would rather see this test with like an 80's
blazer, the K5, the big one.
And they said that that one would have been much better and not convinced it would have.
Well, that one would be taller, so it could be probably launched into the air.
I don't know.
I don't know what would have happened.
I mean, I think that it's not, in the modern vehicles, it's not only size that has an impact
on the crash worthiness, it's the ability of the structures to absorb the impact, right?
And definitely we're seeing that the modern ones absorb the impact and then keep the
occupant cell contained, whereas the old one just kind of crumples and then there's bits
everywhere.
I would have loved to have actually been there in person though.
So Insurance Institute of Highway Safety.
Please let us know about this.
It would have been really cool to see in person.
Because we could have done a story about it, talked about it, interviewed the engineers.
We could have done a bunch of things about it.
For sure.
Yeah, definitely.
But speaking of safety, there is another news item I wanted to discuss which relates
to us, because I drove a 1950s Type 2 VW bus.
That's right, Andre.
This has been a really cool thing.
So this is a company, what's the name of this company, Kindred?
Kindred Motorworks.
Okay.
And they're out of the Bay Area, California.
Nice.
And they restore old VW buses, also restore old classic Ford Broncos.
They're also working on a classic Porsche 911.
Okay.
But this, dude, this bus was, look how cool it looks.
Yeah.
I mean, so this is like a pristine 21-window Volkswagen.
Oh, actually 23-windows.
This is a 23.
So, yes, because, so here's how they do it.
They take a donor vehicle, which is mostly intact, but it could have rust.
So they go, they strip all the paint, they fix all the rust, they also take off the old
roof, because the weld is all the way around, basically the rail, the rain gutter around
the top of the vehicle, and they install a new top with the windows, so all the windows
are intact.
Okay.
Very interesting.
So it could have started out as like a panel bus, right?
And then they turn it into a 23-window.
Yes.
So it's because original 23-window buses are super valuable to begin with, right?
So it's really hard probably to work on one as far as money is concerned.
But then they electrify it, so it's an electric conversion, and they go up to about 300 horsepower.
Now, that's going to really upset some people, Andre.
It could, it actually did upset a couple folks.
In the comments, yes.
Yes, but I was, look at me, I'm happy as a clam in there, but also I was going 65 miles
an hour up this mountain pass.
I mean, basically they've gone from a 50 horsepower beetle-powered air-cooled, air-cooled bread
loaf to a 300 horsepower sports car in terms of power, right?
So this is a hill climb, and I've actually done this in an old Volkswagen Beetle, a flat
out about 40 miles an hour.
Yes.
I was accelerating so quickly that my camera car was having trouble keeping up, which was
a new car.
Okay, your camera car wasn't also a Volkswagen bus.
No, it was not.
But this is a really cool concept, and I think there's an argument to be made that for a
lot of these older vehicles where the engine is maybe not the heart of the experience,
that an EV conversion makes a lot of sense.
So for example, if you're taking like a 440 big block charger, right?
The sound and that experience that the Hemi is, or V8 is so much of what you're buying
that car for, there's an argument to be made though that for an old Volkswagen bus that
little clattery four-cylinder is not the high point of that experience.
So were you impressed with this thing?
I was impressed.
But the comments, the way I want to tie this in is that the safety of this bus, the original
structure is probably not the best.
No, you wouldn't want to crash it.
But the experience was still amazing because you could kind of, it had that open top, the
sliding canvas roof.
And it had the front windshield panels that open in safari style.
So it's almost like has that feeling of a Jeep, like open air motoring.
You could see the front, you could see all the air vents.
So I think they maintained the character of the thing, right?
Because the steering wheel is still kind of in the flat horizontal position.
So you kind of feel like you're operating a giant city bus, although you have great visibility.
So yeah, so you're kind of removing that kind of wheezy old engine and adding some performance,
not for racing purposes, just for driving purposes, right?
What did they say the battery capacity is?
So this is about a 74 kilowatt hour battery.
There's two packs.
There's one in the belly, basically underneath the vehicle.
There's one behind underneath the rear seat.
And it's about 200 miles of range, give or take.
They do have level three charging, but I think they're limiting it to about 45 kilowatts.
So not a super fast speed.
But this is kind of like a toy for somebody, right?
Right. This is not probably a daily vehicle.
You got a beach house.
Yes. You know, you live in a small town.
You want to just put her out of the grocery store, but you also want to silently, silently.
Yes, that's exactly right.
Oh, we have a lot of people joining us.
That's right.
So if you want to be part of our live conversation, patreon.com.
We recorded it live, actually.
Tray Smith has a comment for you about the Volkswagen, Andre.
Yeah, what is it?
There was somebody a few years ago that had an electric minibus with three pedals
covering the roof that could fold out to recharge or three panels.
Oh, panels. Yes.
Covering the roof that could fold out to recharge 40 to 50 miles of range per day.
Oh, only vehicle I know of that could potentially recharge with solar.
That's interesting.
You know, that's that's a good transition.
Actually, thank you, Tray, for the question, because the new slate pickup
that we're discussing in this episode has an optional solar tunnel cover.
Really? Yes. Interesting.
I could show you.
So this is a good point that Tray brings up.
A lot of people have talked about adding solar panels to cars to make them
more efficient or to increase the range.
The problem is, typically, solar panels don't produce that much energy
unless they're like on the roof of your house and you've got a massive square footage of them.
So I think the only time in current production solar panels have been used
is the Nissan Leaf.
Do you remember this?
Had a little solar panel on its rear spoiler that all it did was run a fan.
I think want to say and I'm sure Tray will correct us
and Elliot also or four by four enthusiasts.
I think one of the Prius plugins
didn't have like a little solar roof that once again controlled the climate system.
Oh, maybe it was for the 12 volt system.
I do remember that or like
trickle charging the car because once again, like you said, I mean,
I have solar in my house.
I think Roman has solar in his house.
Yep.
You really need a lot of square footage, but the solar technology,
solar panel technology is also improving.
Well, there was that company.
Was it Apptera?
Yes, that was doing the solar.
Technically around.
But if I remember right, it only gave you like maybe a couple of miles of charge a day.
Yeah, if you had a bright, full sunlight.
So you really need a lot of space.
But to Tray's point, the minibus, the roof of a minibus is basically a house.
Yes, fairly large.
It's a shack, right?
You can just line it with solar panels.
Yes, interesting. Yeah.
So Andre, let's get to our main topic of the day.
Yes, which is the slate.
So we have here specs, the official spec sheet.
So the wheelbase and length, 108 inch wheelbase, 174.6 inches total length.
So pretty small truck.
Yeah.
If our producer Cole can actually put up
over three levels of panels, Tray is saying, yes, you need a lot of panels.
A lot of panels.
Can you bring up an image of a new RAV4, like a 2026 RAV4?
I want to kind of compare the size of the slate to the RAV4
because I looked up the numbers and the RAV4, the new one,
has a wheelbase about
three inches shorter than this and the total length
a little longer than the slate.
So the slate would fit like inside the RAV4 footprint.
So pretty small, pretty small pickup.
So it is also a two door only.
Yeah. And let's kind of back it up a little bit.
The whole concept of the slate is you buy it as as a quote blank slate,
a basic two door truck, and then if you want, you can convert it to an SUV
by putting a top and seats in the back.
Yes. Right.
And what's crazy is that the top is not only just like some
people think it's like an old Bronco where it just keeps yelling.
But it also has integrated airbags.
Yeah. Right.
So it's actually a structural unit that converts it.
And it's like also an electrical connection, right?
Because it needs to tell the main computer that now you have more airbags
and a different structure for the vehicle.
And as far as I can tell, it's a little bit of an involved process to convert it.
And it costs 5000 dollars to convert a pickup.
Whoa.
Into an SUV.
It's expensive.
Yeah. At least 5000 because a little fastback, you know,
with the angled rear glass is even more that costs about 7000 dollars
to upgrade that.
Whoa. So big money.
Yes.
Now, as an SUV, we've determined in a truck it's slightly smaller than a RAV4.
Width is 70.6 without mirrors, 78 with mirrors.
Ground clearance is 7.8 for the truck.
7.6 for the SUV.
I bet that's because it weighs it down a little bit.
Yeah, it probably weighs it down.
And also like, for example, RAV4 or most small compact crossovers,
that's probably similar ground clearance to one of those.
But they do have a lift kit available.
It's not priced out yet and we'll build our own slate in a second.
But you could add a two inch lift kit, which will take it to like 9.8 inches of ground
clearance, which is really great, but it's only rear wheel drive.
There's no four wheel drive.
No.
No.
So I'm looking at the bed length here, 60.5 inches.
So what, five feet?
Okay, yeah, five feet.
So it's a really small cab if it's got a five foot bed and haven't fit in the RAV4 size.
So that's solar tunnel cover.
It's only five feet.
Yeah.
So that's not a huge one.
Interior volume for the pickup is 49.
If you convert it to an SUV, it's 80.5 cubic feet.
That's right.
Front trunk, seven cubic feet.
That's not bad.
Pretty good.
You know what?
That's identical as far as volume, I think, to a cyber truck.
Yes, I think you're right.
Because I think like a Silverado EV pickup has like an 11 cubic foot frunk.
And I think the largest was the lightning.
The F-150 lightning had like 14 or something.
I'm looking at the cargo volume for the SUV behind the seats at 34,
which is a little bit less than the RAV4.
I think a RAV4 is like 38, but not too bad.
A cargo volume with the seats folded 58, also pretty good.
Ooh, curb weight.
The truck is 4,000 pounds.
The SUV is 4,300.
Yeah.
So that's pretty hefty.
And I think that has to do with the battery.
Okay.
Because the battery is kind of, it weighs quite a bit.
Max towing SUV, 1,500.
Max towing.
Oh, the truck is 2,000, right?
Oh, sorry.
Max payload is 1,500 pickup, 1,200 SUV.
It's a pretty good payload, actually.
Yeah.
That's as much as our power wagon we have on loan.
You're exactly right.
It's 1,500 pounds.
And then the towing is 2,000 pickup, 1,800 SUV.
That's pretty low.
That's very low.
And people are saying that maybe enough to bring like one jet ski with you.
Right.
Or tow something very small.
And I saw some people saying, well, that's what an old ranger would tow.
The problem is the way that the tow capacity in an old Ford truck worked is
they had like 1,500 pounds of towing capacity.
But that was based on the bumper.
Because remember, they used to have a bumper ball?
The actual bumper, yes.
Yeah.
But if you put like an actual hitch receiver on them, they could do way more.
They could do more.
Yeah.
Yeah, the bumper was actually bent.
Actually, I saw that in real life.
A landscaper was towing a lawn mower behind them.
And he was going over some bumps in an old ranger.
And the bumper itself like actually bent down.
So that wasn't a very strong component as far as towing is concerned.
But dude, our VP of marketing, Grant Davis, we were in the meeting, right?
Discussing the slate truck.
And he reminded us that back in the 80s and 90s, people used to buy small two-wheel drive
Toyota pickups or Datsun pickups, small trucks.
To deliver pizzas or do landscaping.
So this could be a use case for this particular truck.
For sure.
And I think for a commercial customer, there's a lot to like here,
especially with it being electric.
And if you have like a business to charge it at, there's a lot of potential for cost savings.
Now, speaking of that battery, Andre, when they launched this thing like a couple years ago,
didn't they say it was going to have two batteries?
Yes, they did.
Yeah.
And a lot of people are confused about this.
Because now they just went back to one, but it is an LFP, right?
Yeah.
So the first, like it used to be, there was like the 150 mile of range one and then the 220 mile
of range one.
Now there's one, 63 kilowatt hours.
I think it's LFP, like you said, Andre.
Yeah.
And the range number that they've been saying is right around 205.
Okay.
So pretty, pretty good.
So pretty, yeah.
I mean, not.
Not mind blowing.
Not mind blowing range.
But I think if you're running a small landscaping business, I think that's probably
plenty for the day.
Not a lot of power.
135 is what it's saying.
Zero to kilowatts.
Kilowatts.
So that's just under 200 horsepower.
Is it that much?
Okay.
I trust you.
Cool.
Can you convert 135 kilowatts to Hp?
Gigawatts?
No, to Hp.
Gigawatts.
Zero to 68 seconds.
Oh yeah, 181.
181.
So that's decent.
Yeah, pretty good.
Small vehicle.
Zero to 68 seconds.
Okay.
You don't want to be racing in one of these.
No, you're not going to be winning any stop like Grand Prix, but with a top speed of 90,
that should kind of get you where you need to go.
Battery capacity, we mentioned, is at 65 kilowatt hours.
Four hours to charge at level two.
Half an hour to do 20 to 80 percent of level three.
90 kilowatt peak.
So not huge, but definitely acceptable.
And then McPherson strut front suspension,
the Dior axle in the rear.
I haven't met the Dior.
I have not met Monsieur Dior and the wheel and tire 17-inch wheels on this thing.
Yeah.
And like the wheel, the tire diameter is like 29 and a half,
but you could upgrade to 31s, Tommy.
Whole boy.
With that suspension lift kit.
Now, all of that is interesting, Andre, but kind of the most interesting thing about this
is the way it's being marketed and packaged, wouldn't you say?
Yeah, because it comes great.
Just unpainted, just one color or whatever the raw material is, the panel material.
And it sounds like a lot of the panels may be composite, is that right?
Yeah.
But what's interesting about it is they call it like a blank slate.
And then for not that much money, you can pay to have it wrapped from the factory,
isn't that right?
Okay, should we start?
I have my laptop.
Let's start.
First of all, do you like the look of this little guy?
The one that looks like a zebra?
The one my dad got to ride in?
It's not quite a zebra because it's red and orange stripes.
That would catch my eye if I saw that on any road, especially if it was a business,
like a plumbing business or a little landscaping company, I think it would be a really fun one.
I mean, I think if you're looking for a flashy looking truck, probably not it.
If you go to the dictionary and you just look up pickup truck, I think the slate would appear.
Because it's very simple, squared off, no frills, basic transportation.
Yes, and I mean, we could argue if it's going to be successful or not.
I mean, we could still argue about this.
We'll do that toward the end.
Yes, but we could start building one if I do have sharing, right?
Okay, am I live?
Okay, so here I am on Slate.Auto.com, sorry, Slate.Auto.
This is not sponsored by Slate, by the way.
No, not in any way.
No, not in any way.
I mean, they did invite us to that event, so that was nice.
Okay, so I'm going to start with the pickup because we are kind of trucky people here.
Sure, yeah, yeah.
And then I'm going to go directly to wraps.
So it's designed to be wrapped.
And they actually talked about this, that the panels, the size of them and the shape of the
panels were done specifically so it would be easier to wrap.
And but I'm not a wrapper, are you a wrapper?
I'm not a wrapper clearly, although the case has been really big on me getting a Cuban link.
But you know about this?
You've been there, right?
I heard about this.
I'm not getting a Cuban link case.
What is that?
Is that a necklace?
Oh my gosh, we're going to have another Cuban link conversation.
It's this, it's like, it's very Miami, Andre.
He wants me to get a gold one.
Look, that one's only $42,000.
Gold and chains?
He wants me to get a Cuban link, a mullet and a neck tattoo.
Wow, that would be quite an image change.
And I said, case, I'm not doing it.
Okay.
So the basic full wrap, Tommy, is $499.99.
So $500.
Cheap, Andre.
But but that's before installation.
So do they just like send you the bits?
Yeah, they sent you pre-cut pieces of vinyl material.
Really?
Yes.
So everything doesn't have to be cut.
But but if you're not a professional, by the way, Jonathan is also here.
Thanks, Jonathan.
Yep.
What is he saying?
I can't quite see it.
Very much look forward to seeing you guys testing the slate.
It seems very interesting.
Yeah, we would love to.
We have a reservation, by the way.
So this is kind of like a Lego set then, Andre.
They send you the bits and then you're supposed to do it at home?
But I would be nervous, Tommy, because when I put a sticker on a car,
I usually have trouble.
So so to wrap an entire vehicle would be very intimidating.
This is like one huge sticker.
But what I would love to do, Tommy, is that multicolor.
So the top section, the middle section and the bottom section can be wrapped separately.
So let me show you this.
So the the middle section costs about $300 for the vinyl.
The top the top by itself is about $160 and the bottom portion is 290.
So if you did it in separate pieces, it would cost more.
But I think it could be a lot of fun.
So let me show you.
I like that lower partial wrap.
Oh, like like a classic mid.
Yeah, we do like the two tone look.
Yes.
So where do you want to start?
Let's do the lower one.
OK.
To make it classic looking.
Yeah, we'll do classic looking.
Can you choose any color?
Like are you limited to colors?
No, you're not almost limited.
So they do have like 100 colors you could choose from.
Whoa.
But there is a specialty item where you could provide them like a customized.
So you could kind of see right here.
There's multiple colors.
So if I want to send in my hearing aid.
Yes.
And they can match your hearing aid.
I could have a very nice trendy beige color.
Or your business.
Like if you have a logo or something you wanted to put on there.
That's pretty easy for us because we're red.
Is there a good red you like, Andre?
I like something called classic red.
OK.
Should we try that?
Do classic red.
What does that cost for the lower bits?
290.
OK.
So that's not that.
But before this, before installation.
Right.
So like our friend Shane, who is a professional master,
you know, he has wrapped thousands of vehicles.
He's a rapper.
He is a proper rapper.
It would be easy for him probably to do.
But for me and you, we'd be at it for three weeks and get it wrong.
Yes.
I'd be curious to see if they give you like detailed instructions on how to make it.
So it's even and not bubbly, right?
Probably some guidance there.
So I'm on their website and look, they have a pretty nice configurator actually.
Whenever you add anything to the vehicle, you could look if we can go back to my screen,
you could actually look at different angles specifically with the model you're building
and configuring.
So if you're adding red color, if you're changing lights,
they have so many options here.
It's kind of mind boggling.
So we got the red.
What else can we option on this thing, Andre?
Well, I would like to add something.
Okay.
So hold on.
I want to add a midsection just for splash of color.
Okay.
So that's $300 and I want to make it white, classic white.
Good idea.
What do you think?
Now it's coming to life.
Now this machine, let me show you what I'm building here.
It's a 72C10 already.
Yes.
Andre, I like that.
Yes.
So you can, you can choose to spec different tops and bottoms.
Yes.
Different colors.
You can mix and match.
You could, you could go wild, but, but there's a caution.
There's an asterisk.
What's the asterisk?
What if you don't have taste?
Well, you're going to see a lot of green and orange ones.
It could be a lot of lemons going down the road.
Mix them together.
Yes, that would be me.
So, so now you can have, so let's go back.
Let's stop talking about color and let's just look at some other options.
For example, front lights.
Okay.
There's like six front different lights you can do.
And I don't know, I was talking to Roman about this.
They have lights for front fog lamps that look like X's.
Do you see this?
Very sporty.
But, but this is not a traditional way of saying like I'm dead.
Like a classic way.
You, that is one interpretation of it.
So you think it's got like little like X's on its eyes.
But you know, it's really surprising.
So I assume what you're doing here is you're, you're putting a cover on top of the light.
Yeah, you're actually unscrewing little tiny bolts.
Right.
And you're putting additional covers on it.
And what's interesting about this is first of all, it's only $50.
I know.
Which is really cheap.
But look at this.
They also tell you the installation difficulty.
No experience needed.
So are some of the add-ons more difficult?
Yes.
Well, first of all, if you order the $5,000 SUV addition to it, that could be, I mean,
you might have to be really knowledgeable with some tools.
Now, I'd like to know, does it come from the factory with that already installed?
Or do you also have to put on the SUV part?
You could choose.
You can choose.
They can, they'll do the SUV for you.
Okay.
Or they have 3,000 locations they set across the country where they can actually help you.
Like partner locations.
Partner locations.
And also service.
You'll be able to service it if anything was to go wrong with this slate.
Well, I like the chunky front lamp.
Yeah.
Let's do the chunky.
Let's add the chunky lights.
Let's go back now to the original configuration.
There's roof racks.
There's rear lights.
You could choose.
I guess I could like X's on the rear.
Okay.
Yeah, let's do that.
X's on the rear.
So the X lamp covers.
But dude, I love this.
All the body panels have like little bolts.
Little screws.
You could actually like, I almost feel like I could mix and match everything.
And I could work on it myself.
Even though I'm not super handy.
I really love that concept.
So a lot of what we've been talking about has all been kind of design stuff.
Colors and light covers.
Are there like any mechanical things you can do?
Oh, you can add light bars.
Light bars.
Dude, we have to do a light bar.
But that's $800.
But it might be worth it.
Like if you really want to dress it up.
Sure.
And you also have $800.
But hold on, Andre, you also have to add the five switch upgrade version.
Yes, because you have to have additional auxiliary switches.
Okay, so go continue.
Okay, continue.
And I'm curious, if you scroll down, does it tell you the difficulty in this one?
Advanced.
Advanced.
One to two plus hours of work may need two people to lift that light bar on top of it, right?
So that's actually kind of cool that where they add you customized notes.
Right.
So lots of options.
Add to design.
Add to design.
Okay.
So lots of options for lighting.
But let's go back.
Let's keep going because it gets a little bit more involved.
Look, solar.
I told you.
But that's expensive.
$3,000 for that.
$3,000 for solar ton of cover.
You can do rack systems too.
Look at that.
Yes, rack system.
It's a little bit lagging a couple of seconds.
So we need to be a little slower.
Okay, gotcha.
Because we're on live show.
Appearance.
Wow, there's a lot of stuff you can do to this thing, Andre.
Okay.
Now let's go to a really interesting part because originally it does not come with a stereo.
So what does it have instead?
Just nothing?
It just has a dashboard.
Okay.
A literal dashboard, like with nothing.
It's just a board.
It's just a plastic board.
Just a board.
But you do have a little gauge cluster, right?
That shows you speed, which gear you're in, like forward, reverse.
And I think it has to have a backup camera, right?
And I think it displays that image on that little screen.
So because that's a regulation, right?
You have to have a backup camera.
But don't worry if you're worried about...
Does it have air conditioning and heat?
Yes.
Okay.
I hope so.
I think it does.
I think I read a headset or you see.
But look, you can add a front center channel integrated speaker
with a little volume knob for 250 bucks.
That's not a lot.
Only listed as a moderate install difficulty.
Or you can get front left, right speakers.
So you can get, whoa, three speakers.
Yes.
So let's go, let's go all out.
We're going three speakers.
Yes.
Center speaker.
Are you buying a Cadillac here?
Yes.
I'm designing my own Cadillac.
So, and now what else do we need?
Dash panels for another $60.
So yes, we have to do that.
You're going crazy over here.
Well, I'm not that crazy.
I mean, we only added...
We'll see how much money we added to this in the very end.
Hands-free Bluetooth controller.
No, that's too much.
Okay.
We don't need Bluetooth hands-free.
No, no, that would be just too luxurious.
I want to keep the crank windows.
Okay.
I mean, that's...
What other vehicle can you buy with crank windows?
I think Jeep discontinued it, right?
This will be the only one, yeah.
This will be the only one.
Tech.
And this is the most important piece of tech, Tommy.
Slate telematics module?
Yes, it's a telematics module.
Let's see what difficulty it is.
30 minutes to two hours, some DIY familiarity is helpful.
So what this allows you to do, it's a little tiny computer
that you could buy for $275.
Okay.
It's a plug-and-play solution that acts as a cellular bridge
between your smartphone and the slate vehicle,
unlocking features like remote access and battery preconditioning.
Oh.
So you can monitor your vehicle, basically.
That's pretty important.
So I would say for $275, because we're all techy, right, these days.
I mean, you have to have this tech.
So we're adding the telematics, huh?
Telematics.
And some people will now comment and say,
you're going to be monitored by the government now.
That's right.
So be it.
I want to precondition the cabin.
Any other options in tech, Andre?
Slatelets, Tommy.
Little tiny badges you could put on your dash.
Like donut.
You could put half a donut on your badge.
Do you want to add a donut?
Eight slatelets.
So these are like, these are, you remember when you used to have crocs?
Yes.
And you could do like those little like-
Crocs still exist, by the way.
They do?
Yeah, they do.
Cole, is that correct?
Yes.
Do you remember the giblets you could put in the holes?
That's what a slatelet is.
It's a little giblet you put on your dash.
Yes.
But Andre, there's a couple other things we could do here.
There's a five switch upgraded design, which you already added,
because you wanted to roof rack.
What else can you do?
Let's see.
Oh, you could do center console.
Tablet mount.
Dude, you could color your interior too.
Oh, really?
So like, you don't have to be all gray.
You could have, you could add your additional seat covers.
You could color your dash.
So this is a brilliant idea.
What is it?
You can add a mount to your dashboard, so you could put an iPad in.
And then boom, look at this.
You got navigation.
You got phone connectivity.
So really smart.
They just, it's a bring your own infotainment system.
Yes.
And of course, you see the climate controls now up there below.
Yep.
So there's that.
Let's see what other utility things you can do.
Center console, Andre, we need to have a center console.
Because it has cup holders.
I mean, you have to have cup holders.
Yeah.
I mean, there is no way about it.
It's an arm wrist.
It doesn't have cup holders unless you buy the center console.
Yes.
But here's the thing, dude.
And if my dad was here with us on this episode, he would probably say,
hey, I already have cup holders in my garage, right?
Because there's accessories that he's accumulated over the decades, right?
We have multiple suction cups.
I mean, you could put suction cups with phone mounts, with iPad mounts.
I mean, you don't have to buy all this stuff.
If you have accumulated a lot of junk over the years.
You put no under it.
No one's accumulating cup holders.
That's something you need.
You need to have the cup holders integrated into the car.
I also think maybe you want the floor mats would be good.
Rubber floor mats, yes.
Andre, you've turned this thing into a bougie machine here.
So where are we at as far as money?
Well, let's see what kind of colors we can do on the inside.
Yes.
Door bolsters.
Yeah, door bolsters.
Oh, you can change the colors.
And door arm rests.
Oh, you don't get door arm rests either?
No, but you could color them.
Can you make them red, please?
Okay.
Can you make everything red?
Yeah.
I mean, I want to bring red.
The exterior color is mostly red.
So I want to bring, don't click the SUV though.
Is this SUV?
No.
Well, there's also the truck.
Okay, that's for the front.
There you go.
It's nice and red now, Andre.
Okay.
That's great.
So we got some door bolster dash panels.
We'll make those red for you.
Look at that, Andre.
That's cool.
60 bucks.
Oh, boy.
You can't have the dash panels on your speakers, Andre.
Shoot.
But I think you could.
So I mean, if you buy other options.
Lower dash?
Yes.
You're adding color to the interior.
I'm doing a good job here.
Okay.
We got some color on the inside now.
You want, we got door bolsters.
That's good.
SUV rear arm rests.
We don't need that.
Do you want a key?
Doesn't it come with a key?
I don't think it does.
It's a key fob and a color of your choice.
It must come with some kind of key.
No, it comes with a key, except you can color your key.
Oh, I got it.
I got it.
I got it.
You could add color to your key,
but I don't want to add color to my key.
Okay.
So here you go, Andre.
So we got a nice little thing going here.
So what is the cost?
Do you want to check it out?
Let's see.
So we got color on the outside.
We have radio.
What about wheels?
Wheels.
You are correct, sir.
Wheels and suspension.
We're not going to lift it quite yet.
I mean, we could lift it and we could add different wheels
at a lot of expense, which is some customized wheels
that are about $1,400.
But I don't want to do that.
What about tires?
Can you choose tires?
Yes.
There is also old terrain tires,
but you have to have a lift to add old terrain tires.
Oh, really?
Okay.
Yeah.
So that could be a lot of money.
Oh, I also show you something.
There's a suspension.
Do they have pricing on the suspension?
Not yet.
There's a lift kit and a lowering kit.
Yes, you could slam it down.
Holy heck, Andre.
You could slam it down.
You could roll like just in style.
But I want to add little rings.
Okay.
Little white walls.
Okay, sounds good.
Almost white walls.
They're on the wheels.
That's interesting.
Yes.
So not on a tire.
So now you can dress up your wheel.
Nice.
And then you're probably, there's a spare mount.
That's really important, right?
Probably want a spare tire.
You could go with modern spare.
You know, one of our partners.
Yeah.
Or you could get a spare mount from Slate.
Where the heck is it?
I think it's under utility.
But total price.
You're probably wondering, see?
Spare.
Spare with upgraded bumper.
That's $500.
We have to do it because it looks cool.
And you got to get the rear bumper upgrade.
Yes.
Please do.
Please get the bumper.
Dude, this is the problem when you have a blank slate,
is you kind of start wanting to go a little crazy.
You could go wild.
Wow.
There's like, there's so much stuff to have in this configurator.
There's tunnel covers.
So a midgate?
Well, oh, is there?
No, no, that's tailgate pad.
That's tailgate pad.
That's not a midgate.
Wow, there is just, I mean, it's just your running boards.
No.
I mean, the rate is so low.
It's only two inches off the ground.
It's two inches off the ground.
Come on.
So, Andre, let's see what we've specced our dream slate truck to.
Summary.
Final damage is $27,969.
So not bad, actually.
We're still at $28,000.
No, this is still for the truck.
So if you wanted to make it in an SUV, add 5K to that.
Add 5K.
Now you're at $32,000, right?
Or a slant back.
Now you're at $34,000.
But now comes the problem.
At $34,000, you could buy a well-optioned Ford Maverick.
You could buy many other vehicles, actually.
So let's look at our truck, which is $28,000, right?
You could get a Ford Maverick for $28,000.
Yes, that's the base price.
Now the Ford Maverick is interesting
because it comes standard with paint.
And a radio.
And a radio, and power windows, and an arm rest,
and it even has cup holders as standard equipment.
Also four doors.
And four doors.
Yes.
So this is where things get a little tricky, right?
Yeah.
I think that the pricing on this vehicle is very compelling,
but you are essentially buying a very, even fully loaded,
like ours is getting, a very stripped down, basic two-door pickup
that you have to change the color on yourself, right?
Yeah.
So is this going to work in the marketplace?
Is this a truck everybody says they want and no one buys
or are people actually going to line up and put their money down?
What do you think?
Let's ask Jonathan, because Jonathan is here in the chat room
and he's saying...
A bunch of people are in the chat room, right?
Yes.
I hope public doesn't bully the company, Slate,
into adding four-wheel drive that drives the price even higher.
So Jonathan, am I correct in assuming that you're a potential customer for Slate?
Because I think the mindset is.
And we can see what the other people are saying.
Whoa, dude, look at how many people we have.
I know.
People are saying that here's where I am with this dummy.
If I can unbolt a front fender on a Slate,
I'm going to take it into my garage.
Please, please stop me at any point.
And I'm going to take a rattle can and I'm going to spray that sucker
with whatever color I want.
You're spraying down your Slate?
In pieces, because I can take each component, a fender, a rear bedside,
you know, I can unbolt them.
I can take it in my garage.
I can very carefully, professionally rattle can it.
I think that would be hard to do to make it look good.
And then I have, I mean, I'm rattle canning my, my, my, my Buhankavan,
my, my classic car.
Yeah.
So I could probably do it with this too.
I'm not sure you would.
The problem is like, especially if you're rattle canning classic,
as I found out, trying to rattle cans and Jeep flares after about 25 minutes,
they started to bubble in the sun and look terrible.
So I think that if you wanted to paint your Slate, you could do that,
but you'd probably want to bring it to someone with an actual paint boost.
So you don't end up with cat hair in the paint.
So that, I'm not sure that's a good solution for example.
Ed M says in the Patreon, can't wait.
My 25 K is now 35 K.
Can you pop open his slate?
Let's see what Ed has done.
Because he's sharing it.
Yeah.
He shared us his slate.
Okay.
So he went with the SUV looks like he's got the lift kit and fog lights on it.
Is there an interior shot of this thing Cole?
Let's see.
Click the interior.
Oh yeah.
No, that's that's no, no, no, it's changing.
It's changing.
So Ed went SUV fastback with the blue with a blue arm rest.
I think Ed wanted cup holders.
Bold of you Ed to want cup holders.
Yes.
Looks like he went stuff on the inside as well.
Are there speakers?
I can't see.
I think he's got the speakers.
Let's see the wheels.
Cole, let's see what he did.
Oh, he's got some gray line on the wheels.
So he kind of went on a gray theme basically.
Yeah, exactly.
So the SUV is actually my favorite looking one.
Oh, this land back?
It really looks cool.
It kind of looks like a scout too in my opinion.
Oh, here you go.
He went front fog lights, front bumper upgrade, big spender Ed.
He went with the five switch panel,
chunky grill plate, center console, front left and yeah,
he's a speaker guy like you are, slate telematics.
He wanted an arm rest and he wanted a rear arm rest too.
Wow.
Geez Ed, at this point, just get a Mercedes.
You want front and rear arm rests in your car?
What are you thinking?
Fender flares, Andre, console arm rest, hands-free Bluetooth,
and he wanted a key fob.
Wait, he wanted denim.
That's a denim arm rest.
In 2026, you want an arm rest, Ed?
But also, the pricing is still not available for denim.
Okay, so this is the problem.
I do have a little bit with the slate.
It's like, I love the concept and I love that it's basic.
But ultimately, you are going to want cup holders
and you are going to want an arm rest.
And then they do get pretty expensive, right?
So my big concern with this, Andre,
is especially with the truck, you were just on the RAM program.
Yes.
And you were talking to the RAM guys
about why they don't have the single cab anymore.
And didn't they tell you that the sales take rate was tiny?
So the line from RAM folks was
because they introduced the Rumblebee, right?
The Rumblebee is like a sport version of their truck
with a big V8 engine that is just really sporty and lowered.
They said they looked at the data and that the single cab truck data
was like 2% or 3% of the market.
But they're looking, of course, at the holistic picture of the market,
including every pickup truck sold.
So you're already kind of in that 2% to 3% niche.
And for them to develop a new cab,
because it kind of has to be a new cab, right?
Because they don't have the, you know,
the heavy duty is being redesigned hopefully soon.
So that's going to take a big investment for them, right?
To make a new cab.
So they didn't do it.
But that 2% to 3% niche is what I'm going for.
It's like everybody says they want the simple two-door truck,
but you go to dealers and you talk to people who are selling these things.
And whenever they get a basic two-door truck in,
they just sit on the lot and they sit sit.
Unless it's like a construction company or a florist or a,
you know, a auto parts store that wants them like this.
But from an actual consumer standpoint,
two-door trucks and especially two-door SUVs
make up a very tiny percentage of the market
because people have kids and they have a need to put a dog in the back seat
and to put big items in the back seat, right?
So like, specifically with Broncos and Wranglers too,
like the two-doors just really, really, really don't sell in big quantities.
So that's my big concern is I love the look of this thing.
And I could probably make it work for my lifestyle,
but it would be a much harder sell if I went to my wife and I was like,
I'd like to buy this little two-door SUV.
Are you cool with that?
She'd be like, well, why don't we just get a four-door?
And I'm thinking like, that's not as cool.
You know, I want to have red inserts on the dash, green inserts on the...
I want to do a Christmas-themed truck.
Christmas, yes.
So like, there's so much cool stuff about this,
but I think it's going to be a tough sell for a lot of the market.
I agree, especially if there's an alternative from another company.
Right.
Right.
And also, I mean, I've heard some people say also,
like let's say there's a Ford Maverick or another company
that sells something similar to this
and they're an established brand.
You know, Ford has been around for 120 years or so.
Let's say Toyota comes out with something similar in a couple of years.
That's a trusted brand with a dealership right next to you.
And this is a new company that nobody has heard of.
Yeah.
Right.
So which way would you go?
Would you go with a company that is brand new
or are you going to go with a company that's been known
and there are dealerships everywhere you look?
Now, if you haven't already seen the video,
go to TFLTruck.com and watch my dad's slate video
because he interviewed a bunch of people on this project.
Oh my gosh.
This was the most in-depth video, I think ever.
It's like 56 minutes long.
He did a really good job.
And what's cool is-
He went for a ride.
He went for a ride.
Yes.
A lot of the people working on this truck, Andre,
are not like tech people that came and just developed a new iHome.
They are people from the auto industry.
Rod Romain.
Rod Romain.
Rod Romain is there.
He's from Stellantis.
So he was the chief engineer of the Ram AT trucks.
Heavy duty trucks, yes.
Now he's leading the powertrain development, right?
Yes.
Actually, I think Rod's and Rod, I'm sorry if you're listening
and watching and I got to get this wrong.
I believe he's one of the people who,
you know, you could build one of them,
but he's the guy who is making sure it's production ready.
Oh, that he can build a lot of them.
You could make 100,000 of them, right?
Yeah.
So he's one of those guys who is looking at this
from the engineering perspective and making sure
the factory can deliver and build hundreds of them.
And he also has the voice of Zeus.
That's why we are lowering our voices.
Rod Romain.
Rod Romain.
Really, really an amazing voice.
So I really talented guy and my dad's like a lot of people
he met were from Ford and from GM and like they had,
they really had taken a lot of talent from the established automakers.
And he said that the riding experience was pretty good,
like it was pretty comfortable and felt pretty quick.
Pretty torquey.
Yeah.
He said it doesn't feel like a Lego.
Even though it looks like a Lego,
he said it actually feels like it has some quality to it.
So I'm excited about this concept a lot.
And I really hope you guys out there listening and watching
are actually going to go ahead and buy these things because.
I think you know what it is.
If you can't like, if you test drive something,
you can be convinced.
It's really hard to convince ourselves
not being next to this truck or not driving it,
not sitting in it, right?
Or you could drive it and say, forget it.
It's not for me, right?
What do you think of the pricing?
I think the pricing is, I mean,
I like that a lot of those options are so low priced.
Like the speaker system was what $200, $250.
I really like that it's not super expensive.
I was talking to Case about this.
He was afraid that as soon as you add options,
you could double the price of the thing.
Right.
But it's not the case.
Yeah. I mean, we saw like $50 here, $70 here.
And we ended up with $3,000 of options.
But still, this is not doubling the price.
Because you have to pay for those cup holders, Andre.
Yes.
I'm really hung up on the cup holders.
Why not?
They need to make that standard.
Like I said, my dad has cup holders in the garage.
Andre, nobody wants to use your dad's O'Reilly's cup holders
in their brand new truck.
But it's frugality, Tommy.
It's frugal.
Can you go to the chat here?
Oh, let's see what the patrons are saying here.
Slate equals cool.
We got Elliott is saying.
Fuchsia for the win.
Slate equals cool.
Maverick equals Snooze Granny car.
Do you agree with that, Andre?
Snooze grade Granny car.
No, I don't agree with that, Elliott.
Because there's various versions of the Maverick.
You could buy like a Lariat, which is nicely equipped.
You could buy a Tremor.
Did you know this?
I did know the Maverick.
But Maverick Tremor is expensive.
It's like 40 grand plus.
So I guess some grannies are buying Mavericks,
but I don't think it's a granny car.
Scroll up to the top here, Cole.
Let's see what else people are saying here.
4x4 enthusiasts is happy Friday.
Thank you.
Great day for a car chat.
So thanks everybody in the comments for commenting.
So I think my big takeaway here, Andre,
this is a very cool vehicle.
And I really hope that it ends up making it to production
and making it to great success in the market.
I'm just not 100% sold that it will because it's a two-door
rear-wheel drive only and electric only.
What about the aftermarket?
I mean, this Slate has no aftermarket right now
because it's never existed before.
But when Roman went to that event, did you see
they had the go-fast camper top that they were showing.
And already aftermarket companies already jumping
into the space hoping this would be successful.
It's kind of a curious situation though
because Slate themselves is already kind of doing
the aftermarket thing.
Yeah, they are.
You know, like the accessory thing, they are before launch.
They have a thousand different things that you can
outfit and kit out with your product.
Oh, I know what we're missing.
What's that?
We need to talk to a person like David.
Because David is very frugal, right?
And he built stuff with his own hands.
So I could see David buying a blank Slate, ripping off the
bumpers, welding his own steel bumpers for this,
and going just nuts with it.
One, I think that is something that they're hoping people do.
To some extent is going out and actually doing it on your own.
So yeah, I think it's the most exciting product this year for sure.
Did they say on sale date next year?
No, they said by the end of this year, 2026,
you can get probably the first deliveries, right?
They're probably not huge volumes of these things this year.
But they said by the end of this year, you can get first deliveries of this.
And of course, going into 2027, they're hoping to ramp up
production in a big way and their factory in, I think it's Indiana.
Indiana, I think it is.
They're Indiana.
They have a capacity for 150,000 vehicles per year.
I don't know if they can get there soon, but they have the capacity to do it.
So I got a little bit more detail here.
Slate Marketplace will launch over 100 accessories,
80 under $500, 100 wrap colors available at launch.
Okay.
Every Slate truck comes with a 10 year, 110,000 mile battery and powertrain warranty.
I didn't know this.
Well, the battery warranty, I think in the US has to be, legally it has to be over eight years.
But they did 110,000 mile and they said, this is the interesting part.
Slate owners have access to a network of 2000 plus repair pal shops,
including over 100 service centers certified for high voltage EV.
So it sounds like they're not trying to build out a huge infrastructure.
No, there is not going to be like a Slate store.
It sounds like it's going to be partner based, right?
Right.
Pre-orders are now available at Slate.auto for $300.
For existing reservation holders who have paid $50, the pre-order costs is only $250.
First deliveries expected Q4 of 2026.
So what you're just saying, Andre, Slate earned 180,000 reservations
between April 20, 25 and June, 2026.
Yes, but those reservations could evaporate.
It says Slate trucks are designed to achieve the highest safety ratings.
And we've assembled at a reindustrialized factory in Warsaw, Indiana.
That's what you're talking about.
Thank you.
Slate has raised $1.3 billion backed by Bezos Expeditions, General Catalyst and TWG.
All right, cool.
So they do have backing.
They do have a factory.
Headquartered in Michigan.
And they do have Rod Romain.
They've got Rod Romain.
Headquartered in Troy, Michigan.
Design operations in Troy in Southern California will assemble trucks in Warsaw, Indiana,
investing nearly $400 million, creating 2,000 jobs and contributing to $39 billion
in Indiana's economy over 20 years.
You know, the other comment I saw on some of our videos, including our EV channel,
that people want an option for a combustion engine in this thing, right?
I think that would have been smart.
Because if you had options for both, I think you could expand, really expand the customer base
for this because people who are frugal with their money, you know, they're buying a cheap vehicle.
Maybe they're financing it.
Maybe I don't know.
They didn't talk about leasing today.
I don't think anything about leasing.
So if you're spending a low amount of money, you're probably living in an apartment building,
right?
So it might be difficult for you to charge something like this if you're living in an
apartment building.
So if they could, they didn't say anything about combustion.
And we've asked, and they're pretty adamant, they're not doing it.
So that could slow them down because if somebody's buying this and they have to publicly charge
it somewhere else, that would be a little bit inconvenient.
But for commercial use cases in a depot that already has chargers, this could be really useful.
I think like, if I was in their shoes, I probably would have honestly launched this
concept and then gone to GM and bought like an off-the-shelf crate motor, you know, like they
do those little, like a little three cylinder basic engine, right?
Or like a four cylinder Toyota engine, like the 2.5 liter that Lotus uses or used to use.
I think that would have been brilliant, brilliant, brilliant decision.
So because the EV thing is going to hold people up for sure.
There is another example of this, Ineos Grenadier, right?
It's a new company that was started with some big money backing it from Ineos.
And they used the BMW engine, right?
They didn't make their own engine.
They didn't develop in new powertrains.
But they used known engines that are available and reliable and they could do the same.
Yeah, for sure.
Well, guys, we'd love to hear your opinion in the comment section below what you think
of the slate, whether I think it'll sell.
If you have any cool builds that you're excited about, be sure to send them to us on Patreon.
We'll take them out.
And let us know if you would rattle, can spray your slate.
Don't spray paint your slate.
Unless you want to wrap over it again, then maybe you could.
But guys, thanks for listening to this episode of Car Chat.
We'll see you in the next one.
Thank you.
About this episode
Delve into the controversy surrounding the Slate, a bare-bones, $25,000 electric pickup startup aiming to disrupt the truck market with its ultra-minimalist design and optional solar tonneau cover. The hosts debate its market viability before diving into recent automotive news. They discuss a dramatic IIHS crash test pitting a pristine 1996 Chevy Blazer against a 2026 model, highlighting three decades of safety advancements. Finally, Andre shares his driving impressions of a 300-horsepower electric Volkswagen Type 2 bus conversion by Kindred Motorworks, debating the merits of electrifying classic cars.
Chevrolet Blazer
Chevrolet S-10 Blazer
Chevrolet Silverado EV
Dodge Charger
Dodge Power Wagon
Dodge Ram
Ford Bronco
Ford Expedition
Ford F-150 Lightning
Ford Maverick
Ford Ranger
Jeep Wrangler
Nissan Leaf
Porsche 911
Slate Truck
Toyota Prius
Toyota RAV4
Volkswagen Beetle
Volkswagen Bus
Volkswagen Type 2
Volvo C40 Recharge
Original notes
( https://www.alltfl.com/ ) Check out our new spot to find ALL our content, from news to videos and our podcasts!
The affordable truck market is officially being turned completely on its head, and the guys are diving headfirst into the madness! Andre and Tommy tackle the biggest question in the automotive world right now: Will the radically minimalist, modular new Slate EV pickup actually sell, or is it just too bare-bones for the modern buyer? Starting at just $24,950, this hyper-controversial startup creation comes straight from the factory with hand-crank windows, no radio, and an unpainted, raw gray composite body.
Before diving into a live, chaotic build-your-own Slate configurator session, the guys hit the week’s biggest automotive news stories. First, they discuss a jaw-dropping new crash test from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) that pits a pristine, perfectly preserved 1996 Chevy S-10 Blazer head-to-head against a modern 2026 model to visually demonstrate 30 years of safety progression—with terrifying results for the vintage dummy. Next, Andre shares his first-drive impressions after getting behind the wheel of a fully electrified, 300-horsepower 1950s VW 23-window bus restomod by Kindred Motorworks. They take live questions from their Patreon community, debate the actual real-world efficacy of the Slate's optional solar tonneau cover, and go absolutely wild adding custom modular upgrades to their own digital truck build!
( http://www.patreon.com/tflcar ) Visit our Patreon page to support the TFL team!
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
TFL Car Chat
www.allTFL.com
0:00
57:58